Free Natural Causes by Jonathan Valin Page A

real
friends. Just the show. And when it goes, I'll go. Bang!" She
snapped her fingers loudly.
    Both Moon and I jumped.
    "Jesus, Helen," Jack said. "Don't talk
like that."
    "You're hopeless, Jack," she said wearily.
"But you're hopeless in a different way than Quentin was. That's
why he was charming and you're just diffident and kind. He was a
romantic, for chrissake. He didn't believe in his lies--he was
obsessed by them! See, there's the difference. You're not obsessed,
Jack. You're not driven. You don't know what it's like to be that
hungry. Quentin did."
    "We've all been hungry, Helen," Jack said
stiffly.
    "Not like Quentin," she said. "He told
stories, all right. Especially after his heart attack. But whether
they were true or not, he wanted them to be. He needed them to be.
That was his weakness and his charm. There was a great well of
loneliness inside that man that all the money in the world could
never fill. I consider it quite a triumph that someone that unhappy
could carry on with such style. And his stories were part of that
style--a way of bridging the gap between what he knew he was and what
he always wanted to be."
    "And what was that?" Moon said sullenly.
"What he always wanted to be?"
    "Why a star, Jack," Helen said, cupping her
face in her hands. "Isn't that what we all want to be?"
 
    11
    The waiter came with the food, which he set up in the
living room on a folding table. Between courses, I asked Helen Rose
if she knew why Dover had come out to L.A. on Friday rather than on
Sunday.
    She said, "No. It wasn't for 'Phoenix', though.
I can tell you that much. We were in New York over the
weekend--Frank, Jack, and I--meeting with those wonderful brands
folks."
    "You were in New York last weekend?" I
asked Jack.
    "On Friday and Saturday. Frank and I went back
to Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon."
    "Ooh! Are we suspects?" Helen said. She'd
put away an entire bottle of California's best over dinner, and she
was showing it.
    "I don't have anything to be suspicious about,"
I said honestly. "Dover told his mother that he was coming out
here to meet with some people about a new project. I thought you
might know what it was."
    Helen Rose's face darkened as if a cloud had just
floated overhead. "A TV project?" she said.
    Jack waved his hands at me behind her back. But I
ignored his warning. "That's what she thought."
    "That son-of-a-bitch!" Helen said and threw
her fork down so forcefully that she cracked the plate.
    "Oh, Christ," Jack said under his breath.
    "That little worm! That fucking little traitor!
We're in trouble because he couldn't come up with a goddamn story
line and he's getting ready to jump ship! There's gratitude for you."
Helen whirled around in her chair to face Moon. "Did you know
about this, you bearded little bastard?"
    "Now, Helen," he said throwing up both
hands in defense.
    "Don't 'Now, Helen' me, you weasel! You knew
about this, didn't you?"
    "I did not," Jack said. "Furthermore,
I think the whole thing was one of Quentin's fabrications."
    "You would," Helen said furiously. She
turned back to me. "What exactly did Quentin's mother say?"
    "That she had lunch with Quentin on Friday
afternoon and that he mentioned a new project. Quentin didn't say
whether it was for television or not. That was just his mother's
guess."
    "Well, I've met the bitch, and she was a damn
good guesser when it came to Quentin." She pointed a finger at
Moon and jabbed him with it--hard--in the belly. "I want you to
find out about this, you hear me, Jack? I won't tolerate this sort of
thing from my staff. You hear me?"
    Moon leaned forward and stared her in the face. "The
man is dead," he said between clenched teeth. "What the
fuck difference does it make?"
    "It makes a difference to me," Helen said.
But she seemed shocked by Jack's tone of voice; and when she spoke
again, her own voice sounded thick and pained. "I liked him,
Jack. Christ, do I have to give that up, too?"
    "Nobody made you take this job, Helen,"
Moon said.