The Bequest Read Free Page A

the—”
“—bastards get you down. I know. But the bastards didn’t drag your
    name through the mud. And what gets me is they act like they enjoy it. It’s
one thing to be critical. It’s another to be so mean-spirited.”
“It’s what makes them the illegitimi in the first place.”
Teri combined a swallow with a laugh, followed by a fit of coughing.
    By the time she was through, both she and Mona were doubled over with
laughter. Teri wiped tears from her cheeks and sat up straight. “My side
hurts,” she said. “And I can’t tell you how good it feels.”
    “It’s the first time I’ve seen you laugh in weeks.”
“Let’s just hope it’s not the last time.”
Mona opened her mouth to reply but stopped short at the ringing of
Teri’s cell phone. Both women froze in place and stared at the phone on
the table.
    It kept ringing, the theme song from Magnum, P.I . Teri looked at the
read-out, then at Mona. She nodded.
“You gonna answer it?” Mona asked.
“I’m not sure I want to hear what he has to say.” She downed the rest
of her drink, then snatched up the phone. “But I guess I better get it over
with.”
    Mike Capalletti’s office befit his status as one of Talent Agency of
America’s rising young stars. He didn’t have a corner office yet, but that
was just a matter of time. Sitting in the middle of an oversized U-shaped,
glass-top desk, his back to floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked
Century City, he wielded multiple phones with the panache of a hibachi
chef on steroids. After graduating with his MBA from Harvard, he’d
started in the legendary mailroom of TAA, but was now on the cusp of
achieving his dream as a full equity partner in the agency. He represented
some of Hollywood’s hottest talent, both actors and directors, with a
sprinkling of writers thrown in. But you were only as good as your A-list
clients’ last movie. And only one thing could stop his ascent now. Hard to
believe, but only one client stood between him and his dream.
    He spun in his chair and stared out the window. He had come a long
way in such a short time. The tough streets of Chicago’s southside seemed
but a distant memory now. Sporting the accoutrements of success, such as
thousand dollar suits and two-hundred-fifty dollar haircuts, he wasn’t
about to let anything or anyone drag him down. Not when he was this
close.
    Silver-haired Bob Keene entered with his strange walk caused by
unnaturally bowed legs and small feet. He sat down in one of the plush
leather-covered chairs across from the desk. Mike spun around suddenly,
startled by the intrusion. He stared hard at the man he idolized and
emulated. The man cut from the same pretentious cloth as he, albeit three
decades apart in age.
“Are you going to be able to do this?” Bob asked.
     
Mike spun back around and faced the window. “Don’t worry about
me.”
    Teri entered the elevator on the ground floor of TAA’s building on
Century Park West, in Century City, and took a deep breath. She pushed
“12” and the car began its slow ascent. When the doors opened, she got off
on TAA’s floor and followed the hardwood floors toward Mike’s office.
Dread tugged at her mind with each step. The sounds of her footsteps,
though softened by the rubber soles of her running shoes, seemed to echo
just as Poe’s telltale heart had driven a man mad. Mike had been closemouthed when he called. “I just need you to get down here,” was all he
would say in response to her questions. “We’ll talk about it when you get
here.”
    She could almost predict what was coming: She was losing her
housekeeping deal at Cinema USA Studios. She’d had the deal since
winning her second Oscar and setting up SH Productions with Mona.
Cinema USA had outbid several other major studios and given her offices
on the lot, a small staff to take care of clerical work, first look at any
projects she developed, and agreed to distribute any movies she made.
Initially, it looked like a