Free Beverly Hills Dead by Stuart Woods Page A

surplus thing is a location manager's dream."
    When they arrived at the ranch, the place had been transformed; it looked more like a small army base than a working ranch, with neat rows of barracks and former military vehicles scattered about. Parked next to one of the barracks was a Caterpillar bulldozer, painted olive drab.
    "What the hell is that for?" Rick asked, pointing at the machine.
    "For keeping the ranch roads in good shape," Manny explained. "We had some rain last week, and they needed work, if we're going to truck equipment and cast around. It was twelve hundred dollars, and it had six hours of use on the meter. The bus has thirteen hundred miles on it."
    "What are we going to do with all this stuff when we're done?"
    "Sell it or move it back to L.A., if there's something we can use there."
    "Okay, Manny, whatever you say, as long as we're on budget."
    "We're under budget."
    "Now tell me what the problems are."
    "Well, we've had an unavoidable delay on the phone lines, but the good news is we have our own Western Union service. Our cable address is BCREEK."
    "When do we get the phones?"
    "At least a week, maybe ten days. I've been over and over this with them, and it really is the best they can do. They're in the middle of installing new equipment at the central office. Our lines have all been run out here, and the phones installed; they just don't work yet."
    "Send an explanatory wire to Eddie Harris," Rick said.
    Rick greeted Mac and Ellie Cooper, then moved his family into the ranch house. He gave Vance the same room he had used before, and soon they were comfortably settled.
    At dinner, Mac, the normally terse rancher, was particularly ebullient. "Rick, this movie business is a hoot; it's like hosting an invading army."
    "That's a good description, Mac," Rick replied. "I'll ask our people to hold down the looting and pillaging."
    Mac laughed uproariously. "When you get a minute, I want to show you the house Ellie and I have designed for ourselves. We poured the footings the last couple of days."
    "It's a pity you don't need any piles driven," Rick said. "Vance would be your man for that. His former career."
    "I can pour footings, too," Vance said, "but I warn you, I get two bucks an hour."
    "Is that what Rick's paying you?" Mac asked.
    "I wish," Rick said.

    Sid Brooks stayed for three days, doing some polishing on the script, then returned to L.A. with the airplane, while his wife, Alice, stayed on.
    "I'm grateful to you for letting Alice stay, Rick," he said. "She's extremely nervous about the HUAC hearings, and it's better to have her up here and out of it. I'll be back, if you want me, when I return from Washington."
    "I'd love to have you back, Sid," Rick said.
    "That's good to know; the writer isn't usually welcome on the set."
    "That's because you're all such royal pains in the ass," Rick explained. "Where's Basil?" he asked. The director of photography was not at dinner.
    "He lit out of here late this afternoon," Mac said. "Something about taking pictures of the thunderstorms over the mountains."

    They were having drinks after dinner when Basil turned up, dirty but happy. "I got some gorgeous stuff," he said to Rick. "We had a sunset with thunder and lightning, and I got a lovely shot of Vance's double riding in from the direction of the mountains and watering his horse in the river."
    "I have a double?" Vance asked.
    "Of course," Basil replied. "He'll stand in for you when we're lighting; we don't want you sweating through your makeup under those hot lights. You've got a stunt double, too."
    "I don't wear makeup, and I don't think there are any stunts in the script I can't handle myself," Vance said.
    "Vance," Rick said, "we can't afford to have you hurt while we're making this picture. Also, our insurers don't like it when you start falling off horses and jumping off cliffs."
    Vance shrugged.

    After dinner, Manny White showed up with a telegram for Rick.

    GOOD LUCK ON YOUR SHOOT. PHONE ME WHEN