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Worried about the Colonel, anxious about what Danny might uncover, and totally clueless as to what might have happened to the Shadys, Cameron was half out of her mind when Kate arrived. The thought that the old man was capable of violent revenge was ridiculous. He was a war hero, not a thug. Besides, Danny said the whole thing looked staged.
Kate breezed in as beautiful as always. Her lovely face was framed by long auburn hair and her emerald green eyes sparkled. Often mistaken for a movie actress, Kate carried herself with the pride of a woman who was self-assured. This day she was wearing an emerald green silk jumpsuit and stiletto sandals. Chunky gold hoop earrings and a matching necklace completed her outfit.
Even though they had been friends for years, Cameron always marveled at the fact that Kate had hardly changed at all. She easily looked much younger than she was.
“Ready for lunch?” her friend said in that low, sexy voice. “You look kinda lost in thought. Everything okay?”
Cameron got up and gave Kate a welcome hug. “Yes, I’m ready. And, yes, I’m lost in thought, and no—everything is not okay. I’ll tell you about it over a salmon salad at Craft. I just might have a stiff drink, too.”
“Great,” Kate said. My agent is at CAA right by Craft. Of course. You knew that. Is that why you chose it?”
“Um, yeah, I thought it would be convenient, but frankly I need a change of scenery and that’s just the place to have it. If we take your car, I can walk back and you can go to your appointment. I need to blow off some of this nervous energy.”
She opened a desk drawer, took out a pair of flat sandals and put them in her large handbag.
Fifteen minutes later they were seated at the upscale restaurant located on Constellation. The bar up front was filled with office dwellers who were probably swapping war stories. Cameron loved the dining room with tables spaced far enough apart to do business deals or have private conversations in peace.
She said, “I don’t think you’ve eaten here before, have you?”
Kate looked around at the mixture of businesspeople and celebrities. “No, this is a first for me. Great choice.”
“Yeah. Quite a few of the people here are either in the entertainment business or something to do with it. You know. Agents, entertainment lawyers—hey, your agent probably eats here.”
Cameron ordered the Salmon Salad and Kate decided to try the Diver Scallops and Vermouth Butter. Kate added a glass of Reisling, but Cameron wanted vodka on the rocks. It had been a rough week so far.
After a few sips she said, “Boy, am I glad you’re here. You won’t believe everything that happened even after we spoke. Tonight we’ll be getting together with Danny Garrett, the retired FBI agent I told you about, and the Colonel.”
Kate leaned forward, interested to hear what Cameron would say next. “What about the couple you said disappeared. Has anything further happened there?”
“Well, they’re sort of an enigma. We know he was a pretty hotshot orthopedist in Beverly Hills, apparently very wealthy, who thinks he’s better than everyone. It turns out he was being watched by the cops, but we have no idea why. We don’t know much about her. She claims to be a CPA, but I’m not even sure about that. Somehow she doesn’t fit the picture. Maybe you can dig up more information through some of your sources. Danny is pulling some favors to check them out, too. I will say, though, something about her makes me uneasy. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s quite the bitch. Pretty and capable, but with a nasty disposition.”
During the rest of the lunch Cameron filled her in on the phone call from the Colonel, offered some of her own theories and confessed that she was really worried. It was bad luck that several people had seen the old man threaten Shady. With very little for the police to go on, or at least that was how it seemed unless Danny had more to add, she was certain they had cast the old war horse in the role of a suspect. Hopefully the fact that he could account for all of his time would clear him, but cops loved it when they could consider revenge a motive.
The talk turned to Danny Garrett. Although Kate never had a problem getting dates, and in fact was more challenged refusing them, she didn’t have a steady boyfriend, either. There had been a brief fling with a detective she met while the trio of sleuths were in a precarious situation with a Mexican drug cartel in LA, but it didn’t last and that’s another story anyway.
Cameron really liked the FBI agent turned author and couldn’t wait to see if Kate was attracted to him or vice versa. Besides, thinking about matchmaking kept her from agonizing about the mess that continued to escalate. She had no idea how sticky it was going to get.
As promised, during the negotiations for the TV movie inspired by Kate’s life and cases, her friend made sure a clause was included in the contract naming Cameron and Kim as consultants. Kate filled Cameron in on the progress, unable to hide her excitement. A major network had expressed their interest and that was why she had to meet with her agent.
“Get ready, girlfriend. I’d bet money we’ll get the deal. Once it’s in production, we’ll have your PR people working on booking the rounds of the talk shows again and more. That will be fun, won’t it?”
“Sure will. And it will be good business for both of us. However, I have to pay my people and use company resources, so who picks up that tab?”
“Got it all arranged. My agent has been instructed to name Harsen Advertising Associates as the official PR firm, so your billings will go directly to the studio. I made it clear we are not open to any substitute firm. Sweet deal, isn’t it?”
“Sure sounds like it.”
Cameron traded her stylish pumps for the flat sandals she had tucked into her handbag. She handed Kate a spare key to her house. “Love it. Here, just in case you get there before I do, make yourself at home. You know your way around. Use the keypad on my garage door and park inside. Just leave enough room for me to pull in. If you park outside behind the door, I won’t be able to get into the garage. I still have a full day of work ahead. We’ll be meeting with the guys around six and plan to order Chinese. Is that okay with you?”
Without hesitation Kate said, “Sounds fine. I’ll see you there.”
On the way out Cameron saw a few people she knew and stopped to chat for a quick minute. Then she set out for her office. As she walked along Constellation, she marveled at the fact that the very ground had once been part of the Twentieth Century-Fox back lot. The story as she knew it, was that on August 1, 1960, New York developer William Zeckendorf signed an agreement to purchase the Fox property and develop Century City. Seventy-five acres identified as the “studio portion” would be leased back to 20th Century-Fox. When terms had been reached, Zeckendorf had to raise $56,000,000 so he entered into a partnership with Alcoa Aluminum. By 1963 the first office building opened, followed by ongoing development. Fred Gebers, the man who negotiated the sale, was tapped to be Executive Director of the new multiuse city within a city.
She tried to envision what it must have been like back in the days when it was all a huge movie studio property. The more she thought about it, the more she realized this was actually the first time she had taken a long walk in Century City. LA is a mobile society and sometimes people get in their cars to drive as short a distance as a half a block..