around with.'
'I always thought I looked like Moe Howard.'
'Take my word for it. You got the look and the name. Some of the kids come in here, Christ, they got names flat as piss on a plate. Pat Green. Steve Brown. I say that's no good. I say, you know what you need?'
'Pizzazz.'
'Fuckin' A. Look at Steve Guttenberg. Take away the Guttenberg, whattaya got? Nuthin!' He sat behind the desk and shot a glance at the door. 'Listen, I don't have a lot of time.'
'A long time ago you represented an actress named Karen Shipley. I'm trying to find her.' I took out the 8 x 10 and showed it to him.
He nodded. 'Yeah. Sure. I remember Karen. Great kid. Terrific body.'
'Do you still represent her?'
He handed back the head shot. 'Nah. I haven't heard from Karen in, what is it, ten years, something like that?' He put another glance on the door, anxious to get to other things. 'She musta went to another agency.'
I nodded. 'Did you continue to represent her after her divorce from Peter Alan Nelsen?'
Oscar Curtiss stopped looking at the door and sat forward in the chair and blinked at me. 'That's who she was married to?'
'Yeah.'
'Karen Shipley was married to Peter Alan Nelsen?'
'Yeah.'
'
'Peter Alan Nelsen wasn't Peter Alan Nelsen when they were married.'
Oscar slumped back in his chair and said, 'Jesus H.'
'He was in film school when they married. After he busted out of USC, he divorced her. Now he wants to find her again.'
'Sonofabitch. I remember when she got divorced. She came here with the kid and sat down right over there and said she was divorced and needed to work. I said, sit-ups, Christ, a body like yours you wanna get it back, do sit-ups. Peter Alan Nelsen. Jesus Christ.' He wasn't looking at me anymore. He was staring somewhere in midspace, seeing the old scenes, worrying them through to recall if he'd done anything that could piss off Peter Alan Nelsen. All the worrying made his eyebrows dance around on his face.
I said, 'Do you know how we can contact her?'
'It's been years. Christ, I saw her a couple more times after that, then zippo. Nada. I never heard from her again.' The mouth started moving with the eyebrows.
'Okay. Where was she living?'
'It was somewhere over there.' He made a gesture that could mean anywhere in the northern hemisphere.
'That's a little broad, Oscar.'
'Christ, I never visited. She came here.'
'Maybe you've got records.'
He stopped all the moving around and looked at me with the kind of look they give you that tells you that the lights are going off behind their eyes. Getting The Big Idea. He said, 'Maybe I should deal direct with Peter on this. We might be getting a little personal here, you know, and he might appreciate keeping it in the family, as it were.'
I pointed at the phone. 'Sure. He's at the Paramount office now. Give'm a call and tell him that even though he's trying to find his ex-wife and his kid, you're foot-dragging because you want to suck after some kind of deal. He'll like you just fine for that.'
He said, 'Hey, I'm doing a favor here, right? I'm trying to help here, right?'
'Quit being small-time and tell me what you know, Oscar. You're coming across like a chiseler.'
'I look like I'm rolling in it here? I wanna help. I wanna do what I can. But, hey, Peter Alan Nelsen gives you the nod, my friend, you're made in this town.' Peter Alan Nelsen, spitting a green M amp;M on Donnie Brewster.
'Sure, Oscar.'
He worked it through some more, trying to get a fix on what was real and what wasn't and what he could get if he played it right and how much it could cost if he played it wrong. He said, 'Listen, Elvis, I help you out here, you tell Peter, okay?'
'I'll tell him.'
'You promise?' Like we were in fourth grade.
'I promise, Oscar.'
'Hey, I wanna help. I wanna do anything I can for Peter Alan Nelsen.' Nothing like sincerity.
'Where did Karen live?'
'I'm thinking.'
'Look in your files.'
'Christ, I'm supposed to keep files on people forever?'
'Returned checks. Tax information.'
'Nah.'
'Correspondence. Maybe an old rolodex.'
'Christ, I keep all that stuff I'd be buried in paper. We're talking a lifetime ago.'
'Okay. Maybe there's something else.'
'I'm thinking.'
'You know any of her friends?'
'No.'
'How about family?'
'Uh-uh.'
'Boyfriend?'
He shook his head.
'Did she say if she was thinking about moving away or taking a trip?'
His brow knotted and his face clenched and he hit the side of his head a couple of times with the heel of his hand. Worried that he wouldn't be able to come through and trying to shake something loose.
I said, 'Man, you two were really tight.'
He waved his hands. 'Hey, we never had no big heart-to-hearts. One day she just wasn't around anymore. I thought she dropped me. You know, went to another agency. I didn't hear anything from her and I tried calling the place she lived, but she was never around, so after a while I figured that's it.'
I stood up and walked to the door. 'Okay, Oscar. You tried. Thanks, anyway.'
He jumped up and came around the desk and grabbed my arm. He grabbed hard, like if he didn't something rare would get away. He grabbed the way you grab when the rare thing has visited once before, long ago, and you blew it, and now you're getting a second chance. 'Hey, you know what? I got some old stuff in storage. I'll dig through it. Maybe there'll be something, huh? Maybe I'll find something that'll help out.' I don't think he meant help me.
'Sure. My phone is on the card.'
'You tell Peter I'm trying, okay? Tell'm I'm bending over backwards. Tell'm I really liked Karen, and I thought the kid was terrific.'
'Sure.'
I opened the door and we went out. The black woman was talking on the phone. The two young women who had been reading were still reading and the Sydney was still blowing bubbles. Oscar gave with the big teeth and made a big deal out of walking me to the outer door. 'Hey, you can tell Peter I'll get on the search tonight.' Putting on the act. 'And tell'm I'd appreciate it if he gives me a call. There's a couple of things I'd like to talk with him about.'
I said I would.
He made the big teeth some more, then left me at the door and sat on the couch next to Sydney with his hand on her thigh. The other two young women were watching him. He said that I worked for Peter Alan Nelsen and
