“Let me buy you a drink first.” He lifted two champagne flutes from a waiter’s tray. “Who else is here?” he said, clinking her glass. “Do you know anyone?”
She smiled. “A few. There’s Walter Reisch. Daniel used to play tennis with him. Paul Kohner. You know him, the agent? He handles Bruce Hudson. In the series.” She took another sip. “It’s a small town. Nobody ever believes that, but it is. They never see anyone else. If my father walked in, no one would know who he was. Alma used to complain about it. After Bernadette, when people asked Franz to parties.” She giggled. “People thought she was a character actress.”
“Ah, you’re here,” Lasner said, not really in a receiving line, but hovering near the door. “A clean shirt even. You know Fay.”
“So glad you could come,” she said. “Sol tells me everything’s great with the picture.”
“Well, the cutter is. Now all I have to do is listen to him.”
“You think you’re kidding, but I’ve seen it happen. So maybe you are as smart as he says.” She smiled, rolling her eyes toward Lasner. “Hello,” she said, extending her hand to Liesl.
“I’m sorry. Fay, Liesl Kohler.”
“Talk about smart,” Sol said quickly, missing the introduction but taking Liesl’s hand. “One week in town, already a beautiful woman.”
“Sol,” Fay said, then to Liesl, “Pay no attention, he thinks he’s a comedian.”
“No, Jack thinks he’s a comedian. He tells jokes to Jessel. The same jokes. You meet Jack?” he said to Ben. “When we were over in Europe? He was with the group.”
“Jack Warner? Just to shake hands.”
“You’re lucky. He tells one tonight, it’ll sound like the first time to you. Maybe even funny.”
“Sol,” Fay said, but with a glint, agreeing. She looked at Liesl. “Your pearls are lovely. I couldn’t help noticing.”
“My mother’s.”
“I knew it. The old ones have that rich tone. They say it comes from being worn next to the skin. All those years.”
“Do me a favor,” Lasner said to Ben. “I want to introduce you later. Fay’s cousin. We just got her out. Over there. All along, we’re thinking she must be dead and then the Red Cross calls and says she gave them our name, she’s alive, would we send for her? So, we’re crying, thinking, what are the odds? And now she’s here, she just smokes.”
“Sol, she has been through something.”
“Did I say no? It’s a miracle. She’ll be interested—your picture.”
“Sometimes, you know, it’s the last thing they want to talk about. Where was she?”
“Poland. Not at first. They shipped her around. She doesn’t say much.”
“She told you, Sol. Oranienburg, then Poland.” She turned to Ben. “She’s getting used to things, that’s all. She’s only here two days. Big shot here wants— I don’t know, what, she should be dancing.”
“I’d like to meet her,” Ben said politely.
“I figured,” Lasner said. “You’ll have something to talk about.”
Is that why he’d been invited? To entertain survivors? But she’d only just arrived. Lasner was drawing him aside, keeping his hand on his arm.
“Listen,” he said, low as a secret, “I just want you to know. I didn’t want to say at the studio, but I appreciate—you know, on the train—”
“You feeling okay?”
“One hundred percent.”
“Sol, it’s Jack and Ann,” Fay said, drawing him away.
The Warners were all smiles, Jack with a jaunty mustache and a tan so dark that it seemed to have shriveled his face, like a walnut. Ben remembered him from the Army tour, paler and in uniform, telling stories about Errol Flynn. They’d been on Hitler’s boat, a brief day’s outing on the Rhine, which reminded Warner of his own yacht, moored next to Flynn’s at the marina, so close you could hear what happened in the master bedroom. “Not just every night, two, three times a night. Maybe different ones, I don’t know. I said to him, you keep it up, it’s going to fall off.” Laughter from the others, watching the banks stream by. Now he shook Ben’s hand without any hint of recognition, just a new face at Lasner’s.
“So all I hear is Rosemary Miller,” he said to Sol. “It’s going to happen for her?”
“Your lips,” Lasner said, raising his eyes.
“Get it in the can before the goddam union closes everybody down,” Warner said, prompting a huddle, cutting Ben and Liesl loose to drift.