Sunset Express

She dug her thumb in my ribs and said, 'Shh! Ben!'

'He didn't hear. C'mon. There's a Puck's ahead. We can eat there.'

'Puck's! Oh; goody!'

We went to Wolfgang Puck's and stood in line for a table. Everyone around us was from Iowa or Canada or Japan, and no one seemed to have seen the news or read the paper or, if they had, didn't care. There was plenty of outdoor seating, and the people at the tables were enjoying salads and sandwiches.

We worked our way up the line to a pretty blonde hostess who told us that it would be just another minute when I caught an overweight guy staring at me. He was sitting at one of the tables, eating shredded chicken salad and reading a Times. He looked from me to the paper, then back to me. He stopped a passing waitress, showed her the paper, then they both looked at me. I turned so that I was facing the opposite direction. Lucy said, 'Those people are looking at you.'

'Great.'

'I think they recognize you.'

'I know.'

'He's pointing at you.'

The Korean couple behind us looked at me, too. I guess they saw the pointing. I smiled and nodded at them, and they smiled back.

Lucy said, 'Ohmigod, he's showing the paper to the people at the next table.'

I touched the hostess's arm. 'Do you think you could find us a table, please. Inside or out. First available.'

'Let me check.' She disappeared into the restaurant.

Lucy said, 'Maybe we should run for it.'

'Very funny.'

'We could leave. I don't mind.'

'No. You want Puck's, we're going to eat at Puck's.'

An older couple behind the Korean people craned around to see what all the looking and pointing was about. The woman looked from me to the people with the newspaper, then back to me. She said something to her husband and he shrugged. I turned the other way, and now the heavy man with the newspaper was locked in conversation with a table of six people, all of whom were twisted around in their seats to see me. I said, 'This is nuts.'

Lucy was smiling.

I said, 'This isn't funny.'

The woman behind the Korean couple said, 'Excuse me. Are you somebody?'

I said, 'No.'

She smiled at me. 'You're an actor, aren't you? You're on that show.'

Lucy began one of those silent laughs where your face goes red and you're trying not to but can't help yourself.

I said, 'I'm not. Really.'

'Then why is everybody looking at you?'

'It's a long story.'

The woman gave me huffy. 'Well, it's not very friendly of you, if you ask me, snubbing your public like this.'

Lucy leaned toward the woman. 'He can be just horrible, can't he? I talk to him about it all the time.'

I stared at her.

The woman said, 'Well, you should. It's so unkind.'

Lucy gave me a little push. 'Why don't you give her an autograph.'

I stared harder. 'You're some kind of riot, you know that?'

Lucy nodded. Brightly.

The woman said, 'Oh, that would be just so nice.' She gestured to her husband. 'Merle, we have a pen, don't we?' She shoved a pen and a souvenir napkin from Jodi Maroni's sausage kitchen at me to sign. The Korean couple were talking in Korean to each other, the man searching frantically through a shoulder bag.

I took the napkin and leaned close to Lucy. 'I'm going to get you for this.'

She turned away so no one could see her breaking up. 'Oh, I really, really hope you do.'

Ben said, 'Mom? Why are these people looking at Elvis?'

The older woman's eyes grew large. 'You're Elvis!'

The Korean woman held out an autograph book and the Korean man began taking pictures. Two teenaged girls who were seated behind the party of six saw me signing the Jodi Maroni napkin and came over, and then two younger guys from the table of six followed. A tall, thin man across the restaurant stood up at his table and aimed his video camera at me. His wife stood with him. An Hispanic couple passing on the CityWalk stopped to see what was going on, and then three young women who looked like they'd come up to the CityWalk on their lunch hour stopped, too. A woman with very loose upper arms pointed at me and told her friend, 'Oh, I just love his movies, don't you?' She said it loudly.

The heavy man with the newspaper who had started it got up and walked away. Lucy and Ben were walking away, too. Quickly. Off to ruin someone else's life, no doubt.

The crowd grew. I signed twenty-two autographs in four minutes, and they were the longest four minutes of my life. I finally begged off by announcing that as much as I enjoyed meeting them, the President required my counsel and so I must leave. When I said it the woman with the loose arms said, 'I didn't know he was in politics, too!'

When I finally found Lucy and Ben they were well along the CityWalk, grinning and walking fast away from me.

I said, 'Lucille Chenier, you can run but you can't hide.' I said it loud enough for them to hear. Lucy and Ben laughed, and then they ran.

CHAPTER 16

After another $182.64 in souvenirs, postcards, and gifts, Lucy called Baton Rouge to check her messages. I was hoping that there might be word on Pritzik or Richards, so I phoned my office, also. Sixteen messages were waiting for me. Of the sixteen, seven were from newspeople asking for interviews and five were from friends who had seen me on the news. Of the remaining four calls, two were hang-ups and two were from Elliot Truly. On the first hang-up a woman's voice said, 'Oh, shit,' and on the second the same voice said, 'Just eat me!' The voice was muffled and irritated. Truly's secretary left the first message from his office, asking me to return the call. Truly himself left the second message, saying, 'Cole? Cole, if you're there, pick up. This is important.' I guess Truly was irritated, too. Maybe I bring it out in people.

I returned Truly's call. When he came on the line he said, 'Thank Christ! I've been trying to reach you all day. Where have you been?' He sounded frantic.

'You told me to take the day off, remember?'

'Yeah, well, we don't want you to do that anymore. Channel Eight wants to interview you on the evening news and Jonathan thinks it would be a good idea.'

I said, 'Go on television?'

'It's maybe three minutes on the four o'clock newscast, and Jonathan wants you to do it.'

'Truly, I made plans. I've got guests from out of town.'

'Look, the team talked about this today and we want the press to have access to you. Either we're going to control the media or the district attorney's office will, and we'd rather it be us. Openness is important. Honesty is everything. That's all we have going for us.'

I was sorry that I had returned his call.

'They want to know how some guy all by himself beat the entire LAPD at their own game.'

'I didn't beat anybody. I followed a tip and got lucky.' Lucy had finished her call and was looking at me.

'Right. That's why you scored the breakthrough while eight thousand blue suits were sopping up coffee and donuts.'

'I didn't beat anyone, Truly.' He was getting on my nerves with that.

'All you have to do is sit there and be likable. People like you; you're a likable guy. That's all they care about. It's TV.'

I cupped the receiver and told Lucy, 'They want me to give a television interview this afternoon, and it'll interfere with going to Beverly Hills.'

Lucy smiled and rubbed my arm. 'If you have to you have to. We'll do Beverly Hills after.'

'It'll cut into your shopping time. Are you sure?'

She smiled again. 'We'll come watch you get interviewed. It'll be fun.'

Truly said, 'What did you say?'

'Relax, Elliot. I'll do it.'

Truly said, 'It's almost three now and they want you at Channel Eight by four-thirty. Grab a pencil and let me tell you where to go.'

Truly gave me the directions. Lucy, Ben, and I drove home, changed, then made our way back down the mountain to Channel Eight's broadcast studio just east of Western in Hollywood. KROK-TV. Personal News from Us to You – We take it personally!