Sirens, p.1
Sirens, page 1
SIRENS
by
ERIC VAN LUSTBADER
CRESTA Grafton Books A Division of the Collins Publishing Group 8
Grafton Street, London WIX MA Published by Grafton Books 1982
Reprinted nine times 987 First published in Great Britain by Granada
Publishing 1981 Copyright (D Eric Van Lustbader 1981 ISBN 0-586-05536-3
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading Set in
Plantin All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form,
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. This book is
sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or
otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without
the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than
that in which it is published and without a similar condition including
this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
This is dedicated to the memory of my mother For my father.
Acknowledgments
Friends and family were extremely helpful during the writing of Sirens.
Thanks are due to: Carol, M. J., Syd, Doris and Charlie, Marv; my
father, who proffed, and, especially, to H. M., the wizard, without
whom, etc. Thanks are due to the following authors, publishers, and
agents for permission to use the material included. Epigraph: Excerpt
from Playback by Raymond Chandler. Copyright C 1958 by Raymond Chandler.
Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Compally. Page 9: 'The
Lightning Play' by Kikaku. From An Introduction to Haiku edited by
Harold G. Henderson. Co TyrIght a 1958 by Harold G. Henderson. Reprinted
by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc. Page 145: 'My Only Love,
(Bryan Ferry). C 1980 E. G. Music Ltd. All rights reserved. Used by
permission. Page 178:'Fauvette'(Duncali Browne). C) 1979 Logo Songs Ltd.
All rights for the US and Canada administered by The Hudson Bay Music
Company. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Page 518: 'You Wear
Those Eyes' (Ric Ocasek). @ Ric Ocasek. All rights controlled by Lido
Music, Inc. Used by permission. PQg, 56 *- 'Closets and Bullets'(Martha
Davis). (C) 1979 by Cleari Sheets Music. Used by permission. All rights
reserved. '. . .
There in a meadow they sit, and all round is a great heap of bones,
mouldering bodies and withering skins. Go on past that place and do not
let the men hear.. -Circe to Odysseus. Homer, The Odyssey.
I looked around the empty room - which was no longer empty. There was a
voice in it, and a tall, slim lovely woman. -Raymond Chandler, Playback
Part One.
The Lightning Play Lightning-play - that yesterday was in the
east, is in the west today _Kikaku One @Daina Whitney shifted down,
edging into the neat hairpin turn. on the western face of the hill, on
her way up. As pre- ..1-dicted the cool air had arrived just after dusk,
scouring the vanyons and hills of LA, purging the indolent humid air
east- "ward, sending the burnt-rubber smog from the valley back to
-where it had originated. From the tops of Beverly Hills, the haloed
lights seemed to -kneel below the swaying crowns of the palms, sweeping
away, exploding in the haze of distance. Daina coaxed the silver
Mercedes into the centre of the , road, shifted briefly into third. She
listened to the @-:','throaty roar of the car's exhaust and thought of
the Ian Flemmig line: ' drove like a man, with sensual delight.. `1-- Or
something like that. The idea reminded her of Marion, her ,@'director on
Heather Duell. They had been hard at work on the @U"Ilfilm for oversix
weeks, having just returned from location shooting in the sun-dappled
hills north of Nice. Marion, who brought with him the reputation for
manufacturing an authen- @,'zk`,,."tic feel to everything he shot,
nevertheless had insisted on filming all miteriors in Hollywood. ' the
set I can control time, halt the ligh t in the sky, stop ""'the wind
from blowing, make it rairi,' he had told her on the day they had
returned. ' location one is constantly at odds with the environment. I
want to be able to control everything. That's why one comes to
Hollywood, after all.' He walked around her, expostulating, venting
steam like an engme on maximum. ' for that control one gives up a cer-
411 tain amount of volition. Being in Hollywood takes you right out of
reality. The more you give to it, the more it sucks away at you - just
like a superlative whore. And it feels so good you don't want it to
stop.' Daina recalled the first time Monty, her agent, had mentioned
this project. Regina Red had just been released to excellent reviews. It
was a spectacular, controversial film, filled with directorial
pyrotechnics. But, more important, it was her first starring role and,
as Monty himself had pointed out, she was poised at a crucial nexus in
her career. ' think you're ready,' he told her one day over lunch at Ma
Maison, ' go beyond Regina Red.' She had to lean forward to hear him
over the chink of glasses and the gush of honeyed voices, rising and
falling, as the upper crust of Beverly Hills strolled by them, alighting
for a time at this table and that for a stinger or three. ''m not
knocking the film, mind you. Anything Jeffrey Lesser directs gets an
enormous amount of attention. But I feel the time's right for you to go
beyond that Zap! Pop! thing. You should see. I'm drowning in scripts for
you.' '.' She laughed. ''s a switch." "Be careful, Daina. Now it's the
easiest thing in the world to get you a film. But what we don't need is
for you to become involved in a piece of shit. You want to see shit?
Like I said, come to my office. There's a pile of it there. This town
grinds screenwriters up into hamburgers. I haven't seen a reasonable
idea floating around here for months.' Of course she heard the ''
hovering unspoken as he had meant her to, but she was not going to give
him the satisfaction of seeing her ask for it.
She felt like a dog on a leash, knew that part of this feeling stemmed
from the boredom of inactivity while Mark was busily filming his
political epic. And, perversely, this only seemed to infuriate her
further. ' don't,' she said sharply, ' to wait a year for some mythical
project that you're dreaming might come along. I want to work.
If I don't, I'll go crazy.' It was then that Monty smiled. He had, she
thought, a completely irresistible smile. It was wide, taking in his
whole face, but most especially, it was warm. When he smiled like that
she found herself trusting him implicitly because he had & way of making
you believe that the gesture was just for you, that he had never done it
quite this way with anyone else. ' would you like,' he said happily, 'to
work right now?' And handed her over a blue-bindered script. ' bastard,'
she said, laughing. 12 gave her just overnight to read and she knew why.
her excitement level to remain high. from the office@ at breakfast in
Malibu, he said, do you think?' ready knew from his face what he
thought. Her eyes him. ''m not sure. I haven't finished it yet.' mnit,
Daina, I told you -V He stopped, seeing her silently at him.
"Ali,' he said. ' perhaps if I can some of your questions I can help
make up your mind.' placidly at her iced coffee@ feeling a measure
action. ''s directing it?' Clarke.' -raised her eyebrows. ' mean the
Englishman who that Stoppard on Broadway, oh, two years ago?" nodded. '
same. He won a Tony for that one.' she was puzzled. ''s he doing here?
And in's heavy shoulders lifted and fell. ieswhat he wants 4q,
apparently. And this isn't his first film. He's done two but they really
don't count. They were done on a .. Twentieth is putting a lot of bucks
behind this em they come to get Clarkef His brown eyes slid away from
hers, contemthe bright brass of the early sunlight lacquering the
Several gulls spun desultorily near the water's surface, for breakfast.
' producer brought him in. he had seen the script fairlyearly, made some
vital got a guarantee from the producer and began a ged rewrite the
result of which' -he nodded his small head; his hollow cheeks quivering
as if they might loose the perpetual tan - ' have just read.' producer,'
Daina said guardedly. ' is he?' rubbed at his thick nose, diddled his
fork up and ... in a brief tattoo on the wooden tabletop. ' Daina *new
that warning tone, said almost reluctantly, fa Christ's sake
at her bark, his knuckles 13 N white where he grasped the edge of the
table as if in preparation for a violent squall.
"That sonovabitch's been trymig to get me into bed ever since I got out
here! Now you want me to work in one of his films? I don't believe youp
She got up, thrust the chair from her with the backs of her legs, went
out of the cool clutter of the restaurant on to the soft sand. She moved
away from the edifice. Behind her, the traffic hissed by, heading for
Sunset. She bent down, took off her shoes, walked towards the lapping
surf. At the verge of the sea, she felt the contradictory hardness come
into the sand, its coolness. Then the water washed over her feet,
tickling her ankles. She shivered, feeling an odd kind of terror grip
her at the thought of working with Rubens. She had studiously avoided
him for so long and now it had come to this. Her anger at Monty was
misplaced, she knew, and, abruptly, she was ashamed of how she had
yelled at him. She felt rather than saw Monty coming up behind her. He
had difficulty negotiating the beach, his breath coming in hard, quick
pants. Belatedly, Daina thought of the pills he took for his heart. '
think,' he said softly, ' you're being a bit of a prima donna. This is
the role of a lifetime. You -2 ' don't like it when you siart planning
things behind my back.' ' and I are old friends. We go back, what?, ten
years or more. If you'd look at the situation objectively, Daina) you'd
see it's the perfect thing for you.' Now she was angry again. ' does
Rubens know about my acting abilities? I know what he's hoping for.' '
think you're wrong about that,' Monty said. She dismissed his words with
a wave of her hand.' One buddy standing up for the other.' She turned
away from his steady gaze, her feelings in turmoil. Rubens, sbe thought
acidly, the name that opens all doors in Hollywood. But what..! doors
did it open inside herself ? To the west, out over the Pacific, the sky
glowed, hangingi@ suspended, as if it were a stage backdrop, reminding
her Of, that hard struggle up from no parts to bit parts to supportiq
roles. 14 ight gilded the bridge of her nose, glinted off her eyes,
their deep violet opaque. Her normally sensual lips p ed tightly
together. s h oke again, her voice was low and furred with e sp ' am
not.' she said, ' whore. If Marion Clarke me for Heather Duell he can
damn well call you 4 t," said Monty calmly, ' precisely what he's done.'
Clarke was not at all what she had expected. He was his seamed face
dominated by a long patrician nose. t metallic-grey hair was combed
forward over his wide in the style of a Roman senator. She found herself
g whether he was an old-world upper-class English- ,,@.Itnd whether
Hollywood would bring him down like a ,.,:, . te hunter shooting a
magnificent wild animal.
4,4tared into those piercing blue eyes, like shards of ice, ght, No, not
with this forbidding exterior. But then and all the ice turned to
running water and rainbows. first time she met him - on the lot where
all the would be shot - he was carrying a copy of the script @kto a
tight cylinder. But when she introduced herself, it to his assistant - a
thin young man with no hair - her arm in a firm, controlling grip and
began to stroll away from the clots of people. He guided her with rather
than with words, and by this she thought ood the nature of the control
he wished to exert, ors did, over her. well do you know the script?' His
voice was light, ghed, a trifle uneasy. ''m afraid I haven't had time
N." e the thing.' was already shaking away her words as if they were g
cloud of gnats invading an otherwise glorious day. '. That's not what I
meant.' ted for him to go on but he did not. Indeed, he within his own
thoughts. They were approaching of streets - some television producer's
idea of a neighbourhood, though it bore no resemblance to 15 any area
of the city she had been to. Lights were up but not on. The asphalt had
just been slicked with water so that it shone. The lights came on all at
once and almost immediately a long black Lincoln slid by them, so slowly
there was almost no hiss from the tyres. Someone called for more water.
The lights were cut. No one bothered them. '?' he said sharply. She
wondered what he wanted. ' we do a scene?' ' you recall,' he said as if
that was precisely what he had had in mind all along, ' scene directly
after your husband is shot?' ' I turn around and scream at El-Kalaam?'
'. From there! J don't -' But he had already begun it and she had no
choice because he was working with her from within rather than from
without as most film directors in her experience had done, manipulating.
It was like quicksand, drawing her in or, rather, downward until she
lost herself and began to panic because she did not remember the lines
or how she was supposed to react. Then something he said seemed to
trigger her and she knew what Heather Duell - what she - had to do. And,
simultaneously, she understood what Marion was up to, that the lines
themselves were meaningless, that it was Heather, the aracter, he was
out for her to define, to see if she could, if she had it in her just
the way Heather had to have it in her. To survive the body blow to her
life. Just to go on. To live. And without knowing just when - as it
always was, she had found, with truly great performances - she crossed
the barrier, becoming Heather Duell. Daina came out of it dazzled and
breathless, having been given a glimpse of the montage of the film, the
accretion of shots she might eventually view daily, metamorphosing into
the whole cloth, filled with deep tonal feeling. She had been given a
taste of the heart of the matter and now she was certain that she wanted
this role more than she had ever wanted anything in her life. Her chest
was tight and there was a pounding in her 16 familiar but so much
stronger than before that she izzied. It seemed to her like the vicious,
awesome, ous thrust of life itself breaking time down into minute,
lifetimes, separate, apart, diverging, multitudinous, erating endlessly.
And she realized just how long it had since the ending of Regina Red;
how she ached for the the camera to mark her again, to surround her with
its Technicolor rectangle.
Wide-screened, she should be again. It was time for another life; she
could feel the along her musculature, live wires tingling her brain she
knew that she would not sleep tonight, perhaps not until she knew this
part was hers. ely, she let Marion lead her back past a pair of
halfgarbage cans, down an ersatz alley with its machine- '', its
carefully torn and faded posters flapping off walls that were, after
all, only plaster and plywood and, dy, they re-emerged into Hollywood.
ow listen to me.' He stopped, turned to face her. Light ed his face,
tingeing his pink drinker's cheeks. ' ' that Heather Duell is an action
story. The people ieth certainly think so.' Each word seemed to escape
lips separately as if with a life of its own. ' assured i %we shall not
take that aspect for granted! He smiled a through his thin wide lips as
if it were a grudging outlet, rning factory's chimney blowing off steam.
He lifted a ger. ' do not be deceived. This is another kind of entirely.
errorism. as a concept is as epi&mic in this decade as ism was in the
twenties. They are political ideals just e. But this is not a film about
the Jewish-Palestinian e. We are not about to make a film about war@
d'you raised the forefinger even farther so that its tip touched silver
side of his head. ' is something wider we are after; ing everyone will
