Teddy frowned.
“Did you ever get a good look at him?”
“Frankly, no. There were too many other things going on. And he was always peripheral. Jackson rigged me with the squib, and he just checked it. Jackson is probably the one who had the most contact with him.”
“He’s been questioned, but he wasn’t very helpful. He basically described the baseball cap the man was wearing.”
“Too bad.”
“You’re lucky the fall didn’t kill you. This guy slashed your landing balloon so it deflated on impact.”
Teddy frowned again.
“Now then,” Sergeant O’Reilly said, “that is an awful lot of work to kill one person. Can you think of anyone who would want you dead that badly?”
“It makes no sense to me,” Teddy said. “I’m a bit player. Now, Brad Hunter is another story. He’s a star, and a more likely target for some nut job. Or maybe someone just wanted to stop filming to harm the picture, or the studio.”
“You’re working awfully hard to convince me that the target wasn’t you.”
“Because it makes no sense. It’s flattering, but I just can’t see it.”
“Are you up to looking at some pictures?”
“Do you have them?”
“We’re putting them together. We’ll run them through this prop man first, but, like I say, he’s not very observant. Do you think you’d know the man if you saw him again?”
“It’s possible, but if the guy’s any good, he won’t look anything like the man I saw. And he has to be good to pull off a bluff like that. He shouldn’t have even been able to get on the lot.”
“I know. The guard is taking a bit of heat, and so is the head of the props department for not checking him out with the union.”
“Of course, in hindsight you know to do that. In the normal course of events when you’re making a picture, it’s rush, rush, rush, and if something goes wrong you deal with the practical part of the problem instead of the official details. It’s an emergency, can the guy do the job, if so who cares where he came from.”
“Can you think of anything else that could help us?”
“Not a thing.”
“Okay,” O’Reilly said. “Just hang in there. I’ll be back.”
“Don’t rush.”
* * *
—
Slythe didn’t like to leave things half done. The initial report that stuntman Mark Weldon had been critically injured in a fall on a movie set had been satisfactory enough to send him back to Las Vegas with the feeling of accomplishment.
When further reports from the hospital indicated that while Mark Weldon’s leg was indeed broken, he was not in critical condition and was expected to make a full recovery, Slythe headed back to L.A.
85
The nurse had just gone out after taking Teddy’s vitals when the phone rang in his room.
He scooped it up. “Yes?”
“Billy?”
“I’m afraid you have the wrong number.”
“I’m sorry. It’s me, Marsha Quickly. I’m an actress. I worked with you on the film.”
“Oh?”
“Just one scene, it’s not important. But I knew you from before. My name is Bambi, I was a friend of Charmaine’s. I work for Pete Genaro at the New Desert Inn and Casino.”
“Give me a reason not to hang up the phone.”
“I heard what happened to you and I’m afraid it might be my fault. I’m back in Vegas, working for Pete like I said, and I told him I saw you. He’s in the middle of a casino war with a mobster out of New Jersey named Sammy Candelosi. I mentioned you’d be just the guy to handle that.”
“Oh, you did, did you?”
“Hey, I didn’t mean anything by it. We were just shooting the shit. Anyway, I think Sammy Candelosi heard somehow that I mentioned your name. At least that’s how I dope it out, because of what happened.”
“What happened?”
“After your house burned down and you escaped, everyone wanted to know where producer Billy Barnett was, only to be told he’s on vacation and can’t be reached. And that made a lot of people very nervous.
“The next thing I know this high roller is taking me out to dinner and plying me with wine and drinks, and before the son of a bitch ran out on me, he started talking about motion pictures, asking what work I’ve done lately, and somehow or other the conversation got around to me running into you on the set of that movie, and before the guy took off I think I may have mentioned you were working under the name Mark Weldon.”
“Oh, did you now?” Teddy said with wry irritation.
“Yeah, but that’s not the worst of it.”
“What happened?”
“I just found out the high roller who took me out is a hit man for Sammy Candelosi.”
86
Slythe had no problem finding the room. Billy Barnett was checked into the hospital under the name Mark Weldon, and the nurse at admitting was very helpful. She told Slythe that he had no visitors, but she looked up his room number to find that out, and she made no secret of it. Mark Weldon was in room 608.
Slythe went out, walked around the hospital, and came in another entrance. He walked up to the desk and said, “Outpatient surgery?”
“Third floor.”
Slythe nodded his thanks and walked onto the elevator. He didn’t get off on three, however, but went up to six and located the patients’ wing. He walked down the hall toward 608, looking for an unlocked supply closet. He found one right off the bat. He slipped in, closed the door, and locked it.
He couldn’t find a doctor’s coat, but there were sets of scrubs folded on a shelf. He shrugged off his clothes, stashed them behind a hamper in the corner, and put on some scrubs.
He looked around and found a surgical cap. He put it on and tucked his hair into it. It wouldn’t fool Billy Barnett, who would no doubt recognize him as the phony prop man, but it should work on anyone else.
He grabbed a clipboard as a useful prop. Somehow it made him feel more official.
He didn’t bother looking for a scalpel. He had his razor. He retrieved it from his pile of clothes and slid it into the pants pocket of his scrubs.
He peeked out the door to make sure no one was coming, and slipped out into the hallway.