Free Lovers and Gamblers by Jackie Collins Page B

know I don’t like it.’
    ‘Who,’ said Al coldly, ‘has touched my apple tree?’
    ‘I did,’ scowled Evan. ‘I cut off a few rotten branches.’ He turned to Edna. ‘
She
told me to.’
    Edna blushed. ‘I didn’t think you’d mind. The bad apples were falling in the pool. I didn’t think you’d mind…’
    ‘Jesus H!’ exclaimed Al. ‘What the fuck do you think I employ a gardener for? It’s too bad, Edna, just too bloody bad…’
    Her eyes filled with tears. ‘I’ll see to dinner,’ she mumbled.
    ‘Martini!’ said Melanie brightly, and she handed Al a glass.
    Paul returned, and Al took him to one side. ‘I’ve had a great idea.’
    ‘Yeah?’ questioned Paul with relief. At least Al was talking to him again.
    ‘We finish off the TV special next week?’
    ‘That’s right. There’s just the locations left to shoot.’
    ‘Great. You know the number “Lady”?’
    ‘The song you sing to Katy May?’
    ‘Right. Where are we shooting it?’
    ‘South of France.’
    ‘Terrific. Now Katy just sits there, right?’
    ‘We start off with a shot of you and her in an open car driving along the coastline, then the beach, swimming, fooling around. Should be fantastic.’
    ‘Have you ever seen Katy in a bikini?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘She’s short. Oh, I know she’s cute and cuddly, and a lovely little singer, but…’
    ‘And very popular.’
    ‘I give you that.’
    Paul sighed. He smelled trouble. ‘What are you leading up to?’
    ‘I don’t think it’s going to look right my singing “Lady” to Katy.’
    ‘She’s the only female guest on your show.’
    ‘She doesn’t have to be.’
    ‘Who do you want? Raquel Welch?’
    ‘I want “Miss Coast to Coast”. Perfect little spot for her. She’ll do it if we pay her the right amount. Call New York and arrange it. And Paul – this time don’t fuck it up.’
    ‘Dinner’s ready,’ called Edna. She had recovered her composure and proudly set out all Al’s favourite foods in the middle of the dining-room table.
    ‘When you get a hard-on…’ muttered Paul.
    ‘Humour me. After all, I
am
the star of the family. Evan! Come on, boyo, dinner’s ready.’
    Melon to start. Al liked melon. He wolfed it down, then got up from the table and said, ‘None of this other crap for me, I’ve got to watch the old weight.’
    ‘I’ve cooked all your favourite things,’ wailed Edna. ‘Al, you
must
eat.’
    ‘Sorry,’ said Al cheerfully, ‘can’t let the paying public down. Anyway, I’m not hungry. Evan, fancy a game of tennis?’
    Evan scowled. That was the last thing he felt like doing.
    Edna’s eyes brimmed over with tears, and, streaked with blue eyeshadow, they fell silently down her cheeks.
    One thing stardom had done for big brother, mused Paul, it had turned him into a right bastard.

Chapter Nine
    When Ed Kurlnik left, Dallas fixed herself a large vodka on the rocks. She put on a bathrobe, curled up in a chair, and nursing her drink, she mulled over the previous scene.
    Ed Kurlnik. Powerful. Rich. Married.
    Ed Kurlnik. Little sixty-one-year-old boy who liked to play games. Naughty games.
    She reached beneath the chair she was sitting on and fished out a recent magazine. Ed Kurlnik was on the cover with his wife, Dee Dee, a strong, respectable-looking woman with steely grey hair and icy blue eyes. A woman in her middle fifties – fifty-six, the magazine said – who was still attractive in a ‘lady of the manor’ way.
    Dallas opened up the magazine and turned to a picture of two girls. The Kurlnik twins. The Kurlnik heirs. Rich bitches, with cool blond hair and wide-spaced grey eyes. Twenty years old. The same age as she was. One of them wore riding clothes, the other a neat skirt, sweater, and pearls.
    Dallas laughed aloud. Pearls indeed! She would fuck their father wearing pearls, she would make him buy them for her. Or maybe he could borrow them from his daughter. Now that would be a laugh…
    She read the article through for the