Tallie had thought of that too.
“That’s what I thought, or I figured you stayed there, charged it to our joint card, and reimbursed me later.”
“I’m not that sloppy,” Brigitte said with a broad smile.
“I know you’re not.” Tallie smiled back at her apologetically. “Especially if you’ve never stayed at those hotels. It must be a mistake then.” Tallie knew there had to be a reasonable explanation for it, whatever it was. And without thinking about it further, she pulled out the script and read the new changes on the way to Palm Springs. The incorrect hotel charges were the furthest thing from her mind.
She called Victor from her cell phone that morning from her trailer on the set, while Brigitte went to get her coffee. They had an espresso/cappuccino stand set up by catering that was as good as Starbucks. Tallie told Victor on the phone that she had no explanation for the cash or the hotel bills. She sounded unconcerned about it, and he sounded surprised.
“Hunt said he goes to those hotels with you,” Victor said clearly, and Tallie suddenly felt her stomach curl itself slowly into a knot like a boa constrictor in her belly. Had Victor misunderstood? Was he senile?
“I think you misunderstood him, Victor,” she said firmly. If Hunt had said it to him it simply wasn’t true, and Brigitte had denied that the charges were hers. So who had been charging hotel bills to her?
“It must be identity theft again,” Tallie said simply, as the boa constrictor in her belly relaxed.
“I’ll check it out,” Victor said cautiously, “and I’ll call you back. The credit card company should have a record of who signed at the hotel.”
“Probably no one we know,” Tallie said quietly. Victor said nothing and hung up a moment later, as Brigitte came back to the trailer with Tallie’s coffee. It smelled delicious.
“Everything okay? You look pissed,” Brigitte commented as she handed Tallie the cup of steaming latte. Tallie laughed when she said it, and felt instantly better.
“Not pissed. Just annoyed at Victor. He’s so ridiculously stubborn sometimes. He’s like a dog with a bone when he gets something in his teeth. He’s all worked up about the cash he says we’re spending, and I’ll bet you anything, it’s some kind of clerical error on his end when his assistants put our entries into the general ledger.”
“I’m pretty precise about them,” Brigitte said calmly.
“I know you are. I’m not worried about it. He’s being a pest, although I know he means well. But they probably screwed up and we didn’t. I don’t want to get upset about it. And he keeps harping on the hotel bills he claims I charged, and I agree with you on that too. I’m sure it’s identity theft again. The last time someone stole my credit card number, they went to a sex shop in Detroit, and about thirty bars. I’m sure the hotel charges are the same thing. He claimed that Hunt said he stayed at those hotels with me, and I’m sure he didn’t say that. Victor gets so nervous, he gets it wrong sometimes. For about an eighth of a second I got nervous about Hunt when Victor said that. And then I realized that’s just me being crazy. Victor will get it straightened out, tell me it was a mistake, and I’m not going to accuse Hunt of staying in hotels because Victor got a bee in his bonnet. Shit, I hate accounting. Thank God, you do it for me. He makes me crazy.” Brigitte laughed as she said it, and Tallie grabbed the script and stood up.
“I don’t love the accounting either. He’s such a nervous Nellie,” Brigitte said as she handed Tallie her BlackBerry.
“I know. Well, I’ve got to get to work.” Tallie finished her coffee, put the script under her arm, and slipped her BlackBerry into a pocket of her shorts after putting it on vibrate, and a moment later she was riding a cherry picker with the cameraman, setting up the shots with him for that morning, and her irritation with Victor was already forgotten.
It was another long shooting day to make up for lost time. Tallie worked straight through lunch, and it was midafternoon before she took her BlackBerry out of her pocket and checked it for messages. She had felt it vibrate several times. She had four messages from Victor and rolled her eyes as she sat down in a chair on the set and cracked open a bottle of water. As she called Victor back, Tallie noticed Brigitte talking and laughing with one of the actors, and she wondered if he was the man of the moment. While Tallie was watching them, Victor answered.
“I wanted to get back to you about the Sunset Marquis and the Chateau Marmont,” her accountant said without preamble, and Tallie was reminded of the image of a dog with a bone again.
“It’s probably identity theft, Victor, just like all the other times we couldn’t explain charges on the cards. And you said there have been no charges for those hotels on my card for the last year anyway. What’s the problem?”
“I don’t like unsolved mysteries,” Victor said sternly, “not when it’s about your money.”
“I appreciate that, but it’s not recent anyway, and it can’t be a very large amount.” Tallie was trying to be casual instead of worried.
“I still have an obligation to explain it. I called the credit card company this morning. They keep the signed charge slips on microfiche, and I had them fax them to me to see whose signature was on them.”
“Don’t tell me I signed them,” Tallie said, almost laughing at the absurdity of it.
“No. Brigitte did. Her signature is clearly on all the hotel charges, at both hotels. Yours is on one from the Bel- Air, but you already explained that. The ones I mentioned to you are all signed by Brigitte Parker.”
“She said she’s never stayed at either hotel,” Tallie said firmly, far more willing to believe her assistant than her accountant. She still believed that the mistake here was his, not Brigitte’s, or any improper use of the credit card on her part.
“Maybe she’s forgotten. It’s been a while,” Victor said calmly.
“I don’t think so, Victor.”
“Maybe she’s embarrassed to tell you that she used the card for personal reasons, and she reimbursed you without our knowledge.” He was willing to believe that she had made it up to Tallie, although he couldn’t prove it, but he was entirely unwilling to believe that she’d never been there and checked into the hotels. Her name on the charge slips said otherwise. “It’s clearly her signature on the charge slips.”
“Maybe someone forged it,” Tallie suggested coolly.
“I doubt that.”
“I never look at things like that, Victor. Brigitte handles all the statements when they come in. I don’t have time. That’s why I have her. And you check the accounts and the general ledger.”
“Yes, I do. This only came up because of the recent audit. And we still have no explanation for the twenty-five thousand in cash you’re spending every month and can’t account for. I’m much more concerned about that than the hotel bills we can’t explain.”
“So am I. If you don’t mind, I’d like to show the accounts and the spreadsheets to my father. He’s a lot better at this kind of thing than I am.” She always relied on her father’s advice and wise counsel.
“Of course, I have no problem with that.”
“Thank you, Victor. I’ll call you later.”
She sat thinking for a minute after the call to Victor, wondering again about the hotel bills. And then she called her father. As always, he answered on the first ring.
“Hi, Dad,” she said, trying to sound casual, but he knew her too well for that.
“What’s wrong?” He went right to the point.
She laughed at his question and tried to sound unconcerned. “Some stuff came up in the audit that I’m confused about. Maybe my accountant made a mistake. Would you look at it for me?” Her father was good with spreadsheets and figures, and his mind was still sharp. His body had failed him, but his brain was still operating at full speed.
“I’ll be happy to take a look. Send it over whenever you want. What’s the problem?”
“My accountant says I’m spending twenty-five thousand dollars a month in cash. I’m not spending it, Brigitte says she isn’t. I can’t figure it out.”
“Do you have a joint account with Hunt?” he asked her bluntly, although he liked Hunt immensely, and Hunt certainly had more than enough of his own money and didn’t need Tallie’s, and he’d been very generous with her and Max.
“No, I don’t. We haven’t commingled anything. But I can’t imagine that twenty-five thousand dollars is disappearing every month. I think it’s got to be a mistake, and I don’t want to get upset about it till I know.”
“Have your accountant send me the spreadsheets and I’ll take a look,” her father said in a concerned
