Free Until Proven Innocent by Gene Grossman Page B

guy that Tony mentioned as being a film crewmember who he went shooting at the target range with.
    Ren also tells me about all of the constant arguments that Tony and Joe Caulfield are getting into about dialogue, blocking, character attitude, and just about everything concerning Tony’s on-camera scenes. From what I hear, it sounds like there’s a constant ongoing feud between Tony and Joe, so I hope Joe stays alive until Tony’s scenes are finished. Ren seems like a pretty decent guy, so I decide to take a chance and see if he’ll help me out.
    “ You know Ren, I really want to be kept up to date on how things are going with my friend Tony. Would it be possible for me to retain you on a part-time consultant basis? I’d like to receive a phone call from you every afternoon, with a status report on whether or not Tony has shot anyone on the set, or if anything else out of the ordinary has taken place with him being involved.”
    Ren seems to be amenable to my consultation job, so I offer him an initial retainer of two fifty-dollar bills and tell him that I’ll be straightening out with him at least once a week. The offer is pocketed, and I now have an inside connection in the movie industry.
    While I’m here I decide to take a little tour of the various rooms connected to the soundstage. The executives are still in Joe’s office working out Tony’s new scenes and the rest of the crew is out at the catering truck, so I shouldn’t be getting in anyone’s way. While I’m between the makeup room and the green room, one of the young starlets sees me walking around and because I probably look like I’m lost, she offers to help me. I can see why there’s so much trouble in celebrity marriages. With all this temptation around, it’s a wonder that any of them stay married. She asks me if I live in the neighborhood, because she does too, and she hasn’t seen me around before.
    When I tell her that I live on a boat in the Marina, she excitedly tells me that I’m just like her dad… he likes boats too. She wonders if I know him. I tell her that we probably have met at the Marina in the senior citizens’ center. A reality check like this is never welcome, but it brings home the fact that I will never be with a beautiful young starlet unless I’m a big movie star or a producer – and neither of those careers is on my horizon. But I could easily settle for a thirty-six-year-old female District Attorney I know.
    *****
    I never realized how much is entailed in the production of a movie. The various rooms in this building contain well-lit make-up desks, wardrobe racks, a large area with flat sections of walls that resemble the interiors of different rooms, a prop department with all sorts of things, an editing room with numerous monitors and hi-end video equipment, a camera and grip storage room, and one other that has a ‘no admittance’ sign on the outside of the door.
    Anything sign telling me to keep out of some place invariably becomes a definite invitation for me to go in. That’s always been a certainty with guys like me. I try the doorknob and it’s open, so I stick my head into the room and look around. This was a waste of my time. There’s nothing in the room but a bunch of DVD recorders like the one on my boat, and a machine that I looks like something I’ve never seen before anywhere but on the bridge of Captain Kirk’s Starship Enterprise. I have no idea what it is, but I do see that it some large glass doors on the front, and through them I can see some reels, with what looks like film on them. My guess is that the film goes from one reel, through some other parts of the machine, and then winds around the other reel. All I can see that is recognizable is a small label that identifies this device a ‘Rank Telecine.’ I don’t know what it does other than probably cost a lot of money.
    When I pass by Joe’s office, everyone else is gone, but Joe is still in a conference with Tony. The absence of