Vintage Love (285 page)

“Then take her there,” she said. “It’s fitting! She told me he was the one who started her on drugs.”

Phillip was frowning. He said, “I don’t think I should wait until tomorrow. In cases like these time is vital.”

“You think you ought to go to her now?”

“Yes,” he said. “Let me make a phone call first.”

She waited as he looked up the number of the hospital and dialled. He managed to get permission to take Thelma there at once.

He came back from the phone and said, “They’ll take her. It’ll be costly.”

“I don’t mind,” she said.

“Where will I find her?”

“The Palm Court Hotel.”

“That’s a Skid Row place,” he said grimly.

“I know,” Nita agreed. “She said she was in room 406.”

“Which may or may not be the truth,” he warned her. “Drug addicts learn to lie and steal along with a lot of other nasty things.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean she may not be there at all?”

“There’s that chance.”

“Can’t I go along?” she pleaded.

“No. You have too much to lose,” he said. “I’ll call you as soon as I have word.”

She followed him to the door and said, “Thank you, Phillip.”

“It’s all right,” he said, and kissed her gently on the cheek. “Just don’t upset yourself anymore.”

His advice was good but Nita was unable to benefit by it. She had visions of Thelma, hiding from everyone, living desperately from day to day for the fix which now made her miserable existence possible, frantic to obtain the money she must have to pay the vicious ones supplying her with drugs. Nita could only hope that Phillip would reach her in time.

At last the phone rang. It was Phillip and he was clearly tense. He said, “I can only speak to you for a minute.”

“How is she?”

“Dead.”

“No!”

“I found her in her room. She’d taken an overdose. I had the desk clerk call the police. They’re here now.”

“What will happen?”

“Nothing much as long as you’re not linked to it. She wasn’t a big name or even working in movies now.”

“How did you explain being there?”

“I said I was an old friend and I came to try and help her out,” he said. “So far they’ve believed the story.”

“Thank you, Phillip!”

“I’ll see you later,” he promised.

“The funeral arrangements. Do something about them,” she pleaded.

“Something will be managed,” he said. “If she has no close relatives I’ll ask to be given the body for burial.”

Thelma Stone had a sister in Ohio, but she could neither afford to take care of the burial nor come to her sister’s funeral. Dr. Phillip Watters made arrangements for a simple funeral, which was attended only by Nita and himself.

Nita tried to force the tragedy from her mind by working harder than ever. The filming of “Bondage” was almost at an end and some of the scenes presented difficulties and had to be done over many times. Nita did not complain about the long hours or the retakes.

But Jack Steel did, and he insisted she join him and his wife at their Malibu place for the weekend. “You can rest as much as you like,” he promised her.

“You know how it will be!” she protested. “Drinking and doing the Charleston all night! I’ve been there before!”

“This week it will be different,” he assured her. “And we’re having a guest I want you to meet. His name is Tommy Gallegher and he’s everyone’s idea of a handsome Irishman.”

She smiled. “I wouldn’t want Eric to hear about my meeting him.”

“Don’t worry about that. Tommy is too busy to bother with females. He’s the biggest bootleg operator on the Pacific Coast.”

“A rum-runner?” she said.

“Yes,” Jack Steel said, amused. “He’s the darling of all the best people and you’re bound to like him.”

“I don’t know,” she said, thinking she might need protection. So she added, “If I come, can I bring an escort?”

“Anyone you like,” Jack said generously.

Nita asked Phillip to take her and he agreed, so on Friday evening they arrived at the huge white mansion on the seashore. They were greeted by the Steels. Mary Miles Minter, Mabel Normand and William Desmond Taylor were among the guests, and Nita renewed her acquaintance with them.

William Desmond Taylor eyed Nita in friendly fashion and said, “Your face is so lovely I’m haunted by it. I wish I could direct you in a film.”

“You’ll have to talk to Lew Meyers,” she warned him.

“I know,” Taylor said. “And he’s a tyrant.”

“Don’t you and he get along?”

“No,” the famous director said. “He’s offered me films but his offer has always been too small.”

“One day, perhaps,” she said.

He moved on to the next cluster of people. All at once in the doorway of the big room there appeared the magnificent figure of a man, broad-shouldered, large of frame and dressed in the best a London tailor could provide. He had curly hair of light brown and at some point in his career his nose had been broken, which gave him the look of a pirate. Nita was sure he was Tommy Gallegher, of whom Jack Steel had spoken.

Jack greeted the newcomer and brought him straight over to Nita. He said, “This is Tommy Gallegher whom I told you about.”

The Irishman towered over her, his craggy face alight. He said, “Would you be interested to know I’ve had a likeness of you pinned up in my cabin for more than a year?”

“I’m very flattered,” Nita said, amused by the intensity of the big Irishman.

“More than that,” Tommy Gallegher declared, “I made up my mind I had to meet you. And now I have.”

She laughed. “I wish I had more fans like you!”

The big man stared at her. “I don’t want to be a fan!” he shouted. “I want to be your man!” And he kissed her.

This left her speechless and an embarrassed Jack Steele took the bootlegger by the arm and said, “Before you completely commit yourself, Tommy, come meet the rest of our guests.”

“I’ll be back,” the Irishman promised her over his shoulder.

Phillip, who had been standing in the background, now came up to her to ask, “How well do you know that man?”

“I’ve never met him before,” Nita confessed.

“He seemed a little familiar by my standards,” the young doctor complained.

She took him by the arm. “He’s a crazy Irishman! I know them well enough not to take him seriously. Don’t forget I’m Irish myself.”

Phillip continued to be worried. “I’ve heard stories about him,” he said. “He has more money than he knows what to do with and the most successful bootleg operation anywhere. He has his pick of the loveliest Hollywood women and now he’s reaching for the stars.”

“He’ll only get so far with this star,” she promised.

“I’m your escort,” he said. “I feel responsible.”

“It will be all right,” she said.

“Not judging by the way he’s begun,” Phillip said. “I say, make an excuse. Say you’re tired and let’s leave.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Why?”

“Jack and Joyce would be hurt. I can’t let them down!”

“It’s a weird collection of guests anyway,” the young doctor said darkly. “I don’t like Taylor, Mary Miles Minter seems on the idiotic side and Mabel Normand is getting a very bad reputation.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“There are whispers of orgies at Taylor’s place and I hear both Taylor and Normand are taking drugs. You saw what they did to Thelma Stone.”

Nita stared across the room where the three actors were talking animatedly to some of the other guests. She said, “They all look so well I can’t think it’s more than gossip.”

Phillip said, “There are times when I think I know the seamy side of this town better than you do.”

She talked him out of his gloomy mood. Dinner was served on the patio outside, then as darkness fell the pool was spotlighted and Jack and Joyce invited everyone to swim.

“There are bathing suits in all your rooms,” Joyce Steele told her guests gaily.

Within a short time all had changed and were back at the pool. Jack Steel was the first one in, followed by Mabel Normand and Desmond Taylor. Next Tommy Gallegher arrived carrying in his arms a slender young girl who was playing a bit part in “Bondage.” Tommy held the girl close to him and then as he reached the pool side, let her down beside him.

As the girl stood laughing with the bootlegger, the others at the pool saw with varying reactions that she wore only a small pair of briefs and her shapely breasts were completely naked. She and Tommy both jumped into the pool and swam together.

Phillip, in bathing trunks, a towel in his hand, stood by Nita at the end of the pool and said, “What sort of a party is this turning out to be?”

“I don’t know,” she confessed. “Jack will take charge and see it doesn’t go too far.”

“It’s gone too far for decency now,” Phillip said.

She gave him a glance. “For someone who’s been married to Sally Stark you’re easily shocked.”

She’d barely said this when Tommy’s hand pawed at her ankle from the pool. His wet hair was plastered down on his forehead he grinned boyishly up at her and said, “Come on in! Let’s be buddies!”

Nita drew back. “In a minute,” she said.

Tommy guffawed and swam back to join the topless bathing beauty, and groped at her making her scream, gasp and submerge. He submerged along with her.

Phillip’s face was dark with outrage. “Are you enjoying this?”

“Not much,” Nita admitted. “And especially not with you complaining every minute!”

“Do you expect me to stand by and watch Jack Steel let his pet bootlegger maul the women guests?”

“It’s hardly come to that!”

“Look!” he declared. And he pointed to the far end of the pool where the screaming starlet had retreated with Tommy still fondling her breasts.

Nita glanced around desperately to find their host and hostess. Joyce had vanished with William Desmond Taylor. Jack and Mabel Normand were stretched out beside the pool together in their wet bathing suits, and it appeared Jack was showing her how to kiss properly for close-ups.

“We can go inside,” she suggested.

Phillip looked grim. “I know what I’m going to do. I’m going upstairs and dress. I’ll be ready to leave in ten minutes and if you’re not ready to join me I’m leaving alone.”

“Phil!” she pleaded.

“I mean it,” he said, striding off into the house.

Nita watched after him worriedly, torn between wanting to leave with him and feeling she should remain at the party. If she left with him there might be gossip which would reach Eric and would be unpleasant. If she remained she was sure the party would soon calm down a good deal … At least, she hoped so.

The thing which weighed most in her decision to remain was that she didn’t want to create a bad situation between herself and her co-star and his wife. The previous times they had entertained her had been wild and drunken but never as abandoned as this! Nita believed and hoped that the wild Irishman would calm down and the rest of the party follow suit.

She stood back from the pool for a few minutes thinking that Phillip might come to her before he left and she might talk him out of going. But as she waited the likelihood of this seemed to vanish.

When Joyce returned to the poolside with William Desmond Taylor on her arm, she announced, “We’ve been wading in the ocean. We loved it!”

Taylor looked amused. “We saw your doctor friend driving away, looking very angry. Did you two quarrel?”

“No,” she said. “He had leave. A call from a patient. He was sorry to leave.”

“Too bad!” Joyce said. “But at least you’ll be able to stay.”

“Perhaps I should go as well,” she said. “I’m rather tired.”

Joyce saw Tommy Gallegher and the half-nude girl climbing out of the pool and go away hand in hand together. The hostess shrugged. “I’d be more upset if I didn’t know she’s been sleeping with him for months.”

“She isn’t very discreet,” Nita said.

“Nor is the charming Mabel, stretched out there with your husband,” Taylor said to Joyce. “I’ll just go and break up that little love match before it goes further.” He went on to join the two.

Joyce turned to Nita. “I’m sorry. I guess things are a little out of hand. We offended the doctor.”

“Yes.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Not now,” she said.

Joyce turned her attention to Mabel Normand and her husband who were now sitting up and talking to Taylor. She said, “Mabel is out to take Jack from me. She’s not satisfied with having Taylor and a lot of other men.”

“Is she that wild?”

“She has been since she began using cocaine,” Joyce said significantly. “She’s not the same girl at all. They say Taylor started her on drugs.”

This confirmed what Phillip Watters had earlier told Nita. She was stunned to discover that his suspicions were true. She said, “How do they get these drugs?”

“It’s easy if you have the money,” Joyce Steel assured her. “I have to keep a close eye on Jack. Luckily his weakness seems only to be women. It could be worse!”

They went inside and dressed. Nita felt troubled and lost without her escort. Taylor sat at the piano and he proved to be a clever musician and singer. He seemed to excel at all things.

More drinks were served and everyone gathered around the piano as Taylor sang witty and dirty parodies on a number of popular songs. Mabel Normand sat on the piano bench beside him and howled with laughter whenever he came up with an especially suggestive line.

Jack Steel came to hwere Nita was seated on a large pillow a little distance away from the piano. He sat down on the carpet beside her, his drink in his hand and said, “You don’t look as if you’re having a good time.”

She managed a smile. “I’m doing well enough.”

“I think not,” Jack said contritely. “Joyce told me about the doctor leaving.”

“We’ll just forget about it,” she suggested.

“I invited the wrong people,” he apologized. “I wanted Tommy to be at ease. The only one he insisted I have was you. I ought not to have had Taylor, Mabel and the others. They’re a different lot of people.”

“So it seems,” she said.

“Tommy wants to take us out on his boat,” Jack said as he got up to cross the room and refill his glass.