“These holding companies—can they vote the shares?”
“If that’s what they’ve been instructed to do.”
“This looks more and more like a hostile takeover, Ben.”
“I tell you, it can’t happen.”
“Maybe not, but something’s going on, and you don’t want to be caught flatfooted. Why don’t you let me attend the meeting and see if I can figure this out?”
Ben shook his head. “You’re not a stockholder.”
“Oh. Well, your wife’s a stockholder, right? I’ll go with her, as her adviser.”
“She never attends. She hates stockholders’ meetings, so I vote as her proxy.”
“I’ll talk her into it. I can be very persuasive.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Look, she can go because she’s a stockholder. She can bring me, and give me her proxy to vote her stock. They can’t kick me out if I have her proxy.”
“She’s not going to be happy.”
“Leave it to me.”
35
Tessa was amazed. “How did you swing that?”
“I’m magic,” Teddy said.
“No, really.”
“I convinced Ben we needed you to go in order to get me in for some reconnaissance. When he insisted you wouldn’t, I told him I’d talk you into it. I’m doing that now.”
“So I have to go to the meeting?”
“You get to go to the meeting. Before, you had to go to the meeting but you couldn’t without raising suspicion. Now you have to go to the meeting and you can.”
“Yes, but—”
“But what?”
“It’s not enough to appear. I have to vote their way.”
“You’re not going to.”
“Then they use the video.”
“It’s not going to come to that. You’re going to take me with you as your adviser. If we have to vote, you’re going to give me your proxy, and I’ll vote your stock.”
“Are you going to vote for their motion?”
“Hell, no.”
“Then I’m in the same position as before. If you vote against them, it’s the same as if I voted against them.”
“Not exactly, and they won’t be expecting it. They’ve invested a lot of time, energy, and money in buying up their shares—they’re not going to lose their leverage and blow the deal. They’ll have to regroup.”
“I don’t agree.”
“You’re scared, I understand. I’m asking you to trust me. I am not without resources. If I play my cards right, it will never come to a vote.”
“How can you do that?”
“I have a plan.”
Teddy felt bad saying it.
He hated to lie to friends. But he had a week to work it out.
36
Marsha Quickly slammed down the phone. Son of a bitch! What did she have an agent for, if he wasn’t going to get her work? The only auditions he’d sent her for lately were cattle calls, where three hundred actresses dropped off résumés in the hope of being used in a crowd scene. None of those panned out, and anytime she scraped up anything herself, that bottom-feeding son of a bitch took fifteen percent without even lifting a finger.
Marsha was so far behind on the rent that she was dreading the day she’d get home and find the landlord had changed the lock.
Something had to give. As usual and all too common with actresses in her position, what had to give was the career.
Marsha packed everything she owned into two suitcases and snuck out, praying the super wouldn’t catch her. She took a cab to the airport and blew most of her savings on a plane ticket to Las Vegas, and took a cab straight to the New Desert Inn.
Pete Genaro’s curvy secretary was not welcoming. She put a little extra sway in her step, probably for Marsha’s benefit, and went in to tell the boss someone was here to see him.
Pete Genaro looked up in irritation. Everything irritated him these days, though the wiggle in Sherry’s walk soothed him somewhat. “Yes,” he said.
“There’s a woman to see you.” Sherry was not willing to favor Marsha with the adjective “young.” “Says her name is Bambi.”
“Who?” Genaro said.
Sherry was pleased Genaro couldn’t place her. “She says she used to work here.”
“Oh, I suppose she did. What does she want?”
“She wants to see you. She wasn’t willing to tell her business to a secretary.” Sherry smiled archly. “She brought two suitcases.”
“What?”
“She brought two suitcases with her. Hard to tell if she’s coming or going.”
Genaro exhaled noisily. “All right. Send her in.”
Marsha Quickly took one look at Genaro’s face and began talking fast. “Pete, how good to see you. I didn’t expect it to be so soon, but things happen. The movie business dried up, I don’t know, I think it’s the economy or so many TV channels, but the fact is there’s no work and I can’t afford to sit idle. So I’m going to be out here for a while, and of course I need a job, and who would I rather work for but you, what with our history and all.”
Marsha’s history with Pete Genaro consisted largely of being pinched in the ass anytime she got within arm’s reach while wearing the skimpy miniskirt barmaid uniform, but Genaro wasn’t listening. Sammy Candelosi was not going away, but a growing number of Genaro’s employees were. Several pit bosses and dealers and barmaids had been lured over to Sammy’s casino, which augured well for Marsha’s chances if Pete tuned in enough to hear what she was saying.
“Don’t you think?” Marsha prompted, largely to see if she had his attention. She didn’t, but it snapped him out of his haze. “So if you had a position for a cocktail waitress, I know the turnover in these places is pretty rapid, and I’m someone you wouldn’t have to train.”
“Huh,” Genaro said. The penny was starting to drop. This was someone he might need.
Marsha didn’t realize she’d already made the sale. “Did you speak to Billy?” she said, reminding him of the good deed she’d done.
Genaro frowned. “Who?”
“Billy Burnett, the guy I told you about. A good man to call on if there’s something you need him to take care of.”