'Oh?'
'She's been glaring over here.'
'She's very drunk.'
'And you're not?'
'Do I seem drunk?'
'You're weaving.'
'Ah.'
'Did I insult you?'
'No. I just got finished telling her she was wobbling. Now you're telling me I'm weaving.'
'She really does look angry. Maybe you'd better get back to her.'
'You're the smartest makeup person I've ever known.' He wanted it to be a compliment. Instead he'd only sounded silly. But then he often sounded silly, didn't he?
'See you in the morning on the set,' Joanna said. 'You're invited to join us. Just walk over any time.'
'Thank you.'
Then he turned-damn, he really was weaving- and started back through the obstacle course of tables. The least thing they could do-management, that is- was put the things in a straight line so a guy wouldn't have to bruise his hips by bumping into chair after chair and table after table.
'You were gone over four minutes,' Cindy said when he got back.
'How would you know? You don't have a watch.'
'I counted the seconds.'
'So did I and I was barely gone three minutes.'
'You said one.'
'If the tables had been in a straight line, I would've been back much sooner.'
'Huh?'
'You say that a lot, you know that?'
'Say what a lot?'
''Huh.' You say 'Huh' an awful lot.'
And then the slap came and it was loud as a car backfiring, so loud it broke Marty Gerber's rhythm completely, and he fell silent at once.
The 'Celebrity Circle' panel and their mates had all been dining at one long table to the right of the stage. Given their 'star' status, the table was decorated with colorful flowers as well as long, tapering candles that seemed to imbue the darkness with a special glow. Invariably, their meal was interrupted by tourists stopping by like hungry animals to chat or joke or have their picture snapped with their favorite personality. When you haven't been on network television for a while, you're generally glad you get such treatment, even though you might pretend otherwise.
But something had gone wrong.
Cassie McDowell had slapped Todd Ames with a terrific left hand and now was on her feet. 'At least don't be a hypocrite, Todd! You got his job! You can't be too unhappy he's dead-and anyway, every one of us wanted him dead. Every one of us!'
Then she fell to sobbing. The dark-haired Susan Richards stood up and took the younger woman into her arms, letting her spill a considerable amount of tears on her naked shoulder-Susan wore a strapless white gown that even the unfashionable Tobin could see was a tad out of date.
'God,' Cindy McBain said. 'She's really crazy. Cassie, I mean. Why would they all want him dead?'
'I don't know. But in the morning I think I'll find out.'
From the stage, Marty Gerber was saying, 'Hey, isn't that just like actors? Give us a show even when we don't want it!'
The diners broke into applause for his clever ad-lib.
Todd Ames kept his gray and handsome head down.
Jere Farris and his wife, Alicia, looked humiliated. And the blond strongman Kevin Anderson gave everybody watching them a look at his capped teeth in a public relations textbook smile that tried to pretend everything was fine.
But Tobin's attention turned quickly to the redhead and the man in the western suit.
They'd quit talking and now simply watched the celebrity table. Obviously they were fascinated.
Once again Tobin had the impression that they knew something special-something Tobin should know- but he had no idea what it was.
Only that it undoubtedly involved the notebook Alicia Farris and the redheaded woman had been wrestling over outside his cabin door this afternoon.
'Oh, no,' Cindy said.
'What?' Tobin said.
'It's going to happen.'
'What's going to happen?'
'When I have four drinks I get slightly drunk and have a very good time. And when I have six drinks my inhibitions sort of go and I-well, you know. I just sort of can't help myself. But when I have seven drinks…' Then she paused and shook her head.
'Yes?' Tobin said. 'Seven drinks and you do what?'
'I,' Cindy said, getting to her feet unsteadily, 'barf.'
16
They made love of sorts (what would have been called third base back in high school, 'I'm sorry, I just can't-you know, so soon after Ken and all, you know, don't you? Aren't you sensitive, Tobin, aren't you?'), this being after Cindy threw up three times and then began lamenting the death of her dog when she'd been eight and how her father had always traveled too much and really never talked to her about stuff that mattered and how she'd slept too readily with far too many men and how she really should read more and see a better grade of movies ('I really think Barbra Streisand's a great actress, I can't help it') and how she was two months behind on her Trans- Am car payments because she'd loaned this Kansas City Chief she occasionally dated $1,000 from her savings account so he could help out his brother who was in a jam, and then she told him about the one and only time she'd ever really been in love and how the guy just wouldn't make a commitment and how crazy that was with all the guys chasing after her virtually begging her to marry them and then the one guy she really wanted just really abused her ('But isn't that always the way, Tobin, isn't that always the way?') and some of it interested him and some of it he kind of dozed through and some he felt very sorry for her about and some of it made him feel truly superior to her and that of course made him feel like a complete shit and some of it made no sense at all ('I just keep thinking I'm from this other planet, Tobin; you know, like these aliens dropped me off here and forgot to come back and get me. Do you ever feel like that?'). And anyway what he was truly interested in was her neck (she had a wonderful, graceful, chewy kind of neck) and her delightful breasts and her lickable legs and finally, finally he started kissing her and she more or less responded and then they got seminaked on his bed and he liked the way the moonlight came through the louvered windows and the way the salt air smelled and the distant festive music and then kissing her breasts at last and then putting his hand against her warmest part and her saying, between kisses, 'I just keep thinking about Ken and all and how promiscuous I've become. I wasn't always this way, I really wasn't, otherwise I'd do it, really, Tobin, I would,' and then with that gentlest but most final of female gestures, pushing him away so he could not get inside and saying, 'But I really like you, Tobin; you've been so great to me, and you're a celebrity and you don't have to be great to people or anything if you don't want to be.' And then about two seconds later he was up like a teenager caught by a girl's enraged mom, up and jerking on his pants and stumbling to the door because somebody was pounding on it and finding there Kevin Anderson, blond and apparently still under the impression that he was a TV cop, saying, 'You'd better come up to the deck, Tobin.
