Stars Screaming by John Kaye

Author:John Kaye
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Shortly before he drove away that evening, Burk encountered Mark Ohrtman on the street outside the Argyle Manor. He wore a dark blue smoking jacket over white silk pajamas. “I saw your name in the Daily Variety. You have a movie in production called Pledging My Love. True?” Burk nodded his head. “And you’re staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel,” Mark Ohrtman said. He reached into his smoking jacket and produced a matchbook from the Polo Lounge. “Am I correct?”

“That’s right,” Burk said. “But I’m not comfortable there all the time.”

“Of course you’re not,” Lillian Ohrtman said. She was standing outside her apartment, hugging her shoulders against the cool air. “It’s a hotel. You’re looking for a homier spot. Someplace real. Where you can make friends.”

Lillian Ohrtman walked forward until she was standing next to her son. Upstairs, Burk heard a phone ring in his apartment. He took a step toward his car and Mark Ohrtman said, “Drew, my lover, does Rona Barrett’s hair. She knows what happened the other night in the hotel. She has good sources. They say that actor beat up the waiter on purpose.”

Moving away, Burk said, “As far as I know it was an accident.”

“No,” Mark said, blinking his heavy-lidded eyes, “that’s not what Drew says.”

“It has the makings of a wonderful scandal,” Lillian Ohrtman said. Her lips were set in a bemused smile. “Actor punches room service waiter. I’ve had my share of waiters.” She laughed. “Oh, yes, I have. Waiters, pool boys, beboppers, even writers. Yes, even writers.”

Burk was now seated behind the wheel of his Mustang. On the opposite side of the street a young couple walked by wearing Levi’s and light parkas. Their arms encircled each other’s waists. “Look,” the girl said, tilting her head as she pointed toward the sky. “Look at all the stars.”

A window shade went up in a small stucco house squeezed between two apartment buildings. A woman said, “Keep it down out there. We’re tryin’ to watch TV.”

“This is what Drew heard,” Mark Ohrtman said. He was speaking to Burk, but only his shadow on the sidewalk was visible from inside the car. “He heard the actors in your film, the main actors—the three leads—were rehearsing a scene in the hotel room. A very intense scene, where real emotions had to be revealed. They’d been rehearsing all night, according to Drew’s sources. They were rehearsing a scene that was written by you that takes place in a motel. Isn’t that right?”

“I’ve always liked motels,” Lillian Ohrtman said. “They made me feel so . . . so wanton.”

In the rearview mirror, Burk saw Mark Ohrtman make a face.

“What?” Lillian Ohrtman said.

Before her son could respond, Burk started his engine. His headlights came on, but Mark Ohrtman’s face darkened. “They attacked him for no reason,” he said. “How dare they?”

“It wasn’t their fault. They were rehearsing a scene,” Burk said. “It was an accident.”

“He was given a copy of the script,” Mark Ohrtman said. “He was told to play the part of a young Marine lance corporal.

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