Suspicious Circumstances Read Free Page B

altar and out to the nearest agent with a ten-year starring contract all ready to sign in her wedding bouquet. No, dear. You know how I hate to meddle, but someone had to do something.’
    The improbable thing about all those noble sentiments was that they were perfectly genuine. Mother — or at least most of Mother — was the least selfish person who’d ever walked the face of the earth. She would go to incredible lengths to help her friends. If they were sick, they were deluged with beef-broth, personally prepared by her own dainty hands; if they were in financial difficulties, they were deluged with checks; if they were unhappy with their wives, they were deluged with sympathy and sage advice.
    The hooker was that Mother, who had devoted all her energies to being a Sex-Goddess on the Silver Screen, had never learned to approve of Sex in Real Life and refused to admit that she herself could be a complicating factor in her good works. When men like Ronnie, for example, who were supposed to be taking sympathy and sage advice, started frothing at the mouth over her, she turned the blindest of eyes and went serenely on reuniting them to their Lawful Mates.
    She was giving me the full Madonna. ‘Darling, luckily, I was able to rescue him. It wasn’t easy, but I flatter myself I’m more than a match for Sylvia La Mann. And while I was about it, I thought it would be a shame not to do something about Norma too. Poor Norma, I said to Ronnie, of course she drinks and of course She’s tiresome at times and, if you’re very careful, I don’t really see why you shouldn’t revert to a starlet or two every once in a while. But why not try to be a bit more patient with Norma? Think of her situation. You, the great producer with all the banks at your feet, while she… What is she anymore? Darling, she used to have a quality as that lovely Sweater Girl. Why not give her a chance? Find some great big picture for her and let her try to be a star again.’
    ‘Then the Ninon de Lenclos bit was your idea?’ I asked.
    ‘Yes, darling, it really was. Of course, the script’s been ready for months. Poor deluded Ronnie had been hoping to fish Garbo out of her hole with it. But I told him he might as well try to fish Ninon de Lenclos herself out of her tomb. Give it to poor Norma, I said. Get her a strong male star and she’ll be divine. And if she is the slightest bit bulgy, who’s going to see through all those hoops?’
    I looked at her almost with awe. ‘I might have realized you were the only living creature who could have persuaded Ronnie to throw away his reputation and six million lovely bucks like that.’
    Mother frowned. Any remark which could conceivably be construed as unkind was automatically condemned by her. ‘Really, how can you say such dreadful things? Norma would have made a lovely Ninon, I’m sure, and anyway Ronnie got Brad Yates to play opposite her.’
    Of all the red-hot male properties in Hollywood, Brad Yates was currently the hottest. Mother herself, I knew, had been dying to act with him. She picked up her scarlet reading glasses and twirled them.
    ‘And to think that She’s dead just when her new career was ready to sky-rocket. What a tragedy! And for poor Ronnie. You should see him. He’s heartbroken, quite, quite shattered.’
    I tried to visualize Ronnie being shattered about having escaped from this renovated married bliss which Mother had thrust upon him.
    ‘Are you sure he’s shattered?’ I snapped.
    ‘Of course he’s shattered,’ snapped Mother. ‘For better or worse, Norma was his wife for over ten years. I won’t have you being so cynical. It’s dégôutant. ’
    There were, of course, just as many ‘boring’ thoughts to be thought as ever, but I was exhausted by all my anguished anxieties on the plane and the bed was very soft. I rolled on to my back and felt voluptuous. I loved Mother’s beds. I loved being with Mother, too. I’d almost forgotten how soothing it was to be