“Yes, Mr. Ogden.”
“The source of the problem would appear to be the reporter who wrote the piece, Irene Glasson.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Get the editor of Whispers on the phone for me. It’s time that Velma Lancaster and I had a little chat.”
“Yes, Mr. Ogden. Will that be all, sir?”
“No. Tremayne’s personal assistant called again this morning. She told me that Tremayne is very nervous. Nervous stars are always a problem. They become even more temperamental and unpredictable than they usually are.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ogden turned around. “Get ahold of Hollywood Mack, too. Tell him to stand by. I might have a job for him.”
“Yes, sir.”
Maxine rose, unfazed by the instructions to contact a man who consorted with shady characters and known criminals. She left, closing the door very quietly.
Ogden went back to the window and watched a familiar limousine pull up to the big gate. The driver flashed a badge at the guard and was waved through. It wasn’t that long ago that the arrival of Stanley Bancroft, the star of Sea of Shadows, would have created a buzz of excitement on the grounds of the studio. But today few people bothered to look at the big car. Bancroft was not yet box office poison, but everyone knew that his career was fading fast.
All glory is fleeting, my friend, Ogden thought. A few years earlier, at the dawn of talking movies, Bancroft had displaced another leading man who, as it turned out, had a high, grating voice. That hadn’t been a problem during the heyday of the silents but it was a career-killer in the era of sound.
Ogden turned away from the window and sat down at his desk. He thought about the various steps he could take to control the damage that threatened one of the studio’s most important investments. After a while he came up with a plan.
This is why you get the big bucks and the corner office, pal.
But he knew that long ago it had ceased to be about the money. What he truly relished these days was the power that he wielded. It was more intoxicating than any drug.
Chapter 10
It was his job to protect the star. That’s what friends are for, Henry Oakes reminded himself.
He sat at the counter of the small café, hunched over a cup of coffee and a copy of Whispers, and contemplated the task that he had set for himself.
The problem was that Nick Tremayne did not understand he was in danger. Henry wanted to warn him but he didn’t dare reveal himself. The time was not right.
It should have been the studio’s job to protect Nick Tremayne, but whoever was in charge of his security was obviously not paying attention. The studio had missed the threat that the first Whispers reporter, Hackett, had presented. They had not dealt with the Gloria Maitland problem.
Henry had talked to both women. Tried to reason with them. But they had treated him as if he was crazy. Hackett had actually called him crazy to his face. It had reminded him of his mother’s words. You have to stop obsessing over movie stars, Henry. People will think you’re not right in the head.
One thing was certain—neither the Maitland woman nor the nosy newspaper reporter, Hackett, would call him crazy again. With them out of the picture, it had appeared that Nick Tremayne was safe, at least for a time.
But now another reporter from Whispers had arrived on the scene, and it was obvious that Irene Glasson posed a serious threat to the star.
Henry folded the copy of Whispers very carefully so that the terrible headline was concealed. Nick Tremayne was not the first star with whom he’d shared a special kind of friendship. Before he had developed the relationship with Tremayne, he was very close to another leading man. But the studio had come between them. Two goons found him outside the star’s home one night. They had hurt him badly, beaten him nearly senseless. They told him that if he ever got close to the star again, they would kill him. He believed them.
For a while he tried to avoid having any more close friendships with stars. But he couldn’t resist the movies, and one afternoon he’d gone to see Fortune’s Rogue. He had been transported by the power of Nick Tremayne’s acting. By the time he left the theater, he’d understood that he and Tremayne were destined to share a special relationship.
He’d also comprehended that this time he had to be careful. He could not allow the studio to discover his friendship with the star. Nick Tremayne would be forced to deny it. So, for Tremayne’s sake, he had remained in the shadows.
Someday, when the time was right, he would reveal himself to Tremayne, but until that day he would do what he was meant to do—he would protect his friend, the star.
Chapter 11
Irene was in her room, trying to come up with another hook for the next story, when Mildred Fordyce bellowed from the bottom of the stairs.