Taking Chances (45 page)

The call had begun with her usual hurried hello as she flipped through the ‘documentary’ proposal that had just been faxed over from London. She wasn’t really paying much attention, so it was a moment or two before she realized no-one had responded. ‘Hello?’ she said again, jotting a note on the fax to get that particular point clarified. ‘
Hello?
’

‘Hello,’ came the reply. ‘I know you are busy, so I will come right to the point.’

Ellen frowned. The accented voice sounded just like those that were coming in on the dailies. ‘That’s good,’ she said cheerfully, assuming she was speaking to one of the Latino actors. ‘I didn’t get your name though.’

‘I am someone who wishes only to be your friend,’ the voice told her calmly.

Immediately alarm bells started in her head, and letting go of the fax she leaned forward to buzz through for Kris who was outside talking to Maggie.

‘I want you please to understand,’ the man went on, ‘that I have no grudge against you personally. But I have my instructions, which I shall be obliged to carry out.’

Ellen’s throat was turning dry. ‘What instructions?’ she demanded, her finger still poised over the button,
though
not yet pressing. ‘What are you talking about? Who are you?’

‘I am to make you understand,’ he replied, ‘that the movie you are shooting is causing grave concern to certain people in my country. We have tried to explain this to Señor Chambers, but unfortunately he is not listening. So please, it is important that you stop this movie right now, today.’

Ellen was silent. Dimly she could feel her head starting to throb, and looking at her hand on the intercom she wondered why she hadn’t yet pressed it.

‘Do you understand what I’m telling you?’ the voice said. ‘Please, you need to understand how serious your position is.’

‘Yes, I hear you,’ she answered, her eyes moving about the office, as though somewhere, hidden amongst the piles of scripts and shelves of tapes and books, she might find the person behind the voice.

‘You have the power to do what my people are asking,’ he said. ‘Please tell me you will do it.’

‘But I can’t,’ she said, almost in a whisper.

There was a moment’s silence before he said, ‘Please be very clear about what I am saying. I wish you no harm. You are a very beautiful woman and I know that you have a baby soon to be born. Your husband will not want either of you to be hurt. I do not want either of you to be hurt. But the movie must be stopped. There are those who do not wish for it to be made and I will be forced to carry out my orders if you do not do as I tell you.’

‘What are your orders?’ she heard herself ask, her voice only just breaking through the tightness in her throat.

‘You know what happened to Rachel Carmedi,’ he answered.

Terror sank into her heart.

‘Please,’ he said, ‘don’t let the same thing happen to
you
. Speak to your husband. Tell him the only way to save you is to stop the movie and forget all about the names Señor Chambers has told you.’

‘But he can’t do it,’ she pleaded. ‘It’s not in his power.’

‘
Please
,’ the voice repeated, sounding so anxious it was as though he really did care.

The line was suddenly cut. Ellen flinched, then replacing the receiver she sat staring at it with wide, disbelieving eyes. After a moment she tried to get to her feet, but her legs were shaking too badly, her whole body felt weak. The voice was going round and round in her head, so soft, so mild and entreating; a voice it would be easy to trust, had it not belonged to a man who had been ordered to kill her.

Suddenly she snatched up the phone, needing to speak to Michael, but even before she began dialling she put it back down. She’d spoken the truth when she’d said there was nothing he could do, for the ultimate power wasn’t his, it was Ted Forgon’s – and the rest of the World Wide shareholders’. There would have to be a meeting, a vote, but with so many millions at stake, so many investors to consider, she knew already what Ted Forgon’s answer would be.

‘Out of the question!’ he told her. ‘Besides, they’re bluffing. And you’ve got yourself a bodyguard, so what are you worrying about? Tell you what though, we’ll get in touch with the police, tell them about the call, and from here on in you don’t go anywhere without you got yourself an escort. OK?’ He passed her a club soda with a wedge of lime. ‘Just ain’t any way I’m going to be pushed around by a bunch of Spics, specially not in my own town. So the next time this jerk calls, you put him on to me, do you hear? I’ll sort the sucker out.’

It was no more and no less than Ellen had expected. But at least she’d passed the message on to the right quarter, which was what she’d been instructed to do. Surely they would understand now that there was
nothing
else she could do, for it would serve no purpose to tell Michael, when his hand would be as tied as hers, and when he had so much else to think of that she didn’t want him to have to worry about her any more than he already was.

It was late the following afternoon that Michael drove up to the house and parked his car in the garage next to Ellen’s. As it was a Saturday both units had stopped shooting at midday, which had calmed the phones for a while and given him a chance to catch up with other, slightly less pressing commitments. Ellen had left the office around four, taking a stack of work home with her, which she’d insisted she’d get down to after stealing a quick hour with her feet up. She’d looked tired, and pale, and he had been about to tell her they should cancel the dinner they were supposed to attend that evening, when the phone had interrupted. He guessed it was probably too late to back out now, but if she didn’t look any better, he’d insist.

After dropping his keys in a fruit bowl he went to find her. It didn’t take long, as she was standing in front of the pool, her back to the house, staring down at the clear blue water. Her hair was wet, and she wore a thick towelling robe, telling him she had probably just taken a swim.

He stood quietly watching her, wondering what she was thinking and if now was the time for him to start trying to prove what he finally understood she needed to know, that he loved her, no matter what. But that was easy to say now she had told him the baby was his – were there still any doubt would he really be standing here now, thinking this way? He had to believe he would, for the past few months had shown him how unable he was to let her go, how incapable he was of throwing it all away despite how much it hurt him to stay. Perhaps the hardest to understand had been how
weakened
he’d felt by the depth of his feelings, for they’d made him realize how out of control he was of his own life, and how dependent he was on her to make him feel whole. It had never before occurred to him that loving her so much would bring such problems, and though he hated himself for allowing his ego such power, he was still finding it hard to accept that he wasn’t going to turn himself into some kind of besotted and gullible patsy by believing her just because he loved her. He’d seen so many men go that route, blind, pathetic fools that they were, and how humiliating and defeating it had been for them when finally they’d woken up to the truth.

But what was the truth? Was it really in the scenarios he tormented himself with, of Chambers turning her down, telling her he could never love her, that she should go back to her husband and let him think the child was his? With his air of tragedy and life fraught with danger Chambers had to be attractive to any woman, so how could he blame Ellen if she had fallen for him too? After all, where was the appeal and romance of his life and accomplishments as an agent and producer, when compared to the war zones and human despair that Chambers endured? But even if Ellen were still harbouring a secret longing for Chambers, in his heart of hearts he just couldn’t make himself believe that she would lie to him over something as crucial as the identity of the baby’s father.

But still there was that lingering doubt, upheld by his ego, and he knew he must do something to destroy it, and he must do it soon. After the birth would be too late, for then science would decree the father and she would know that he hadn’t loved or trusted her enough to take her word.

As though sensing him standing behind her she turned, and seeing him she smiled. ‘How long have you been there?’ she said.

‘A few minutes,’ he answered. ‘Where’s Kris? I didn’t see him outside.’

‘He went into the study to use the phone,’ she answered, pulling the robe tighter around her.

‘It’s too cold to swim,’ he said.

She turned and looked back at the pool.

‘What were you thinking?’ he said. ‘Just now, before you turned round.’

Her head went to one side as she continued to gaze into the water. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘About the movie, I guess. And how precipitous it all feels. I mean, it’s like we’re all waiting for something to happen, something horrible and calamitous that’s going to change our lives. Yet the whole thing just keeps moving along, cameras turning, actors whingeing, and nothing unusual’s happening at all.’ She looked at him and sighed. ‘It just feels strange. Like waiting for a bomb to go off when you’re not even sure there is a bomb.’

She hugged herself more deeply into the robe, and pulling her to him, he rubbed his hands over her back.

‘You should take a bath to warm up,’ he said.

She looked up at him, and making her laugh with the drollery in his eyes he led her back inside the house.

A few minutes later he was helping her out of her swimsuit and holding her hand as she stepped into the hot, scented water. She didn’t sit down right away, but stood looking at him, uncertainly, even shyly, feeling the cloying steam swirling around her body.

She was hardly daring to breathe, for so many times in these past few weeks he had seemed to come so close, only to back away at the final moment, leaving her hurt and angry and despairing that he would ever get past his mistrust. In her heart she knew this wasn’t the way he wanted it, but she knew too how difficult he was finding it to overcome.

Feeling the baby suddenly kick, she looked down at her tummy and was about to touch it when she saw that
he
was on the point of it too. She stood very still, watching, as he raised his hand and placed it gently over the protruding core of her navel. Then he moved it, gliding his fingers over the creamy softness of her skin.

It was the first time he’d touched her like this, and feeling almost overcome by the joy and relief it was giving her, she continued to watch, moving her eyes between his hand and his face, leaving her own hands hanging loosely at her sides, as though to permit him all the exploring he needed. He glanced up at her, then lifting his other hand he watched them both, following their slow, tentative sweep over the growing mound of the child.

There was no movement within, but still he felt strangely diffident, a little overawed, and totally intrigued. He looked at her swollen breasts with their large, distended nipples and small maps of blue veins. He touched them, kissed them gently, then touched them again.

At last his eyes returned to hers and, smiling as she saw his expression, she took his hand and brought it to her lips. ‘Bathe me,’ she said.

As she sat down in the water he knelt on the floor beside her, and began scooping handfuls of bubbles over her neck and shoulders. Then taking the soap he used it to massage her, making white, slippery patterns all over her breasts and belly.

She looked up into his face and seeing the wonder in his eyes, she reached out to touch him.

‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered.

She smiled and ran her thumb over his lips.

It was a while before he could make himself go on, until, laughing awkwardly at his reticence, he said, ‘I’m not finding this easy, you know, getting in touch with my emotions. I mean,’ he looked into her eyes, then turned to kiss the palm she had resting on his cheek. ‘I always knew I loved you,’ he said, ‘but I never expected
it
to be put to the test like this, never dreamt I would come out so lacking – in courage and understanding.’ He dropped his eyes for a moment, then, looking at her again, it was as though he could feel the strength of their love starting to flow past the fear he had harboured. ‘I don’t know if I can find the words to tell you how much you mean to me,’ he said softly, ‘but it’s a whole lot more than I realized, more than I thought I could deal with for a while.’ His voice suddenly gave out, and he smiled self-consciously at the way his emotions had tripped him. ‘I love you,’ he finally managed. ‘I’m inept, I’m a fool and I don’t deserve you at all, but I’m sure as hell never going to let you go. Either of you.’

Reaching out her arms she pulled him to her and kissed him with all the might of her love.

‘Come in with us,’ she said, when finally he raised his head to look into her eyes.

Stripping off his clothes, he got in beside her and lying down next to her he held her and stroked her and laughed as the baby kicked the soap from her belly.

Then he was kissing her again, more deeply and commandingly than before. Their needs and passions were aroused, but as she started to ask him to take her to bed, the phone beside them suddenly crashed into the moment.

‘Do we have to answer it?’ he said.

‘I don’t know. Do we?’

It continued to ring.

‘I guess we should,’ she said.

Scowling, he reached out and brought the phone to his ear. ‘This better be good,’ he said into the receiver.

‘Michael? It’s Tom.’

Michael’s eyes closed. Of all the people … ‘What can I do for you?’ he said.

‘I just checked my e-mail,’ Chambers told him. ‘We need to talk.’

‘Where are you?’ Michael said, reaching for a towel.

‘In the air, about twenty minutes from LAX. Can you meet me?’

‘If you think it’s necessary.’

‘If you’re qualifying,’ Chambers responded, ‘I’d say it’s vital.’

For the past twenty minutes, after he’d clicked off the phone to Michael and waited for the plane to land, Chambers had sat quietly in his seat knowing that there would be no more warnings now, no more procrastinating, the first person had already been killed, and he didn’t even want to think how many more would die before he got the movie to stop.