Swimming to Catalina

the least; I saw all your dailies, and you were very good indeed. I told you about the female reaction.”
    “So why would they go to all the trouble to get me to do that, then hire somebody to do it over?”
    “The word on the lot is, the actor they wanted was unavailable, then suddenly he was available.”
    “Do you buy that?”
    “It’s not the first time it’s happened.”
    “Idon’t buy it.”
    “Okay,” she said, downing the rest of her martini, “what’s your theory?”
    “I think they were trying to keep me busy so I wouldn’t be looking for Arrington.”
    “So they tie up a whole company and a soundstage filming you, just to keep you off the streets? That’s not how the movie business works, Stone; they don’t waste that kind of money.”
    “Are you kidding? From what I read in the papers,they waste a lot more than that on a lot of films, and for less reason.”
    “All right, I’ll grant you that; I’ve just never seen Lou Regenstein do it. I think hereally wanted the other actor. Can I have another martini?”
    Stone signaled a waiter for another round; he brought the drinks, and they ordered dinner.
    “Did Vance say anything about Arrington today?”
    “He said she was still visiting her family in Virginia.”
    “Funny, he told me she was staying with a friend in the Valley.”
    “This is all so weird,” she said.
    “Did you pick up on anything helpful today?”
    “He talked with both Lou Regenstein and David Sturmack this morning.”
    “Did you overhear any of it?”
    “No.”
    “Hear anything about Ippolito?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Don’t mention that name to Vance.”
    “Okay. What did you find out today?”
    “Well, I came within about a minute of seeing Arrington.”
    “Come again?”
    “I had lunch with a cop friend, and he put out a bulletin on her car for me.”
    “Jesus, I hope Vance never finds out you went to the cops.”
    “This was all very informal, just a favor. Turns out Arrington was at the same restaurant—Spago Beverly Hills.”
    “And you didn’t see her?”
    “Nope; I went to a bank across the street to cash acheck, and when I came back, I got a call from my cop friend that she had just left the restaurant. I tried to catch up, but a motorcycle cop pulled me over for a bad turn.”
    “So she’s not in Virginia with her family, and she’s not in the Valley, either?”
    “Right. And she’s not in the storeroom at Grimaldi’s or at a table at Spago.”
    Betty shook her head. “This is all too much for me, after a martini and a half.”
    Dinner came, and they ate slowly, enjoying the very good food.
    “Where are you from, originally?” Stone asked.
    “A small town in Georgia called Delano,” she replied.
    “What brought you out here?”
    “Fame and fortune; I wanted to be an actress. I even was an actress, for a while.”
    “Why didn’t you keep at it?”
    “I wasn’t good enough, and I knew it. There were an awful lot of girls who were better than I who were out of work. If I’d kept it up I’d have ended up giving producers blow jobs for work, and I wanted to keep my private pleasures private.”
    Stone smiled. “How did you meet Vance?”
    “I had a little part in one of his pictures; it wasn’t much, but it kept me on the set for a month. Vance and I had our little fling, and I started helping him on the set—answering the phone, that sort of thing. He didn’t like his secretary, so he offered me her job.”
    “Did you find it easy to give up acting?”
    “Vance sat me down and talked to me like a Dutch uncle,” she said. “He told me that I didn’t have any sort of real career ahead of me, and when I thoughtabout it, I realized he wasn’t being cruel, he was right. I took the job and never looked back.”
    “You never married?”
    “Nope. It doesn’t appeal, really. I mean, I couldn’t get married and keep the job with Vance; he’d drive any husband to the wildest kind of jealousy; I’d be dead in a month.”
    Stone laughed. “I guess I’m a little jealous myself.”
    “Oh, no, you’re not,” she said. “You’re just like me; you like your independence and take your sex where you find it. And you’d make a lousy husband.”
    “I would not!” Stone said. “I’d be a very good husband.”
    “Oh, come on, Stone; you’re still in love with Arrington, but you’re fucking me.” She smiled. “Not that I’m complaining.”
    “What makes you think I’m still in love with Arrington?”
    “A