Free Beverly Hills Dead by Stuart Woods

benefits everybody."
    "Listen, Mickey," Rick said, forcing himself to sound more conciliatory, "let me be frank with you: I didn't deal with Bugsy Siegel or Chick Stampano, and I'm not going to deal with you."
    "Yeah, I heard about how you dealt with Stampano."
    Rick had blown off the top of Stampano's head, after he had beaten up Glenna. "Don't believe everything you hear."
    "Oh, I believe that story, all right. You're a tough guy who takes the law into his own hands."
    "Only when dealing with people who take the law into their own hands."
    "You're an ex-cop, aren't you?"
    "I still carry an LAPD badge," Rick said. And he did. Eddie Harris had paid a hundred and fifty bucks for it to a corrupt former chief of police, and Rick was actually listed on the rolls of the department as a detective lieutenant.
    "That doesn't concern me, since I never do anything illegal."
    Rick couldn't suppress a short laugh. "That doesn't really concern me, Mickey, because you and I are never going to do anything together that doesn't involve a lot of cops and lawyers."
    "Listen, you want to place a bet, call me."
    "Not even that."
    "Well, I'm sorry you can't take a more flexible view of our contract terms," Cohen said. "But pretty soon, you're going to need extras for something shot in California, and that could get rocky."
    "Mickey, if you and Jed Crawford want your names and the union spread all over the front pages of the trade papers, then do your worst. I can promise you this: I will never lose so much as a day's shooting because my extras don't show, and if you ever interfere with our business I'll see you in federal court. You do know that interference with a trade union is a federal offense these days, don't you?"
    "Bye-bye, Rick."
    Rick hung up and walked over to Eddie Harris's office.
    "Got a minute?"
    "Sure. You want a drink?" Eddie got up and went to his bar.
    "Yeah, some of that bourbon of yours."
    Eddie poured two drinks, handed Rick one and sat down.
    "I just had a phone call from Jed Crawford at the extras union, followed closely by a call from Mickey Cohen."
    Eddie's eyebrows went up. "Yeah?"
    Rick gave him the substance and detail of each conversation.
    "That's exactly what I would have said, Rick," Eddie said, "except maybe more profanely."
    "You think we're going to have trouble?"
    "Yeah, I do. Cohen made his demands and was rebuffed; he's not the kind of guy who will take that lying down."
    "Should I start going around armed?"
    "I don't think you'll get shot at, but I think it's a good time to go on location in Wyoming. Cohen will wait until we need forty extras for an expensive scene, then he'll make his move."
    "What will we do then?"
    "I'll brief the lawyers tomorrow and have them draw up a lawsuit. I won't even make a phone call; the minute they're in breach of contract I'll have them served, and Cohen, too, and I'll call the trades and the columnists personally. I think I can arrange for the FBI to have a chat with Cohen, too. We'll have our extras the next day. Until then I think it would be a good idea to have a backup scene ready to shoot, if we should have extras problems."
    "Okay, Eddie."
    "You make movies, kiddo; I'll do what I do."
    For a moment, Rick thought this might be a good time to mention the Communist Party card with Glenna's name on it, but he didn't.

16

    After a day's delay for weather, Rick loaded Glenna and the girls, their nurse, Rosie, and Sidney and Alice Brooks and Vance Calder onto the DC-3, along with another pilot, who would return the airplane to Santa Monica. Their flight was a little bumpier than the last one, but they landed midafternoon in Jackson, where Manny White and a small army bus were waiting for them.
    "What's with the bus?" Rick asked, while their considerable luggage was being unloaded.
    "I bought it," Manny said. "It cost nine hundred bucks. I bought six Jeeps, too, for two hundred apiece. And something else I'll show you when we get to the ranch. I'm telling you, this war