Sirens, p.48
Sirens, page 48
shut the engine off and they drifted in silence. There was no wind, no
stars, only the sea to let them know they were still within the real
world. Rubens went below while she dropped the anchor and by the time
she had followed him down, he had turned the table into a double bed.
Lilac-pattern sheets faced her. She un- dressed and climbed in beside
him. ' a film loaded,' he said in a soft, furred voice, his arm beneath
her neck. '.' She snuggled her cheek against his warmth.
"One of your favourites.' He reached up with his free hand, flicked a
remote and the TV screen bloomed to electronic life. ''t you want to
know which one?' '.' She kissed his chest, her eyes closed. '?"
"Notorious.' She came awake, watching the film on and off. She dozed for
moments, woke, dozed again but was so familiar with the dialogue that it
did not matter. She dreamed the parts she missed. Just after midnight -
she knew by the soft chiming of the brass ship's clock - Cary Grant
began to carry the poisoned Ingrid Bergman down the long sweeping
staircase in tight, breathless close-up under the baleful but impotent
gaze of Claude Rains and Leopoldine Konstantin, the actress who
ins'mother so superbly in the film. :'phone buzzed. Rubens turned down
the sound, on the second ring. While the silent images flickered rant to
Bergman to Rains and the furious Konstantin, ns spoke into the
mouthpiece. These people are icons, thought, their images as immortally
graven as those on t Rushmore. es,'Rubens said. ' see.' e phone, she
thought, still half asleep, part of the fantasy veiling on the
nineteen-inch screen. I thought Rubens on the boat to get away from the
phone. Hadn't he said to her earlier? Wasn't that why they had come out
to the in the first place? She couldn't be sure. Of course he had her
present waiting for her here. Her present. Her fingers over the cool,
faceted surface. There was nothing in all the that felt the same as
diamonds. o, no,' she heard Rubens say. ' did the right thing ng me.
Daina and I were still up. But, Christ, it's the dle of the ni-ght for
you. Get some sleep now, Schuyler. I eciatc you letting me know.' He
hung up. he Jilin was over. The screen was blank. Rubens reached ,
turned off the video cassette player. He turned off all the ts. They
rocked in darkness. didn't even know the boat had a phone,' Daina said.
t's just for emergencies, really.' She lifted herself on her elbow. '
Schuyler all right?' 10h, yeah. Don't worry about him.' It was difficult
to see . The roll and pitch of the boat at anchor caused patches : light
coming through the porthole to play across his They did not quite reach
the darkness of his eyes. ' Schuyler. He gets easily shaken sometimes.'
ubens,' she said slowly, an uneasy premonition snaking ugh her, ''s
Schuyler got to be shaken about?' She put nd on his chest.
"Police called him in to identify a body,' Rubens said out a trace of
emotion in his voice. He was back to the y the outside world saw him.
Who was it?' ,'Found him in the trunk of his own Caddy,' he continued,
416 417 ignoring her question. ' kid spotted the car out in the sticks
... across the river in New Jersey, down a landfill where they dump all
that shit so they can build more of those cheap tract houses that go for
eighty, ninety thousand now.' ', who did they find?" "Kid woulda thought
nothing about it, apparently, but his dog wouldn't get away from it,
kept barking and scratching at the back end.' He seemed to be relishing
the telling and she knew now that he would not tell her who died until
he was ready. ' came after his dog and that's when he saw the trunk
wasn't fully closed. You know kids're as curious as women and he
couldn't help himself. He looked in and upchucked all over his Adidas.'
Daina shivered despite her anger. ', for Christ's sake, who was in
there?' She pressed the heel of her hand down hard against his rib cage
as if this show of physical force might move him to tell her when words
would not. ',' Rubens said slowly. ' was Ashley curled up in there with
a bullet hole in the back of his head and almost no blood at all. It was
very professional, the cops told Schuyler. Pinky-ring style.' She knew
what he meant. In the darkness, she opened her mouth to say something,
closed it'immediately. Abruptly, Meyer's seamed face floated before her
and she heard his words again as if he were there with her in the cabin
of the rocking boat: You must save Rubens from himself. He has learned
too well. She saw his grave eyes but remembered the gold-tipped smile.
It was the smile of a man who gets what he wants and now as Daina stared
down at the half-hidden countenance of Rubens, she saw that same smile
though it was only gold-tipped in her mind. ''t you tell me that Ashley
had made a lot of new friends?' she said slowly, pushing the tip of her
nose to one side in the universal, silent sign for the mob. '! She kept
her eyes on his face. ' they didn't kill him, did they?' They watched
each other. Daina was remembering something else from her meeting with
Meyer.
I'd love him no matter what, she had said. And Meyer, watching her as
Rubens 418 tched her now, had said, I hope you have the strength to d by
that always. With her eyes she willed him not to lie, wing that if he
did, she might never trust him again. ',' he said, after a time. '
didn't kill him.' "He found what you meant him to find.' ' was a greedy
little bastard,' Rubens said coldly. ' was also a friend of yours ... a
long-time friend.' ,,'Friends have a peculiar way of disappearing when
you've a lot of money. You'll see what I mean soon enough.' ,"Does
Schuyler know what you've done?' ' helped me set up the scam.' ' you
sent him to New York.' Rubens pursed his lips. ' cops think Ashley was
beat by mob. So does Schuyler. Everyone does.' His eyes were intense. '
do you.' D on't you feel anything ... anything at all for Ashley?' feel
that he got what he deserved. I gave him a chance to it quits and get
out clean without making a fuss but he wouldn't listen. He was too
greedy and he thought he d beat me.' o one can beat you, Rubens, is that
0' o one can beat me,' he whispered. His arms reached up (her, pulling
her down against him, skin against skin. ' no one can beat you, either.'
She felt a heat rising inside she could not resist. 419 Part Four Icon
' that direction,' the Cat said, waving its tight paw round, ' a Hatter:
and in that direction," waving the other paw, ' a March Hare. Visit
either you like: they're both mad.' - Lewis Caffoll, Alice's Adventures
in Wonderland Ten did not, in fact, go back to the film until work had
been d on her trailer. This did not make her happy and, @0' e, Marion
pulled his hair at the three-day delay it cost The whole job might have
been accomplished in one, not the electricians somehow got the wrong
instructions neon tube lighting in alternating strips of flushed and
canary yellow. Consequently, the whole thing had to ipped out of the
trailer's ceiling so that they could start from scratch. ama spent most
of the time shopping. The first day it was saster. She was so mobbed in
Maxfield Bleu on Santa ica and Doheny that she was forced to flee to the
relative y of her Mere. After that, she took Rubens' advice. He d a
bodyguard for her - a dour man with Slavic cheekes, short
salt-and-pepper hair, thin lips, and absolutely no e of homour. But he
was exceptionally broad-shouldered quick-reflexed, qualities that stood
him in good stead when ad to rid Giorgio's of a young, well-dressed man
hanging eptitiously about. -She had gone into a dressing room to try on
a pale green ss with a flower print along its hem, when the door was
pped open. ', I'm terribly sorry,' the man said. ' thought my lady end
was in here.' Daina heard the click-click-click of the 35mm camera going
just before he shut the door and, leaning out after him, lied, "Alex!'
She pointed to the man hurrying through the e and, pulling on her
clothes, ran after him. By the time she got to him, Alex had the man by
the back the neck. ' can't do this to me! I demand an explanation!
My rights are being infringed 1' Daina reached beneath his sports jacket
and wrenched the 423 Nikon out of his grasp. ' do you call this?" she
said angrily. ' infringement of my civil rights! Can't I try on a dress
in peace?' She unhinged the back of the camera. '!' the man cried,
sticking his hand out, but Alex slapped it away, saying, ' behave
yourself,' deep in his throat. Daina exposed the roll of film, handed
both it and the camera back to the man. ' time,' she said, "Alex will
step on the Nikon.' ',' the man said, retreating, ''m only trying to do
a job.' From Giorgio's - where she ended up buying the pale green dress
and several others - she had Alex take her to Theodore's on Rodeo, Alan
Austin's on Brighton Way and, for the eight pairs of shoes she had been
dying to buy, the Right Bank on Camden Drive. After lunch, she hit
Numan's of Beverly Hills, where she bought a wide leather belt of the
deepest plum and kept a sharp eye out for Bonesteel's wife. It was only
when she left that she remembered the other woman must still be away in
Europe. In Neiman-Marcus, she ran into George who was buying a present
for his parents' anniversary. He was more febrile than he had been the
night she had come across him at the Warehouse but, even more, he seemed
to have changed in some basic way so that she felt as if she were seeing
him for the first time. ', well, well. Miss. Whitney ... and entourage.
Can the paparazzi be far behind?" He primped at his hair while looking
in a mirror set on one of the counters. ' wonderful it must be to be a
star.' But his voice told her he did not think it was wonderful at all;
there was both envy and an odd kind of contempt. He bowed. ' understand
it is you whom we have to thank for this brief respite in our daily
toil.' ' the crap, George," she said. ' are you going to grow up?' '
think,' he said meditatively, ' have done so during the filming of this
project.' He seemed quite serious now. ' perhaps it's that I've finally
come to my senses.' senses?' she grated. ' you beat Yasmin I wiped my
list." She put her face close to his and there was anger in her that
Alex began to move towards them, perhaps that she would need protection
either from or from herself. ' you did was reprehensible. Ire just a
baby looking for a mommy to take care of it. You someone to take you by
the hand and feed you and pick ur clothes and take you away on trips and
tuck you in and tell you everything's all right. Why d'you think , all
the time? Isn't that what you said? Wander looking for something.
Well, that's what you're looking AGeorge.' Her eyes flashed and Alex was
very close to them keepmig the crush of people away. ell, I've got a
flash for you. Everything isn't all right and, * ' ever get your
fish-faced mouth out of the Chivas ou 1, you might realize you're the
only one who can help IV They were almost nose to nose now and Daina
tried a whiff of Scotch on his breath; there was none. st, you're a weak
man, George. Otherwise you never d've hit Yasmin.' IShe provoked me,
goddamnit! She never should've o hit her? She provoked you to hit her?"
she said inously. ', George, you'll have to do a lot better than I don't
have to explain anything to youp he exploded. ' what you did to me. I
should have my name above yours. know I should!' His voice had turned
petulant. his film's about Heather,' she said. ' you're doing is ing a
power play. You gambled and lost. Why don't you it like a man?"
iesmyright,' he said defiantly. ''m a star of this movie, , Daina shook
her head. ''ve got to earn the right, rge. You're too goddamned wrapped
up in who you are: r blond knights on their chargers and your delusions
of rism. I'd watch that if I were you.' ',' he warned, his face
darkening. ' know just what doing. You don't know how dangerous I can
be. I've been ering new friends, giving money to -' He stopped abruptly
424 425 as if he had realized he had said too much.
"Giving money to whom?' ' one,' he said, dismissing her words. ' it.' ',
yeah, sure! She gave it just the right amount of derision.
"Another one of your daydreams.' She had found the key to him now. He
laughed, certain he was back in control. He would tell her now, she
knew, at what he thought was his leisure. ' how much you really don't
know, Daina. Oh, yeah. I gotta lotta surprises up my sleeve. yet!
His eyes narrowed and all hint of mirth left his face. ' know you think
I'm just another dumb actor, hung up on his own face and method, and
that was true, once. But not now! She knew he was in deadly earnest.
Whether it was the truth or not, he believed what he was telling her.
"Film's your world. You're hermetically sealed and you'll never come out
now until the time someone younger, prettier, more talented, hits the
lights with enough impact to fling you aside. Then you'll wake up and
see the real world all around you. But by that time, it'll be too late.
It'll all have passed you by and you'll be nothing but a relic, a bag of
bones thrown up on some foreign shore. But me' - he tapped his chest
with the tip of his forefinger - ' already know there's more to it than
you and Marion and Heather Duell. ' it's the right track, you see. It
merely takes the wrong point of view. Actually, El-Kalaam is the hero of
this film. Or, more accurately, he should be. He's not. But' - he
shrugged ' cares? It's only a motion picture! He lifted his finger into
the air. ' in real life ... that's where it counts. That's where I'm
working! He seemed to be swinging back and forth between dangerous moods
and she felt chilled to her bones. ' d'you mean, George?' He smiled at
her as if he had led her all this time to a trap and now was preparing
to spring it. ''ve begun to give money to the PLO.' ' you out of your
mind?' ' the contrary.' His smile broadened. ''ve come to my senses, as
I said. This is the perspective the film has given me. t when I told you
that El-Kalaam and I are one.' @balled into a raised fist. ' feel it
now. I've got some somewhere to go. i I think you're confusing fantasy
and reality. Your nothing to do with real life.' no.
That's where you're wrong ... just as Marion was when he said he told me
to funnel all of this zealousness film. The film was only important in
opening my eyes -,:truth. Acting's for pimps and whores.' He gave her a
grin and she saw that he had neglected to remove the ps that were part
of his El-Kalaam makeup. She felt Mcbill come again. ' you the struggle
for freedom is an abstract concept you read about in a book.
You r coffee, pick up the paper, get into the fashion section. it to
you, all the blood and guns?' same as it is for you, George! no. You're
wrong about that. just the way you're wrong all of this.' He spread his
arms out wide so that shoppers away, hurrying by, heads turned over
their shoulders. that the blood and the guns're for real. They're
reality; of this shit.' stared at him, felt a small shiver go through
her.. She e aware of Alex's hand on her arm. think we'd better get you
out of here, Madam,' he said ear. it was not George who frightened her.
It was Rubens. er her love for him. Howco'uld she love a man who had
orders to kill another human being in cold blood? Rubens reason that it
was Ashley himself who had necessitated ,. And Meyer? What would he say?
ring out of the limo's dark-tinted windows at rushing Daina was certain
she knew. Once, long ago, he would concurred with Rubens' decision, had,
perhaps, even the same reasoning for an action of his own. But now,
knew, he would have found another way to handle the tion.
erhaps, she thought, Meyer even knew about Ashley's nding murder. That
could be why he chose that moment 426 427 to speak to her. Her heart
grew cold at the thought Of it. Had he given her a chance to dissuade
Rubens? Had she been so, wrapped up in herself that she had missed the
clues? Desperately she thought back but could come to no conclusive
answer. She just didn% know and that, perhaps, was even worse. Only you
can save him. Isn't that what Meyer had told her? Only you. She could
not let it happen again. Rubens had done what he had done yet she loved
him still. Was that wrong? Was it evil? She knew she had to melt his
