I shook it off. I didn’t have time to worry about how I was seen or wonder what he thought. I had to do what I wanted, and I wanted to feel alive again. He was like my drug, and I would either get a hit or go into withdrawal, but I wouldn’t abdicate my right to chase him.
I checked my phone again. Nothing. Just a traffic alert. The 10 was jammed up because of a car-to-car shootout that had resulted in a five-car pileup and police actions across a mile-long stretch. Venice Boulevard was in the red from the overflow.
“Fuck,” Katrina said.
“Yeah, the 10,” I replied, but Katrina was looking at the TV.
“This has been going on for days already.”
I looked over her shoulder. I recognized LaBrea Ave. The shot was daytime, and the tag said yesterday.
Two days of gang violence across the west side. Two shootings, one death in a seemingly unmotivated spree.
Daniel’s face filled the screen. The signage in the background told me the news crew had caught him at a campaign rally. “We’re working closely with the police to make sure justice is served.”
They cut him off there. God help him if that was the meat of the interview.
Could this be Antonio? Somehow? If he was what Daniel said he was, then he certainly could be involved, but there were hundreds of gangs in the city. The victims didn’t seem related, and the violence wasn’t all deadly. There was speculation about Compton gangs, the SGV Angels, and an Armenian outfit in East Hollywood.
“Good thing we’re downtown,” Katrina said, turning away from the TV. “But everyone on the west side’s going to miss call time.”
Daniel appeared again, mouthing the same promises. His hand appeared on the screen. The right ring fingernail was bitten down.
twenty-five.
I'd learned when a script supervisor was needed and when she’d spend hours waiting around, so I knew when I could split for an hour or two. My first stop was the garage in Mount Washington.
I got in my car, which had been quickly repaired once the ignition coil had been reconnected. My mechanic had shrugged. Old car. Things bend and tighten. It happens, apparently. I asked if someone could have done it on purpose, and he said something noncommittal, like “Anyone can do anything on purpose.”
Especially when they wonder if you’re snooping around.
I got to Antonio’s repair shop in record time. A chest-constricting worry nearly kept me from driving in. The hum of activity I’d noticed last time was gone. The lot held half as many cars, and I didn’t see as many guys in jumpsuits. When I got past the gate, no one greeted me. I parked and went into the office.
“Hi,” I said to the woman behind the desk. “I’m looking for Antonio.”
“He’s out. You can just pull into the garage.” She was new, her black hair down and gum cracking against her molars. She had an accent. Italian, again. She was older, but I couldn’t help wonder if he’d fucked her.
“I was hoping to see him.”
“Not in.” She shuffled some papers.
“Any idea where he is?”
She regarded me seriously for the first time. “No. You can leave a message.”
I thought about it for a second then declined. I texted him again.
—I still want to talk to you—
I didn’t expect to hear back, and I didn’t. I shot back downtown to finish the day’s work.
Every time my phone dinged and buzzed, I hoped it was Antonio. But it was always Pam with some new meeting or appointment. I started seeing the world through the hopeful window of my device.
“Hey.”
I spun around to find the source of the voice.
Michael stood behind me in costume: Dirty jeans. Grey T-shirt. A filthy apron and hair net. “We got a place from ReVal for the wrap party on Saturday. Some corporate loft they haven’t staged yet.”
“Wow. Nice work. Are we starting filming?”
“Nah, they’re still getting the lights up.”
I stepped deeper into the parking lot. “That getup really works for you.”
Anything would work for him. He was a celebrity waiting to happen.
“Like it?” He pointed to a particularly egregious brown smear. “I had this chocolate streak put on just so people would think it was shit.”
“Bold.”
“That’s my middle name. Speaking of—well, no, not speaking of. This is actually a major non sequitur.”
We walked through the lot, ignored in the busy hustle of the camera crew testing every corner for the right light, adjusting scrims and lamps.
“I like a good non sequitur as much as the next person.”
He stopped and turned toward me. “I heard we lost our post funding.”
“You know Hollywood gossip is cheap.”
“My agent told me.”
“And agent gossip is the cheapest. Seriously, Michael, consider the source. Pilot season’s happening when you’ll be doing scene pickups for Katrina. He can’t like that.”
“You’re not denying it.”
“You assume I know in the first place.”
“Still not denying it. You’re an artist at that, you know.” His smile seemed genuine, but it could have been acting. “Now, Ms. Ip? Not such an artist.”
He took out a pack of cigarettes and poked one out. I was reminded of Antonio Spinelli’s fluid motions, his clacking lighter, the smoke framing his face. Michael was less intense. My observations could have been colored by my sexual indifference. Sometimes, between two people who shared so little heat, a cigarette was just a cigarette.
“I’m glad you brought it up with Katrina first,” I said. “She needs to know if something like this is going around town.”
“I’ve done some of my best work in the past couple of weeks. Pilot season’s not my future. This movie is.”
“I’m glad you—”
“I do feel that way. Let me finish. If this film gets shelved, I’m shelved. I’m home in Park Forest, Illinois, working in the pizza shop on Blackhawk Way. I have no money to put up, but I would, and she knows that.”
“Stop.” When he tried to blow through me again, I held up my hand. “She won’t take money from me.”
“I know.”
“You think you know a little too much.”
“We haven’t even scratched the surface.” He took a scrap of paper from his apron pocket just as Ricky, the new AD, called talent to the set. “This guy funds low-budget, non-union gigs that run out of money.”
I looked at the paper, though I suspected I knew the name already. Scott Mabat, Hollywood loan shark and part-time pornography producer. “This guy’s a career-killer.”
“He made Thomas Brandy who he is.”
“A statistical anomaly. The rest couldn’t pay him back and wound up in a ditch.”
He stepped back toward set, where I also belonged. “I believe in this picture.”
With that, he spun around and trotted inside, leaving behind the implication that I didn’t. As I followed, I counted the days I had left to get Katrina her money.
When the set broke, I hopped over to the Spanish house in the hills. The gate was locked, and the driveway was empty. I got out and listened. No banging or hammering. No sledgehammer demolition on an ill-placed wall. Nothing but the screech of crickets.
I got back in the car. Where to, Contessa?
It had been four days. Was the trail getting cold, or was I just getting really crappy at this? I still had no idea where he lived. The car place was probably closed for the day. Where else had I seen him? Frontage. The offices of WDE. A Catholic Charities fundraiser. Katrina’s set downtown, where he’d brought dinner and wine.