the guts to tell you. I paid back the money though, in cash, to the petty cash account, every penny.”
“Victor says there was more than one credit card slip with your signature on it from the Chateau Marmont and the Sunset Marquis,” Tallie said sternly. “He checked.”
“I may have gone twice, but I always reimbursed it. Maybe someone forged my signature on the other slips. Maybe even Hunt. And that’s the other thing I have to tell you.” She took a breath and plunged in. “I think he’s been seeing someone for about a year now. I suspected it at first, and I have a friend who works in his office. He confirmed it when I asked him. She’s some young secretary, very young I think. She has an abusive ex-husband and a child, a three-year-old boy. I think she’s about twenty-five or twenty-six. My friend says that Hunt must have been sorry for her, and tried to help her. Her ex came back to beat her up, and the kid, after she left him. Hunt was very sympathetic, and helped her find a place to live, and I guess it all started from there. They’ve been having an affair for about a year. He stays at hotels with her, mostly when you’re away, I think. And the maid says he never sleeps at the house now when you’re gone. Apparently that’s true. I checked.” Brigitte looked devastated as she told Tallie the details.
“The maid told you about this? Does everyone know except me?” He had played her for a fool, while stealing money from her and cheating on her. She never would have suspected it of him in a million years. Instead of being the best man she had ever had, he had turned out to be the worst one.
“What are you going to do?” Brigitte asked, looking desperately worried and remorseful. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m always trying to protect you. I knew you’d be upset about the money, but I thought maybe you’d think he was worth it, and I thought the affair with this girl would blow over. But it hasn’t. They say it’s very serious, and she wants to marry him as soon as her divorce comes through.”
“And when was he going to tell me that little piece of news? After their honeymoon? Jesus, he’s a shit.” Tallie looked as though the bottom had just fallen out of her world.
“And so am I for not telling you all this before. I only heard about the affair with the girl about six moths ago. I should have told you then. And about the money before that. I really made all the wrong decisions on this one.” Her confessing it now made Tallie feel a little more benevolent toward her, but she was badly shaken. Brigitte had hidden important information from Tallie, because she didn’t want to hurt her. But she had hidden Hunt’s cheating on her and stealing money from her. Both were serious offenses, and Tallie didn’t deserve it. Brigitte had never been in such a tough position in her life. She was crying as she sat in the car looking guilty and devastated.
“I have to figure out what to do,” Tallie said, looking shell-shocked. “I need some time to digest this before I confront him.” There were tears in her eyes as she said it, and they were both crying as they looked at each other and Brigitte hugged her in sympathy and remorse. She felt terrible about the news she had delivered.
“I thought you’d want him around, at any price,” Brigitte said as she blew her nose.
“I don’t want anyone that badly, no matter how much I love him. I don’t want anyone enough to let them cheat on me and steal my money.” She was most hurt by his cheating on her, even more so than the money. Money could always be replaced, but her faith in him couldn’t. She couldn’t imagine ever trusting him or any man again. He was the last of a long, checkered career of bad men. And she no longer trusted her own judgment.
“I’m so sorry, Tallie,” Brigitte said as she sat there and cried, and finally Tallie looked at her watch and said they had to go to work. She didn’t reach out to comfort Brigitte. She was much too upset at her for not telling her the whole story sooner, and at Hunt for what he’d done.
Tallie had no idea how she was going to work today, but she had no choice. Even with her heart breaking, she had to continue working on the film. She wished it were already over. And she wanted to confirm the two stories first, for her own peace of mind, before she accused him. She had to figure out how to do that and who would help her. It was going to be agonizing living with him in the meantime.
“Are you going to fire me?” Brigitte asked her with a look of terror.
“Maybe. I don’t know.” It was as honest as she could be with her. “I don’t want to. Let’s let the dust settle on this and see what happens.” It was the best she could do for now, and Brigitte was grateful that Tallie was taking some time to think about it. It was a terrible shock and an ugly story. They drove to the set then, both of them with heavy hearts and in silence, wondering what would happen. Tallie felt as though her world had just come to an end. Again.
Chapter 6
TALLIE STAYED AT the hotel in Palm Springs the night of Brigitte’s confession. She didn’t want to go home to Hunt, and didn’t want to say anything to him yet. And she was keeping her distance from Brigitte too. She understood that Brigitte’s motives had been good, but what she’d done was so wrong, not telling her about the money Hunt was taking, and about the affair. She still couldn’t understand why he was taking money from her, he had so much of his own. And she was just as disturbed about Hunt cheating on her. If it was true, and it probably was, he had destroyed the last bit of faith she had. Tallie lay in bed in her hotel room that night feeling sick. She wanted to call Max in New York, but she knew Max would hear it all in her mother’s voice, and there was no need to upset her too, and Max was crazy about Hunt. It would be a blow to her too.
Tallie didn’t bother to eat that night, all she did was cry, after working hard all day. And finally at nine o’clock she called her lawyer. He handled mostly contracts for her, but had taken care of a few personal matters too, and had managed to avert several lawsuits. She called him at home, and he came to the phone immediately after one of his children answered. Greg Thomas was an excellent attorney, and she knew he was discreet.
“Hi, Greg,” she said in a mournful tone.
“Hi, what’s up?” He sounded surprised to hear from her at that hour of night. Tallie wasn’t the sort of client who called him at home. She was always respectful of him, and called him during business hours, so he was worried this was an emergency of some kind, and to her it was. “Something wrong?”
“Possibly. Our big investor for the new film wanted an audit, and we’ve been dealing with that for the last two weeks. And some things came to light as a result. Our investor gave us a clean bill of health, but I’m concerned about a couple of matters that surfaced.”
“That’s too bad.” He was concerned for her. She sounded terrible to him. “What can I do to help you?”
“I’d like the name of a private investigator. I want to check this out, for my own peace of mind. I don’t know who or what to believe right now. I’ve heard some pretty bad stories, and I’ve got a lot of cash going out the door that I can’t explain. It’s probably what I’ve been told, and none of it is pretty. It looks like Hunt is stealing money from me and cheating on me, but before I confront him, I want to be sure.”
“Hunt?” He sounded shocked. He had met him several times, and knew about the movies they had worked on together. He had done a limited partnership agreement between them for the last two, and he liked him a lot.
“Yeah, Hunt. You never know about people.”
“I think you’re smart to check it out before you confront him. Who told you all this?”
“My accountant pointed out the missing money, and Brigitte just admitted that she knew about it, he’s been pumping her for money for three years, and she knew about the affair too. She thought she was doing me a favor by not telling me.”
“How well do you know her?” Greg asked coolly. He had heard stories like this before over the years.
“As well as I know myself. She’s like a sister to me. She’s worked for me for seventeen years, and I’ve never had a single problem or reason to doubt her. She comes from money, so she has no reason to steal from me, or to lie about Hunt. I would trust her with my life, my kid, and everything I have.” And she had only known Hunt for four years, as opposed to Brigitte for seventeen.
“There’s no telling about people. Human nature is a fearsome thing. Sometimes people who have no reason to be dishonest are pathologically unable to do the right thing.” That applied to Hunt, from what she had just heard. “I’m sorry, Tallie. I know how distressing this must be.” He had been through it before with clients, and it was heartbreaking to see the damage it caused, to all concerned. “I actually use a very good woman when I need an investigation done. She has her own firm, she’s an ex-FBI agent. She’s smart, nice, and tough as nails. I think I have her home number here. I’ll give her a call right now. I’ll call you back.” She gave him the number at the hotel in Palm Springs, and they hung up, and while she was waiting to hear back from him, Hunt called her, and her stomach did a double flip. She didn’t want to talk to him, given everything Brigitte had said, but if she wasn’t going to confront him yet, she had to pretend that everything was fine. Her hand was shaking as she held the phone.
