CHAPTER 10

The publicity man at the festival for Gretchen’s movie had put out a story about the woman whose first picture as a director had been chosen as one of the American entries to be shown in Cannes, so there were photographers at the Nice airport when Gretchen’s plane came in. The photographers took pictures of Gretchen getting off the plane and then again as she greeted Billy and Rudolph after going through customs. She was near tears as she kissed Billy and hugged him, hard. “It’s been so long,” she whispered.

Billy was embarrassed at the show of maternal emotion with the flashbulbs popping off and extricated himself, gently but firmly, from his mother’s embrace. “Mother,” he said, “why don’t we save the reunion scene for later?” He didn’t like the idea of a photograph of himself being clutched in a domestic stranglehold appearing in the papers, publicity or no publicity.

As Gretchen stepped back Billy saw her lips set in the cold line that was all too familiar to him. “Billy,” she said, her tone formal, “let me introduce you to Mr. Donnelly. He did the sets for our picture.”

Billy shook hands with the red-bearded young man. “Glad to meet you, sir,” he said. Another one, he thought. She never gives up. He had noticed the possessive, protective way the man had held his mother’s arm as they came through the small crowd grouped around the exit from the customs. He had intended to be warm and responsive at this first meeting after so long, but the sight of his mother, as beautiful as ever in her smart blue traveling suit, being squired ostentatiously off the plane by a man who seemed not much older than himself had disturbed him.

Then he felt ashamed for allowing himself to be annoyed. After all, his mother was a big grown woman and what she did on her own time and her taste in partners was none of his business. As he walked beside her toward the chauffeured car that had been sent for her, he squeezed her hand affectionately, to make up for the remark about the reunion scene. She looked at him, surprised, then smiled widely. “We’re going to have a great two weeks,” she said.

“I hope so,” he said. “I can’t wait to see the picture.”

“The omens are good,” she said. “The people who’ve seen it so far seem to like it a great deal.”

“A lot more than a great deal,” Rudolph said. “People’re raving about it. I’ve already been offered a hundred percent profit on my share of it and I’ve turned it down.”

“Faithful brother,” Gretchen said lightly. “He puts his money where his heart is.” Then she frowned. “Rudy,” she said, “you don’t look well. You look as though you haven’t slept in weeks. What’s the matter?”

Rudolph laughed uneasily. “Nothing. Maybe I’ve been staying up too late at the casino.”

“Have you been winning?”

“As always,” Rudolph said.

As the porter and the chauffeur were putting the bags in the car, Gretchen said, “I’m a little disappointed.”

“Why?” Rudolph asked.

“I’d hoped that Wesley would come to meet me, too.”

Rudolph and Billy exchanged glances.

“Isn’t he staying at the hotel with us?” Gretchen asked.

“No,” said Rudolph.

“He’s in Cannes, isn’t he? After the picture’s shown, he’s going to be mobbed by the papers and TV people for interviews. He’s got to behave like an actor even if he doesn’t think he is one.”

“Gretchen,” Rudolph said softly, “we don’t know where he is. He was in Saint-Tropez the last we knew, but he’s disappeared.”

“Is there anything wrong?”

“Not that we know of,” Rudolph lied. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll turn up.”

“He’d better,” Gretchen said, as she and Donnelly got into the car. “Or I’ll send out a missing persons alarm.”

With all the baggage there was no room in the car for Rudolph. He and Billy went toward where the Peugeot was parked. “We’d better cook up some kind of story for her about Wesley,” Rudolph said as they got into the Peugeot.

“You cook up the story this time,” Billy said, as they drove out of the parking lot. “The last story I cooked up nearly got me killed.”

“Maybe when he sees Gretchen’s picture in the papers, he’ll come around,” Rudolph said. “He grew very fond of her while they were shooting.”

“I know. He told me so. Still, I wouldn’t be too hopeful. What he’s really fond of these days is finding a certain Yugoslav.” He turned his head and peered curiously at Rudolph. “Anything new on your front?”

“I won’t know for a few days yet.”

“You still don’t want to tell me what it might be?”

“No,” Rudolph said decisively. “And don’t pry.”

Billy devoted himself to his driving for a minute or so. He had had the car washed and he had dressed in clean, neat clothes for his mother’s arrival. He was sorry that Wesley’s absence had cast a shadow over the occasion. “I hope,” he said, “that wherever he is or whatever he does, he doesn’t spoil my mother’s big moment. She seemed in great spirits at the airport.”

“Except when you made that snide crack about the reunion,” Rudolph said sourly.

“Force of habit.”

“Well, break the habit.”

“I’ll try,” Billy said. “Anyway, for your information, I made up for it on the way to the car.”

“You think she’s tough,” Rudolph said. “Well, let me tell you something—she isn’t. Certainly not about you.”

“I’ll try, I said.” Billy smiled. “She looks beautiful, doesn’t she?”

“Very.”

Again, Billy turned his head to peer at Rudolph. “What’s there between her and that Donnelly fellow?”

“Nothing that I know of,” Rudolph said curtly. “They worked well together and he’s now a business associate of mine, too. Don’t pry into that, either.”

“I was just asking,” Billy said. “A son’s natural concern for his mother’s welfare. What sort of guy is he?”

“One of the best,” Rudolph said. “Talented, ambitious, honest, with a drinking problem.”

“She ought to be used to that,” Billy said, “after her life with my father. The drinking part, I mean.”

“She invited your father to come over, too,” Rudolph said. “He said he had a new job and couldn’t leave Chicago. Maybe he’s taking hold of himself at last.”

“I wouldn’t bet on that,” said Billy. “Well, he’s done at least one useful thing for his son.”

“What’s that?”

“He turned me off drink.” Billy chuckled. “Say—I have an idea. Not about my father or my mother—about Wesley.”

“What’s that?”

“You know, the police pick up those forms you have to fill in when you check into a hotel …”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think Wesley knows anybody he could stay with in Cannes,” Billy went on earnestly, “so he’s most probably in a hotel in the town. We could go to the police and ask for information. After all, he’s in the picture and we could say he’s needed for press photographs and interviews, stuff like that.”

“We could, but we won’t,” Rudolph said. “The less interest the police take in Wesley, the better it will be for all of us.”

“It was just an idea.”

“We’ll just have to find him ourselves. Hang around the port, go to the nightclubs, generally keep our eyes open,” Rudolph said. “Meanwhile, you can tell your mother that he told you he’s shy about any publicity before the picture is shown, he’s afraid he’s no good in it and that people will laugh at him, he’d rather not be around if that happens …”

“Do you think she’ll go for that?” Billy said doubtfully.

“Maybe. She knows he’s a strange young man. She’ll probably say it’s just what you could expect from him.”

“What I’m surprised at,” Billy said, “is that he never called you or came to see you.”

“I was almost sure he wouldn’t,” Rudolph said. “He knows that he’d never get what he was looking for out of me.”

“Have you still got it?” Billy asked. “The gun?”

“Yes.”

Billy chuckled again. “I bet you’re the only one at this festival with a gun with a silencer in his hotel room.”

“It’s a distinction I would gladly renounce,” Rudolph said bleakly.

When they drove down the Croisette in Cannes, Rudolph saw that among the posters advertising the movies to be shown in the next two weeks there was one for Restoration Comedy and that Gretchen’s name was prominently displayed.

“She must have gotten a kick seeing that,” Rudolph said. “Your mother.”

“Now,” Billy said, joking, “with all the other things I have to worry about her for, I’ll have to figure out how to handle being the son of a famous mother. What do I say if they interview me and ask me how it feels?”

“Say it feels great.”

“Next question, Mr. Abbott,” Billy said. “Did your mother, in your opinion, neglect you in the interest of her career? Answer—only for ten or fifteen years.”

“You can joke like that with me,” Rudolph said sharply, “but not with anyone else. You understand that?”

“Yes, sir. Of course I was kidding.”

“Anyway,” said Rudolph, “she’s not famous yet. In a place like this, you can be famous one day and nonfamous the next. It’s a tricky emotional time for your mother and we’ve got to be very careful with her.”

“I will be steadfast as an oak in her support,” Billy said. “She will not recognize her wayward son and will look at me in amazement.”

“You may not drink like your father, Billy,” Rudolph said, “but you seem to have inherited his lack of ability to make anyone believe he ever took anything seriously.”

“A protective device,” Billy said lightly, “passed on from father to son, to hide the quivering, tender soul hidden beneath.”

“Let it show once in a while,” Rudolph said. “It won’t kill you.”

When they went into the lobby of the hotel, Rudolph asked if there were any messages for him. There were no messages.

Gretchen was in a corner of the lobby, surrounded by journalists and photographers. The big guns had not yet arrived in Cannes and the publicity man for Restoration Comedy was making the most of it. Rudolph saw that Gretchen was talking smoothly, smiling and at ease.

Gretchen saw them and gestured for them to join her, but Billy shook his head. “I’m going out,” he said to Rudolph. “I’ll take a swing around the port looking for our lost angel child. Tell my mother I love her but I had an errand to run.”

Rudolph went over to Gretchen and she introduced him as her brother and a backer of the film. She didn’t inquire where Billy had gone. In a lull in the questioning, when a photographer asked Gretchen to pose with Rudolph, Rudolph asked her where Donnelly was.

“One guess,” she said, smiling up at Rudolph for the photograph.

Rudolph went to the bar and saw Donnelly hunched over it gloomily, a glass of whiskey in front of him.

“Enjoying the fun and frolic of the famous festival?” Rudolph asked.

Donnelly scowled at him. “I’ll add another f. I shouldn’t have fucking come,” he said.

“Why not?” Rudolph asked, surprised.

“That kid,” Donnelly said. “Her son, Billy. He gave me the old cold eye at the airport.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“I didn’t imagine this. I’m afraid he’s going to make Gretchen’s life miserable on account of me. What is he—jealous?”

“No,” Rudolph said. “Maybe he’s worried that you’re so much younger than she and that she’ll get hurt.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“No,” Rudolph admitted. “He didn’t say anything.”

“She’s told me about him.” Donnelly drank what was left in his glass and signaled for another. “He’s been a pain in the ass since he was a kid.”

“He’s turned over a new leaf, he told me.”

“He wasn’t turning over any new leaves at the Nice airport, I’ll tell you that. And where’s that other kid—Wesley? The two of them were supposed to drive up together from Spain, according to Gretchen.”

“He’s around,” Rudolph said vaguely.

“Where around?” Donnelly demanded. “He wasn’t around when we got in and he damn well should have been, after all Gretchen did for him.” He sipped thirstily from the second glass. “I’ll bet a dollar against a plugged nickel that son of hers has something to do with it.”

“Don’t be neurotic about one look at an airport,” Rudolph said. “I guarantee that everything will be all right.”

“It better be,” Donnelly said. “If that kid ruins these next two weeks for his mother, I’ll break his back for him. And you can tell him that for me. You can also tell him I’ve asked his mother to marry me.”

“What did she say?”

“She laughed.”

“Congratulations.”

“I’m just so crazy about her I can’t see straight,” Donnelly said gloomily.

“You’d see straighter …” Rudolph tapped the glass on the bar lightly, “if you laid off this stuff a bit.”

“Are you going to bitch about it, too?”

“I imagine Gretchen must have mentioned something of that nature in passing.”

“So she did. I promised her that if she married me I’d go the wine route only.”

“What did she say to that?”

“She laughed.”

Rudolph chuckled. “Have a good time in Cannes,” he said.

“I will,” Donnelly said, “but only if Gretchen does. By the way, the day before we left New York, our lawyer called and said that he thinks there’s a good chance we can settle the Connecticut business before the year’s out.”

“Everything’s going our way, lad,” Rudolph said. “Stop looking so darkly Irish.”

“The Celtic twilight on the Côte d’Azur,” Donnelly said, breaking into a smile. “I see demons in the Gallic dusk. Pay it no heed, man.”

Rudolph patted Donnelly’s arm in a comforting, friendly gesture and left the bar. In the hall he saw that the press conference was over, although the publicity man was still there, assembling papers. The publicity man was an American by the name of Simpson who worked out of Paris for various movie companies.

“How did it go?” Rudolph asked him.

“Fine,” the man said. “She knows how to use her charm with those guys. You know, I saw the picture at a screening in Paris and I think we’ve got a winner there.”

Rudolph nodded, although he’d never heard of a publicity man who said he had a loser the first week on the job. “I’d like you to make a special effort,” he said, “to get Wesley Jordan’s photograph spread around.”

“No sweat,” the man said. “The word’s out already that he’s something special. His looks won’t hurt, either.”

“He’s missing in action somewhere in the neighborhood,” Rudolph said, “and I want people to recognize him so that we can find him for background stories before the picture’s shown.”

“Will do,” the publicity man said. “I could use some personal stuff on him myself.”

“Thanks,” Rudolph said and went up to his room. The bag was where he had left it on a chair. He twirled the combination lock and opened it. The automatic was still there. What an ugly piece of furniture, he thought, as he closed and locked the bag again. He found himself going to his room and looking into the bag ten times a day.

He went into the bathroom and took two Miltowns. Ever since he had arrived in Paris he had been jittery and had developed the first tic of his life, a twitching of the right eyelid that he tried to hide when he was with anybody else by rubbing at the eye as though he had something caught in it. The Miltowns helped each time for an hour or two.

The phone was ringing when he went back into the bedroom. He picked it up and heard a woman’s voice saying, “Mr. Rudolph Jor-dache, please.”

“Speaking,” he said.

“You don’t know me,” the woman said. “I’m a friend of Wesley’s. My name is Alice Larkin.”

“Oh, yes,” Rudolph said. “Wesley’s spoken about you. Where’re you calling from?”

“New York,” Alice said. “Is Wesley with you?”

“No.”

“Do you know where I can reach him?”

“Not at the moment, I’m afraid.”

“He was supposed to call me last week,” Alice said. “I was trying to get my vacation moved up so that I could come over to Cannes for a few days. I think I can manage it. I’ll be told definitely tomorrow and I’d like to know if he still wants me to come.”

“I think you’d better wait before making any decision,” Rudolph said. “To be honest with you, Wesley’s disappeared. If he turns up, I’ll tell him to call you.”

“Is he in trouble?” Alice asked anxiously.

“Not that I know of.” Rudolph spoke carefully. “Although it’s hard to tell with him. He’s an unpredictable boy.”

“You can say that again.” Now the girl sounded angry. “Anyway, if you do happen to see him, tell him that I wish him all sorts of success.”

“I’ll do that,” Rudolph said. He put the phone down slowly. He wished the Miltowns would start working quickly. The burden of Wesley’s obsession was wearing him down. Maybe, he thought, when I do find him I’ll give him the goddamn gun and wash my hands of the whole thing. He went over to the window and looked out at the sea, calm and blue, and the people walking below on the Croisette, enjoying the sunshine, with the flags above their heads snapping festively in the warm breeze. Momentarily he envied each and every stroller on the broad avenue below, just for not being him.

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Billy got back to his room at dusk. He had patrolled the old port all afternoon, peering at the boats and going into the bars and restaurants. Wesley had not been on any of the boats or in any of the bars or restaurants. He called his mother’s room, but the operator said that she was not taking any calls. Probably in the sack, he thought, with that fellow with the beard. Best not to think about it.

He undressed and took a shower. It had been a long hot day and he luxuriated under the needle-sharp cold spray, forgetting everything but the delicious tingling of his skin.

When he got out of the shower he heard a knock on the bedroom door. He wrapped a towel around his waist and, leaving wet footprints on the carpet, he went to the door and opened it. Monika stood there, smiling, in one of the pretty cotton gowns he had seen her wearing in Spain.

“Good Lord,” he said.

“I see you’re dressed to receive guests,” she said. “May I come in?”

He peered past her into the corridor to see if she was alone.

“Don’t worry,” she said, “this is a social visit. There’s nobody with me.” She brushed past him and he closed the door. “My,” she said, looking around at the large, handsomely furnished room, “we’re moving up in the world, aren’t we? This beats Brussels by a mile, doesn’t it? Capitalism becomes you, laddy.”

“How’d you find me?” Billy asked, ignoring what she had said about the improvement over Brussels.

“It was easy,” she said. “This time you left a forwarding address.”

“I must remember never to do that again,” he said. “What do you want?” He felt foolish, standing there soaking wet, with the towel precariously draped around him.

“I just wanted to say hello.” She sat down and crossed her legs and smiled up at him. “Do you mind if I smoke?”

“What would you do if I said I did mind?”

“I’d smoke.” She laughed and took a cigarette out of her bag but didn’t light it.

“I’ll put some clothes on,” he said. “I’m not used to entertaining strange ladies naked.” He started past her toward the bathroom, where his pants and shirt were hanging.

She dropped the cigarette and reached out and held his arm. “No need,” she said. “I’m not as strange as all that. Besides—the less you’re wearing the better you look.” She took her hand off his arm and reached around and held him, encircling his legs. She tilted her head and looked up at him. “Give me a kiss.”

He pulled against the pressure of her arm, but she held him tight. “What’re you up to now?” he said harshly, although he could feel the familiar stirrings in his groin.

She chuckled. “The same old thing,” she said.

“It wasn’t the same old thing in Spain,” he said, cursing the sudden erection that plainly bulked under the towel.

“I had other things on my mind in Spain,” she said. “And I wasn’t alone then, if you remember. Now I’m alone and on holiday and it’s the same old thing. I think I told you once that orgasms are few and far between on the New Left. That hasn’t changed.” With a swift motion, she reached under the towel and put her hand on his penis. She chuckled again. “I see this hasn’t changed, either.” She caressed him gently, her hand moving with remembered deftness.

“Oh, Christ,” he said, sure that he was finally going to regret what he was saying, “let’s get into bed.”

“That was my general idea,” she said. She stood up and they kissed. “I missed you,” she whispered. “Just lie down while I get these clothes off.”

He went over to the wide bed and lay down, the towel still draped around him, and watched as she pulled the pretty dress over her head. She wasn’t wearing a brassiere and the sight of the lovely small breasts made him ache with pleasure. He closed his eyes. One last time, he thought, what the hell? His mother was probably doing the same thing one floor above. Like mother, like son. A big evening for the family. He heard Monika moving barefooted toward the bed, and the click of a switch as she turned off the light. He threw off the towel. She fell on top of him with a low moan and he put his arms around her.

«  »

Later, in the warm darkness, he was lying on his back, his arm under her neck, as she snuggled against him, her head on his shoulder, one leg thrown across him. He sighed. “The best,” he said, “the very goddamn best. All in favor say, Aye.”

“Aye,” Monika said. “From now on always remember to leave a forwarding address.”

“Aye,” he said, although he wasn’t sure he meant it. He had been through too much with her and the only place he felt safe with her was in bed. “What’s your address now?”

“What do you have to know that for?”

“I might just happen to be passing your hotel,” he said, “and be suddenly overcome with an irresistible urge.”

“I’ll see you here,” she said, “when I happen to be overcome with an irresistible urge. I don’t want to be seen with you. You’ll see me often enough. But only in this room.”

“Dammit.” He wriggled his arm free from under her neck and sat up. “Why do you always have to be the one who calls the signals?”

“Because that’s the way I like to operate,” she said.

“Operate,” he said. “I don’t like that word.”

“Learn to live with it, laddy,” Monika said. She sat up, too, and searched for the pack of cigarettes she had put on the bedside table. She took out a cigarette and lit it, the small flare of the match illuminating her face and eyes.

“I thought you said you were on holiday,” Billy said.

“Holidays end.”

“If you don’t tell me where I can get hold of you, this is the end,” Billy said angrily.

“I’ll see you here,” she said, inhaling smoke, “same time tomorrow.”

“Bitch.”

“I’ve always been amused by your vocabulary.” She got out of bed and began dressing, the glow of her cigarette the only light in the dark room. “By the way, I saw your cousin coming out of a hotel this afternoon. You know, the boy you used to play tennis with.”

“You did?” Billy said. “Who told you he was my cousin?”

“I looked him up in Who’s Who.”

“Funny as usual, aren’t you? What hotel was it?”

Monika hesitated. “Isn’t he staying here with you?”

“No. What hotel? We have to find him.”

“Who’s we?”

“What difference does that make to you?” Billy tried to keep his voice down.

“You never can tell what difference it might make to me. Who’s we?”

“Forget it.”

“Actually,” Monika said, “I don’t remember the name of the hotel.”

“You’re lying.”

She laughed. “Perhaps. Maybe if you’re here, like a good boy, tomorrow evening, I might remember it.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“No. I’m interested in another member of the family.”

“God,” Billy said, “you know how to make sex complicated.”

“Sex?” she said. “Once upon a time you used to use the word love.”

“Once upon a time,” Billy said grimly.

“Have it your own way, laddy,” Monika said lightly. “For the moment. One last compliment—you’re better in bed than on a tennis court.”

“Thanks.”

“Pour rien, as the French say.” She threw away her cigarette and came over to the bed and bent and kissed his cock, briefly. “Good night, laddy,” she said, “I have to go now.”

As the door closed behind her Billy lay back against the pillows, staring up at the dark ceiling. Another problem. He had to decide whether or not to tell Rudolph that Wesley had been seen coming out of a hotel in Cannes that day, but that he didn’t know the name of the hotel, although he might find out tomorrow. But then he’d have to explain how he had heard it and why he had to wait for tomorrow. And he couldn’t explain anything, without at least mentioning Monika. And then he’d have to explain something, at least, about Monika. He shook his head irritably against the pillow. Rudolph had enough on his mind without having to worry about Monika.

The phone rang. It was Rudolph to tell him that they would all meet at the bar downstairs in a half hour before going to dinner. After he hung up, Billy went in and took another shower. He didn’t want to go to dinner smelling as though he had been in an orgy. He wondered if his mother was upstairs now also taking a shower.

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