Death of a Blue Movie Star

about her now. There were some lines she wouldn’t cross.”
    “In any case that’s what occurred to me. But that wasn’t what happened….” His voice faded. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this.”
    Rune squinted. “Just pretend it’s gossip. I love gossip.”
    “A terrible fight. Really vicious.”
    “What could you hear?”
    “Not much. You read poetry, Robert Frost?”
    Rune thought. “Something about horses standing around in the snow when they should be going somewhere?”
    Becker said, “Ah, does anybody read anymore? … Well, Frost coined this term called the
sound of sense
. It refers to the way we can understand words even though we can’t hear them distinctly. Like through closed doors. I got a real
sense
of their conversation. I’ve never heard Michael so mad. I’ve never heard him so scared, either.”
    “Scared?”
    “Scared. He comes out of the meeting, then paces around. A few minutes later he calms down. Then he asks me about the new lead for the play and whether the Equity contract has been signed and I tell him it was. And I can tell he’s thinking about casting Shelly again even though he doesn’t want to.”
    “What happened, do you think?”
    “I noticed something interesting about Shelly,” Becker said. “She really did her homework—getting the script in the first place, for instance. See, we get a lot of young, intense hopefuls in here. They know Chekhov and Ibsen and Mamet cold. But they don’t have a clue about the
business
of the theater. They think producers are gods. But as creative as Shelly was she also had a foot in the real world. She was a strategist. For the first EPI, she’d found out everything there was to know about Michael. Personal things as well as professional.” Becker gave Rune a meaningful smile and when she didn’t respond he frowned. “Don’t you get it?”
    “Uh, not exactly.”
    “Blackmail.”
    “Blackmail? Shelly was blackmailing him?”
    “Nobody here knows for certain but there’re rumors about Michael. A few years ago he was traveling through some small town in, I don’t know, Colorado, Nevada, and we think he got arrested. For picking up a high school boy—the story was that he was just seventeen.”
    “Ouch.”
    “Uh-huh. Also around that time there was an announcement that Michael had paid two hundred thousand for the rights to a play.
Nobody
pays that kind of money for a straight, nonmusical play. It had to’ve been a phony transaction—I’m sure he used company money to pay off locals and keep out of jail.”
    “I thought he was a deacon in his church?”
    “This was before he saw the light.”
    “You think Shelly found out about it?”
    “Like I say, she did her homework.”
    Rune said, “He fired you. You’re a little prejudiced against him.”
    Becker laughed. “I respect Medea’s strength. Can I forgive her for killing her children? I respect Michael for what he’s done for New York theater. Personally, I think he’s a pompous ass. Draw your own conclusions about what I tell you.”
    “One last question. Was he in Vietnam? Or was he ever a soldier?”
    “Michael?” Becker laughed again. “That would have been a delightful sight. When you’re in the army I understand you have to do what other people tell you. That doesn’t sound very much like the Michael Schmidt we all know and love, now does it?”

 
    CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     

    His eyes squint, picking up golden light from the sun, as he gazes over the sagebrush and arroyos for signs of Indians or buffalo or strays. His .45 is always on his hip
….
    Rune was using her fingers as an impromptu camera viewfinder to frame Sam Healy. She waved to him and he ambled slowly toward her.
    He’d be great in her film.
    There was something different about him today. Two things, in fact. One, he wasn’t somber anymore.
    And, two, he gave off some kind of quiet strength she hadn’t seen before in his face.
    Then Rune looked past him and she realized why the change. The ten-year-old boy, who Rune had thought just happened to be walking beside him, was undoubtedly Adam, his son. Healy’s face revealed the protective, authoritative, aware nature of a parent.
    Sam seemed to stop just short of a hug and a kiss and nodded to her. “Thanks for meeting me. Well, us.”
    “Sure,” she answered, wondering why he hadn’t told her he was bringing the boy. Maybe because he’d been afraid she wouldn’t show up.
    Healy introduced them and they shook