Teddy was crouching on a ledge outside a fourteenth-story hotel room window when Mike called back. Luckily his cell phone was on vibrate or he might have ruined the shot. He was also lucky they were filming on the soundstage on the back lot of Centurion Studios and he wasn’t the main focus. The ledge he was crouching on was part of the set they had built to shoot the hotel room scene between Tessa and Brad. Teddy was literally window dressing. He could occasionally be seen in the background ducking down in the window if Brad or Tessa came his way. The actual scene of Teddy on the ledge, plus his perilous climb to get there, would be filmed on location on the fourteenth floor of a hotel in downtown L.A. A call during the sequence would have been really inconvenient.
Teddy called back while Peter was giving notes between takes. Peter always gave notes between takes. Brad was the type of actor who needed notes.
“What’s up, Mike?”
“A young man answering the description of Nigel Hightower the Third has a habit of getting high on coke and leaving most if not all of his bankroll in an illegal hold ’em club in Chinatown.”
“How’d you find that out?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“I’m paying for it.”
“That’s why you don’t.”
“Now you’ve made me suspicious, Mike. What’s going on?”
“My men are out canvassing, touching base with their informants, and a hooker happened to recognize him. She said the kid had paid for her company of an evening, but was so high on coke he couldn’t cut the mustard, if you know what I mean.”
“Where did the hooker make the acquaintance of this young man?”
“At an underground club—both figuratively and literally. Ringtone Lee’s place, in the basement under a noodle shop.”
“‘Ringtone’?”
“I assume it’s a nickname, but apparently there is such a guy. Anyway, we got him. Nigel plays every Friday night. I’ll put triple coverage on him and follow him home.”
“No,” Teddy said.
Mike was surprised. “No?”
“Don’t follow him home. Pull everybody off him. When he leaves that club, I don’t want an agent anywhere near the place.”
“Uh-oh,” Mike said.