Deadly Farce by Jennifer McAndrews

Author:Jennifer McAndrews [McAndrews, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-09-28T04:24:00+00:00

Cursing under my breath, I snatched up the phone. "Shepard Brown's line. How may I help you?"

"Put Brown on the phone."

I looked over to where Shepard and Eddie lay passed out on opposite sides of the couch. A nearly empty bottle of whiskey, an assortment of chips, and a cluster of discarded cigars littered the table in front of them.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Mr. Brown is unavailable at the moment. I'd be happy to take a message for you."

"Fine. You tell that son of a sow that Karl Moyne called, and if he tries to use this mess today as an excuse not to show up for work tomorrow, he's in breach of contract. You got that?"

I'd maybe only been a secretary for an afternoon, but it didn't take long to get tired of being cursed at by every producer, agent, and director with access to a phone. I had to take my retaliation where I could get it. "Well, Mr. Moyne, I would tell him, but as I understand it, the best you could do would be to sue Mr. Brown for breach, and after the events of this morning, I doubt you'd get a conviction based on one day's missed work."

"One day? Listen, sweetheart, you have no idea how many days of work this guy has missed." I could picture Mr. Moyne going purple in the face, his beady eyes bulging out below his high, glossy forehead. "I knew this guy was a liability the day he signed on for the picture. Why do you think I had the jerk insured? So you tell that good-for-nothing, low-box-office piece of stale bread to have his game face on set on time tomorrow, or he's finished."

Mr. Moyne slammed down the phone, and I winced at the crack it made. I was going to have to work on the verbal thing. Without the guy face-to-face, I didn't know how to intimidate him.

The doorbell rang, and I looked over to the couch to see if anyone stirred. Shepard had his head thrown back over the arm of the couch, snoring like he was breathing through a tuba. Eddie lay crumpled in the other corner, looking not at all dishy with his hair smushed against the side of his head and a bead of spittle easing its way out of his mouth. Hollywood heartthrobs at their finest.

I checked my watch. Nearly seven o'clock. The doorbell rang again as I peered through the peephole. Joe stood on the other side, looking like a little bull in a blue suit and carrying a sack of takeout chicken.

"You're late," I said, as I hauled the door open.

"Late? Small potatoes. You screwed up today." He came sideways into the room and scanned the area.

"I did not screw up," I said. "The principal is fine." I pointed to Shepard, belatedly realizing he looked a whole lot less than fine.

"That's `fine'?" Joe shook his head and crossed to the desk, leaving the scent of roasted chicken in his wake. He moved the list of phone messages to one side before putting down his bag of food.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.