From within the house came the staccato report of hardwood striking hardwood. It came again and again, in uneven, frantic bursts. And the sound of grunting.
He turned the k.n.o.b, expecting the gigantic door to resist, but it swung open on a center-pin, counterbalanced, and he stepped through into the front hall of inlaid onyx tiles.
The sounds of wood on wood, and grunting, were easy to follow. He went down five steps into a pa.s.sageway, and followed it toward the sound, emerging at the other end of the pa.s.sage into a living room ocean-deep in sunshine. In the center of the room Huck Barkin and a tiny j.a.panese, both in loose-fitting ceremonial robes, were jousting with sawed-off quarterstaffs--shoji sticks.
Handy watched silently. The diminutive j.a.panese was electric. Barkin was no match for him, though he managed to get in a smooth rap or two from moment to moment. But the Oriental rolled and slid, barely seeming to touch the deep white carpet. His hands moved like propellers, twisting the hardwood staff to counter a swing by the taller man, jabbing sharply to embed the point of the staff in Barkin"s ribs. In and out and gone. He was a blur.
As Barkin turned in almost an entrechat, to avoid a slantwise flailing maneuver by the Oriental, he saw Handy standing in the entranceway to the pa.s.sage. Barkin stepped back from his opponent.
"That"ll do it for now, Mas," he said.
They bowed to one another, the Oriental took the staffs, and left through another pa.s.sageway at the far end of the room. Barkin came across the rug liquidly, all the suntanned flesh rippling with the play of solid muscle underneath. Handy found himself once again admiring the shape Barkin kept himself in. But if you do nothing but spend time on your body, why not? he thought ruefully. The idea of honest labor had never taken up even temporary residence in Huck"s thoughts. And yet one body-building session was probably equal to all the exertion a common laborer would expend in a day.
Handy thought Huck was extending his hand in greeting, but halfway across the room the robed beach-b.u.m reached over to a Saarinen chair and snagged a huge, fluffy towel. He swabbed his face and chest with it, coming to Handy.
"Fred, baby."
"How are you, Huck?"
"Great, fellah. Just about king of the world these days. Like the place?"
"Nice. Whose is it?"
"Belongs to a chick I"ve been seeing. Old man"s one of the big things happening in some d.a.m.ned banana republic or other. I don"t give it too much thought; she"ll be back in about a month. Till then I"ve got the run of the joint. Want a drink?"
"It"s eleven o"clock."
"Coconut milk, friend buddy friend. Got all the amino acids you can use all day. Very important."
"I"ll pa.s.s."
Barkin shrugged, walking past him to a mirrored wall that was jeweled with the reflections of pattering sunlight streaming in from above. He seemed to wipe his hand over the mirror, and the wall swung out to reveal a fully stocked bar. He took a can of coconut milk from the small freezer unit, and opened it, drinking straight from the can. "Doesn"t that smart a bit?" Handy asked.
"The coconut mil--oh, you mean the shoji jousting. Best d.a.m.ned thing in the world to toughen you up. Teak. Get whacked across the belly half a dozen times with one of those and your stomach muscles turn to leather."
He flexed.
"Leather stomach muscles. Just what I"ve always yearned for." Handy walked across the room and stared out through the dark gla.s.s at the incredible Southern California landscape, blighted by a murmuring, hanging pall of sickly smog over the Hollywood Freeway. With his back turned to Barkin, he said, "I tried to call Crewes after you spoke to me. He wasn"t in. I came anyway. How come you used his name?" He turned around.
"He told me to."
"Where did you meet Arthur Crewes!" Handy snapped, sudden anger in his voice. This d.a.m.ned beach stiff, it had to be a shuck; he had to have used Handy"s name somehow.
"At that pool party you took me to, about--what was it--about three years ago. You remember, that little auburn-haired thing, what was her name, Binnie, Bunny, something ... ?"
"Billie. Billie Landewyck. Oh, yeah, I"d forgotten Crewes was there."
Huck smiled a confident smile. He downed the last of the coconut milk and tossed the can into a wastebasket. He came around the bar and slumped onto the sofa. "Yeah, well. Crewes remembered me. Got me through Central Casting. I keep my SAG dues up, never know when you can pick up a few bucks doing stunt or a bit. You know."
Handy did not reply. He was waiting. Huck had simply said Arthur Crewes wanted him to get together with the beach-b.u.m, so Handy had come. But there was something stirring that Barkin didn"t care to open up just yet.
"Listen, Huck, I"m getting to be an old man. I can"t stand on my feet too long any more. So if you"ve got something shaking, let"s to it, friend buddy friend."
Barkin nodded silently, as though resigned to whatever it was he had to say. "Yeah, well. Crewes wants me to meet Valerie Lone."
Handy stared.
"He remembered me."
Handy tried to speak, found he had nothing to say. It was too ridiculous. He turned to leave.
"Hold it, Fred. Don"t do that, man. I"m talking to you."
"You"re talking nothing, Barkin. You"ve gotta be straight out of a jug. Valerie Lone, my a.s.s. Who do you think you"re shucking? Not me, not good old friend buddy friend Handy. I know you, you deadbeat."
Barkin stood up, unfurled something over six feet of deltoid, trapezius and bicep, toned till they hummed, and planted himself in front of the pa.s.sageway. "Fred, you continue to make the mistake of thinking I"m a hulk without a brain in it. You"re wrong. I am a very clever lad, not merely pretty, but smart. Now if I have to drop five big ones into your pudding-trough, lover, I will do so."
Handy stopped moving toward him. Barkin was not fooling. He was angry. "What is all this, Barkin? What are you trying to climb onto? No, forget it, don"t answer. What I want to know is why?"
Barkin spread hands as huge as catcher"s mitts. The fingers were oddly long and graceful. And tanned. "She is a lovely woman who finds the company of handsome young men refreshing. Mr. Crewes, sir, has decided I will brighten her declining years."
"She is a scared creature who doesn"t know where it"s at, not right now she doesn"t. And turning you loose on her would be a sudden joy like the Dutch Elm Blight."
Barkin smiled thinly. It was a mean smile. For the time it took the smile to vanish, he was not handsome. "Call Arthur Crewes. He"ll verify."
"I can"t get through to him, he"s in a screening."
"Then go ask him. I"ll be here all day."
He stepped aside. Handy waited, as though Barkin might surprise him and leap back suddenly, with a fist in the mouth. Huck stood grinning like a little boy. Ain"t I cute.
"I"ll do that."
Handy moved past and entered the pa.s.sageway. As he walked hurriedly down the length of the corridor, he heard Barkin speak again. He turned to see the giant figure framed in the blazing sunlight rectangle at the other end of the dark tunnel. "You know, Fred chum, you need a good workout. You"re gettin" flabbier than h.e.l.l."
Handy fled, raising dust as he wheeled the Impala out of the driveway and down the mountainside. There was the stink of fusel oil rising up from the city. Or was it the smell of fear?
4.
When he burst into Arthur Crewes"s office at the studio, the reception room was filled with delight. All that young stuff. A dozen girls, legs crossed high to show off the rounded thigh, waiting to be seen. As he slammed in, Twiggyeyes blinked rapidly.
He careened through the door and brought up short, turning quickly to see an unbroken panorama of gorgeous young-twenties starlets. Roz, fifty and waspish, behind the desk, snickered at his double-take. Handy recognized the tone of the snicker. He was a man periodically motivated from somewhere low in his anatomy, and Roz never failed to hold it against him. He had never asked her out.
"h.e.l.lo, Fred," one of the girls said. He had to strain to single her out. They all looked alike. Teased; long flat blonde hair; freaky Twiggy styles; backswept bouffant; short mannish cuts; all of them, no matter what mode, they all looked alike. It was Randi. She had had a thing about touching his privates. It was all he could remember about her. Not even if she"d been good. But a publicist must remember names, and with the remembrance of her touching his p.e.n.i.s and drawing in her breath as though it had been something strange and new and wonderful like the Inca Codex or one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the name of Randi popped up like the NO SALE clack on a cash register.
"Hi, Randi. How"s it going?"
He didn"t even wait for an answer. He turned back to Roz. "I want to see him."
Her mouth became the nasty slit opening of a mantis. "He"s got someone in with him now."
"I want to see him."
"I said, Mr. Handy, he has someone in there now. We are still interviewing girls, you know ..."
"b.l.o.o.d.y d.a.m.n it, lady, I said get your a.s.s in there and tell him Handy is coming through that door, open or not, in exactly ten seconds."
She drew herself up, no b.r.e.a.s.t.s at all, straight lines and Mondrian sterility, and started to huff at him. Handy said, "f.u.c.k," and went through into Crewes"s office.
He said it softly, but he made noise entering the office.
Another of the pretties was showing Arthur Crewes her 8x10 glossies, under plastic, out of an immense black leather photofolio. Starlets. Arthur was saying something about their needing a few more dark-haired girls, as Handy came through the door.
Crewes looked up, surprised at the interruption.
The starlet smiled automatically.
"Arthur, I have to talk to you."
Crewes seemed puzzled by the tone in Handy"s voice. But he nodded. "In a minute, Fred. Why don"t you sit down. Georgia and I were talking."
Handy realized his error. He had gone a step too far with Arthur Crewes. Throughout the industry, one thing was common knowledge about Crewes"s office policy: any girl who came in for an interview was treated courteously, fairly, without even the vaguest scintilla of a hustle. Crewes had been known to can men on his productions who had used their positions to get all-too-willing actresses into bed with promises of three-line bits, or a walk-on. For Handy to interrupt while Crewes was talking to even the lowliest day-player was an affront Crewes would not allow to pa.s.s unnoticed. Handy sat down, ambivalent as h.e.l.l.
Georgia was showing Crewes several shots from a Presley picture she had made the year before. Crewes was remarking that she looked good in a bikini. It was a businesslike, professional tone of voice, no leer. The girl was standing tall and straight. Handy knew that under other circ.u.mstances, in other offices where the routine was different, if Crewes had been another sort of man and had said, why don"t you take off your clothes so I can get a better idea of how you look in the nude shots we"re shooting for the overseas market, this girl, this Georgia, would be pulling the granny dress with its baggy mini material over her head and displaying herself in bikini briefs and maybe no bra.s.siere to hold up all that fine young meat. But in this office she was standing tall and straight. She was being asked to be professional, to take pride in herself and whatever degree of craft she might possess. It was why there were so few lousy rumors around town about Arthur Crewes.
"I"m not certain, Georgia, but let me check with Kenny h.e.l.ler in Casting, see what he"s already done, and what parts are left open. I know there"s a very nice five- or six-line comedy walk-on with Mitchum that we haven"t found a girl for yet. Perhaps that might work. No promises, you understand, but I"ll check with Kenny and get back to you later in the day."
"Thank you, Mr. Crewes. I"m very grateful."
Crewes smiled and picked of one of the 8xlO"s from a thin sheaf at the rear of the photofolio. "May we keep one of these here, for the files ... and also to remind me to get through to Kenny?" She nodded, and smiled back at him. There was no subterfuge in the interchange, and Handy sank a trifle lower on the sofa.
"Just give it to Roz, at the desk out there, and leave your number ... would you prefer we let you know through your agent, or directly?"
It was the sort of question, in any other office, that might mean the producer was trying to w.a.n.gle the home number for his own purposes. But not here. Georgia did not hesitate as she said, "Oh, either way. It makes no difference. Herb is very good about getting me out on interviews. But if it looks possible, I"ll give you my home number. There"s a service on the line that"ll pick up if I"m out."
"You can leave it with Roz, Georgia. And thank you for coming in." He stood and they shook hands. She was quite happy. Even if the part did not come through, she knew she had been considered, not merely a.s.sayed as a possible quickie on an office sofa. As she started for the door, Crewes added, "I"ll have Roz call one way or the other, as soon as we know definitely."
She half-turned, displaying a fine length of leg, taut against the baggy dress. "Thank you. "Bye."
"Good-bye."
She left the office, and Crewes sat down again. He pushed papers around the outer perimeter of his desk, making Handy wait. Finally, when Handy had allowed Crewes as much punishment as he felt his recent original sin deserved, he spoke.
"You"ve got to be out of your mind, Arthur!"
Crewes looked up then. Stopped in the midst of his preparations to remark on Handy"s discourtesy in entering the office during an interview. Crewes waited, but Handy said nothing. Then Crewes thumbed the comm b.u.t.ton on the phone. He picked up the receiver and said, "Roz, ask them if they"ll be kind enough to wait about ten minutes. Fred and I have some details to work out." He listened a moment, then racked the receiver and turned to Handy.
"Okay. What?"
"Jesus Christ, Arthur. Haskell Barkin, for Christ"s sake. You"ve got to be kidding."
"I talked to Valerie Lone last night. She sounded all by herself. I thought it might be smart therapy to get her a good-looking guy, as company, a chaperone, someone who"d be nice to her. I remembered this Barkin from--"
Handy stood up, frenzy impelling his movement. Banging off walls, vibrating at supersonic speeds, turning invisible with teeth-gritting. "I know where you remembered this Barkin from, Arthur. From Billie Landewyck"s party, three years ago; the pool party; where you met Vivvi. I know. He told me."
"You"ve been to see Barkin already?"
"He had me out of bed too much before I wanted to get up."
"An honest day"s working time won"t hurt you, Fred. I was here at seven thir--"
"Arthur, I frankly, G.o.d forgive my talking to my producer this way, frankly don"t give a flying s.h.i.t what time you were behind your desk. Barkin, Arthur! You"re insane."
"He seemed like a nice chap. Always smiling."
Handy leaned over the desk, talking straight into Arthur Crewes"s cerebrum, eliminating the middleman. "So does the crocodile smile, Arthur. Haskell Barkin is a crud. He is a slithering, creeping, crawling, essentially reptilian monster who slices and eats. He is Jack the Ripper, Arthur. He is a vacuum cleaner. He is a loggerhead shark. He hates like we urinate--it"s a basic bodily function for him. He leaves a wet trail when he walks. Small children run shrieking from him, Arthur. He"s a killer in a suntan. Women who chew nails, who destroy men for giggles, women like that are afraid of him, Arthur. If you were a broad and he French-kissed you, Arthur, you"d have to go get a teta.n.u.s shot. He uses human bones to bake his bread. He"s declared war on every woman who ever carried a crotch. This man is death, Arthur. And that"s what you wanted to turn loose on Valerie Lone, G.o.d save her soul. He"s Paris green, he"s sump water, he"s axle grease, Arthur! He"s--"
Arthur Crewes spoke softly, looking battered by Handy"s diatribe. "You made your point, Fred. I stand corrected."
Handy slumped down into the chair beside the desk.
To himself: "Jeezus, Huck Barkin, Jeezus ..."
And when he had run down completely, he looked up. Crewes seemed poised in time and s.p.a.ce. His idea had not worked out. "Well, whom would you suggest?"
Handy spread his hands.
"I don"t know. But not Barkin, or anyone like him. No Strip killers, Arthur. That would be lamb to slaughter time."
Crewes: "But she needs someone."
Handy: "What"s your special interest, Arthur?"
Crewes: "Why say that?"
Handy: "Arthur ... c"mon. I can tell. There"s a thing you"ve got going where she"s concerned."
Crewes turned in his chair. Staring out the window at the lot, a series of flat-trucks moving scenery back to the storage bins. "You only work for me, Fred."
Handy considered, then decided what the h.e.l.l. "If I worked for Adolph Eichmann, Arthur, I"d still ask where all them Jews was going."