“Of course,” Charles responded.
Before Judith could say anything else, a pair of
hefty legs and sensible black pumps came down the
stairway.
“There you are,” Eugenia Fleming said in an accusing tone. “What’s this about the studio calling Morris?
And how did you get him so drunk?”
“He got himself drunk,” Judith declared. “I’ve never
seen anybody drink a Bottle Rocket before. It’s a wonder he didn’t launch himself across the lake.”
Eugenia turned her head in every direction. “What
lake?”
Judith gestured at the slanting windows that faced
the length of the restaurant. “There’s a lake out there.
Two lakes, in fact. And mountains. You can’t see them
because of the fog.”
“Miserable weather,” Eugenia muttered, planting
one black pump on the single step up to the bar. “Now
tell me what’s going on with Morris and the phone
call.”
Judith feigned innocence. “I’m only the messenger.”
“Morris was too drunk to call Paradox,” Eugenia
huffed, her majestic bust heaving. “I wouldn’t let him,
so I called for him. No one there knew anything about
trying to contact him. Vito is very annoyed.”
“That’s a shame,” Judith said placidly, then took another drink of Scotch. “Morris isn’t in trouble, is he?”
“Of course he is!” Eugenia shot back. “We’re all in
trouble!” Abruptly, she put a hand to her large crimson
lips. “That is,” she said in a much softer tone, “this
Bruno incident presents several challenges to all of us
who are involved.”
“I would imagine,” Judith said, sounding sympathetic. “You’ve lost a very important client.”
“Yes,” Eugenia said, then turned to Charles. “Give
me a shot of Tanqueray, straight up.”
Charles complied. Eugenia downed the gin in one
gulp. “Producers like Bruno don’t come around every
day,” she grumbled. “In fact, I was with him from the
beginning, right after he won that film-festival prize.
You might say he owed a lot of his success to me.” She
gave Charles a curt nod. “I’ll have another, please.”
“Really?” Judith remarked. “How does that work?”
Eugenia scowled at Judith. “How does it work? I do
the work, that’s how. I start a buzz, build an image,
play publicist as well as agent. It wasn’t easy with
Bruno,” she said, downing the second gin. “He had
hang-ups, phobias, problems. But I connected him to
the right people. Nobody gives agents credit for the
grunt work involved in building a reputation.”
