Free Until Proven Innocent by Gene Grossman

Brazil until the movie at least has a chance to get to those 3,000 theaters.
    Back at the boat, I tell Tony about my meeting with Joe Caulfield, how he can get a second chance at the acting job, and about the new security position available to him.
    “ I don’t know, counselor. It would mean putting in my papers and leaving the force.”
    “ Here’s my suggestion, Tony. Why not just go to the stage, meet with Joe, get the acting gig back, and tell him you’ll think over his offer about the courier job. That way you can see if your continuing on the police force is an option at all. If it is, then you’ll have a decision to make. If it isn’t, well, let’s cross that bridge when we get to it.”
    He agrees with my logic and promises to behave himself on the second go-around. Strangely enough, he seems to have made some friends during the short period of time he spent with the film company. He told me that one or two of the production crew also frequent the same target range in Agoura that he shoots at. I guess that shooters share the same mind-set. It’s them against all those ‘pinkos’ who want to stomp on their Second Amendment rights to own a private arsenal.
    I remember seeing an old actor named Charlton Heston when he was president of the National Rifle Association. In one rabble-rousing speech before his group, he held a weapon up over his head and declared that if they want his gun, they’ll have to take it out of his cold, dead hand. I wonder exactly who he was referring to as ‘they?’ I certainly never wanted his gun, but I think that when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he should have voluntarily given it up. If you’ve got a gun in your house that’s not for target practice, it’s probably to protect against any intrusion by strangers, and to a person with Alzheimer’s, even a close friend or relative might be mistaken for a stranger, due to loss of a patient’s ability to recognize people. Can you imagine some old guy with Alzheimer’s sitting in his room with a loaded weapon on his lap? That’s a disaster waiting to happen.
    Personally, I have nothing against guns. It’s the bullets that scare me.
    * * * * * *
    Chapter 6
    Olive has been calling. She’s really upset because ‘Hal’ has been bugging her to get together, and now he’s offering her money to model for him. What a perv.
    I return Olive’s phone call and give her some instructions. First, she’s not to call Hal’s cell phone under any circumstances, unless I tell her to. Second, the next time he calls, she’s to agree to model for him, but it’ll have to be a special way, and she’ll call him back with the details.
    Olive wants to know what I’ve got in mind, but I think it’s best that she stay out of the loop on this one, because she might not appreciate my method.
    I’ve had Jack B. checking out this Hershel Belsky, and it just hit me: he’s got the biggest car dealership in Beverly Hills and does a tremendous amount of television advertising. His commercials are usually shown very late at night, when they run all the old ‘B’ movies.
    I stayed up late a couple of nights ago watching him make a fool out of himself, and he keeps mentioning that pretty soon his dealership will have a ‘dream girl’ that will act as his spokesperson for the ‘dream deals’ he makes on his cars. I hope he’s thinking what I think he’s thinking. That confuses me a little, but I’m calling Olive anyway.
    “ Hi Mister Sharp, what’s up?”
    “ Olive, I want you to call your friend Hal and tell him that you’ve been thinking about what he wants you to do. If my guess is right, I think he wants to hire you as the spokesperson for his car dealership.”
    “ You mean you want me to go to work for this creep?”
    “ No Olive, I don’t want you to work for him, I just want you to find out if he’ll hire you sight unseen, based on how you describe yourself to him.”
    “ Gee, I don’t know….”
    “ And when you talk