“You’ve already told me a bunch of lies about your name and your background, and it’s part of my job to check out people who may have inflated their résumés.”
“As you have seen, I have deflated, not inflated, my résumé, in order not to call undue attention to myself. It was nothing personal, and I’d appreciate your letting it slide. After all, being exposed might mean a visit from Heckel and Jeckel, and you wouldn’t want to put me into a hospital bed, would you?”
“Well, not a hospital bed,” she said with a little leer.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should. As a rule, I don’t believe in paying men compliments—they tend to go to their heads.”
“I can’t deny that,” Teddy said. “Come on, what’s it going to take to keep you quiet and me healthy?”
“How about oral sex?”
Teddy broke up, and dropped his fork. A waiter appeared with a clean one.
“How often?” he managed to say.
“Often, but it doesn’t have to be just oral—you can mix it up, if you want to.”
“I think I’d enjoy mixing it up,” Teddy said.
“So would I.”
“I must say, this is a new kind of blackmail.”
“I’m glad you like the idea.”
“I like it very much,” Teddy said. “When do we start?”
“Let’s skip dessert,” Sally replied.
9
SHORTLY AFTER SUNRISE, Stone and Ed Eagle, on horseback, walked slowly along a trail through the trees above Ed’s house.
“Susannah noticed your bed wasn’t slept in last night,” Ed said with a wry smile.
“Is sleeping in one’s own bed a requirement in the Eagles’ household?”
“Not at all. She was just amused, and so was I. We wondered how long it would take Ana to get you into the sack.”
“Well, Ana didn’t meet with a lot of resistance,” Stone replied. “I’ve been seeing somebody in New York, but it has sort of petered out—so to speak.”
“That tends to happen with Ana, too,” Eagle said. “She wears them out pretty quickly.”
“This is the first time we’ve ever ridden together, Ed, and the first time I’ve used Western tack in years.”
“Ah, a change of subject,” Ed said. “Western gives you something to hang on to when a rattlesnake spooks your mount.”
“Is that why we’re out here? Rattlesnake hunting?”
“We’re out here because I want to talk to you about Teddy Fay, or whatever he’s calling himself this week. Billy Barnett?”
“That was last week,” Stone said. “This week it’s Ted Shirley, and he got a job on Dax Baxter’s movie.”
“Whatever,” Ed said. “I’m just worried that Teddy is going to off the guy, and if he does, I’d like to be separated from him by a good distance.”
“Isn’t Tesuque far enough away?”
“I guess. I also didn’t want Susannah to hear us talking about him.”
“Are you afraid her tender nature would be bruised?”
“Stone, I’m afraid Susannah would hold Teddy’s hat while he beat Baxter to death with a baseball bat.”
Stone laughed. “Sometimes I forget what a tough nut Susannah can be. Now that I think of it, I know of two men she’s shot.”
“But not without good cause,” Ed said, “and not illegally. I don’t expect Teddy would do such a thing without good cause, but I’m not so sure about the legal part.”
“I can understand your concern, Ed, but what I know about Teddy makes me think that he’s a very careful man. He wouldn’t have been on the loose for as long as he was, if he weren’t careful.”
“He reminds me of somebody out of the Old West,” Ed said, “except he’s not a Westerner.”
“That’s not an outrageous comparison,” Stone agreed.
“What do you think he’s up to, if it’s not murder?”
“Justice, I should think.”
“And how would Teddy define justice?”
“That’s a tricky question, and one I wouldn’t hazard a guess on.”
“If he’s thinking about wrecking that movie production, then we have a different problem altogether,” Ed said. “There’s a chunk of state money tied up in that shoot, because of a bill that I had a lot to do with getting through the legislature, not to mention the reputation of Santa Fe as hospitable to the film community. If something terrible happened, film production could dry up around here, and a lot of locals would be thrown out of work.”
“You want me to have a word with Teddy?”
“While you’re here I’d appreciate it if you’d stay as far away from him as you can. You’re known locally as a friend of mine.”
“Then what do you want me to do?”
“Shit, if I knew that I’d do it myself.”
“Do you know anybody connected with the film commission or the production?”
“Sure I do. You think I oughta sidle up to somebody at a dinner and say, ‘Hey, if anything awful happens on that Baxter shoot, let me know and I’ll see what I can do about it’?”
“I guess that would be none too subtle,” Stone admitted.
“I guess not.”
“So what do you plan to do, Ed?”
“Well, our little early-morning conversation has cleared that up for me,” Ed said. “I think the best thing I can do is nothing, and that’s something I’m not very good at.”
“There’s nothing like clarity of mind, is there?”
? ? ?
DOWN IN TESUQUE the first rays of sun through the blinds woke Teddy. There was a bare arm thrown across his chest, a leg over his own, and a head on his shoulder, and he had no feeling in the fingers on one hand. He kissed the head on the forehead.
“Oh, God,” she muttered, “not again—I’ll expire.”
“To the best of my recollection,” he said, “it was you who jumped me.”
“Three times,” she said. “You up for a fourth?”
“If we attempt that, we’re going to be late for work, and I, for one, don’t want to call attention to myself—or, for that matter, to you.” He retrieved his arm and massaged the fingers.
“There could be talk,” she admitted.
“Can I scramble you some eggs?”
“No, I can’t show up to work in these clothes, so I’ll make myself some coffee at home while I shower and beat you to the set. Don’t you dare get there before me.”
“I’ll restrain myself,” Teddy said.
“I’m going to have to remember not to call you Billy,” she said, sitting up in bed and searching for her underwear. She found her thong and got into it.
“If you make that mistake, I’ll have to ignore you.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?” she asked, hooking her bra. She stepped into her jeans, pulled them up, then lay back on the bed and sucked in her belly so she could zip them.
“Well done,” Teddy said.
“Well practiced,” she replied, pulling on her sweater, then tugging at her boots. She picked up her jacket and looked around. “I think that’s everything I came with, except my virtue.”
“I’ll take good care of it,” Teddy said, accepting a goodbye kiss.
“How about I fix you some dinner at my house tonight?”
“A man’s gotta eat.”
“I expect Dan Waters will have found somebody to screw by now,” she said. “Shall I ask them to join us?”
“As long as they don’t stay too late.”
“Bring a change of clothes,” she said. “It’ll save you having to drive back to Tesuque before work tomorrow.”
“You think of everything.”
“We’ve got four setups to get through today,” she said. “We’re likely to be a little tired by six o’clock. I wouldn’t want you to drive home drunk and exhausted.”
“Tonight,” he said, “can we begin at the count of four? I don’t think I could survive starting all over.”
“We’ll work something out,” she said, then ran for the door. He heard her Jeep start and gravel scatter.
10
THEY SPENT THE MORNING rehearsing a single-camera, single-take shot in the saloon with a Steadicam, which stabilized the camera during movement. When they were ready to go, Dax Baxter called the director, the assistant director, and the cinematographer over to him, and they stood, their backs to the camera, while Baxter pointed out a couple of things.