Death of a Blue Movie Star (Rune 2)

Rune said, "And he did some investigating?"

"Right. Michael found out what kind of movies Shelly made. And that was it for her."

"He's got a thing about dirty movies?"

"Oh, yes. See, he's very religious."

"What?" She laughed.

"I'm not kidding. The pornography thing--it was a moral issue. And the funny thing is he was furious. Because she was perfect for the part. But he wouldn't let himself hire her. He was quite, um, vocal when he found out."

"But the way he behaved ... This poor stagehand, the one who gave me your name ... I thought he was going to kill the guy."

"Ah, but not one foul word passed his lips, did it?"

"I don't remember."

"He's very active in his church. He prays before each performance."

Rune said, "Well, so what? The Bible's full of begatting, isn't it?"

"Hell, there're actresses on Broadway've slept with as many men--and women--off camera as Shelly Lowe did on film. But Michael's a deacon of his church. A newspaper story--oh, the Post would love it--about Michael Schmidt's leading lady being a porn queen?" Becker's eyes brightened. "As appealing as that thought is to those of us who'd like to scuttle the bastard ... So, you see why he couldn't let that happen."

"She must have been heartbroken."

Becker shrugged. "She was an adult and she made a choice to make those films. Nobody forced her to. But she didn't give up without a fight. And what a fight it was."

"What happened?"

"After I called her to give her the bad news--I felt I owed her that--Shelly made an appointment to see him. We'd already cast somebody else by then but I guess it half-crossed my mind that she was going to try to charm, if you want to be euphemistic, Michael into giving her the part after all."

"Shelly wouldn't do that."

Becker looked at her with his eyebrow raised.

"Not to get a part," Rune said. "She wasn't like that. It doesn't make sense but I know that about her now. There were some lines she wouldn't cross."

"In any case that's what occurred to me. But that wasn't what happened...." His voice faded. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this."

Rune squinted. "Just pretend it's gossip. I love gossip."

"A terrible fight. Really vicious."

"What could you hear?"

"Not much. You read poetry, Robert Frost?"

Rune thought. "Something about horses standing around in the snow when they should be going somewhere?"

Becker said, "Ah, does anybody read anymore? ... Well, Frost coined this term called the sound of sense. It refers to the way we can understand words even though we can't hear them distinctly. Like through closed doors. I got a real sense of their conversation. I've never heard Michael so mad. I've never heard him so scared, either."

"Scared?"

"Scared. He comes out of the meeting, then paces around. A few minutes later he calms down. Then he asks me about the new lead for the play and whether the Equity contract has been signed and I tell him it was. And I can tell he's thinking about casting Shelly again even though he doesn't want to."

"What happened, do you think?"

"I noticed something interesting about Shelly," Becker said. "She really did her homework--getting the script in the first place, for instance. See, we get a lot of young, intense hopefuls in here. They know Chekhov and Ibsen and Mamet cold. But they don't have a clue about the business of the theater. They think producers are gods. But as creative as Shelly was she also had a foot in the real world. She was a strategist. For the first EPI, she'd found out everything there was to know about Michael. Personal things as well as professional." Becker gave Rune a meaningful smile and when she didn't respond he frowned. "Don't you get it?"