The Last Don - Mario Puzo [95]
“She got any grudges she’s paying off?” Cross asked.
“You don’t understand the business,” Deere said. “First thing, the Studio would let her scam them. Stars always do that. Second, if she has a grudge, it’s right out in the open. She’s just weird.” He paused for a moment. “She hates Bobby Bantz and she’s not crazy about me. We’ve both been after her ass for years but never a tumble.”
“Too bad you couldn’t help,” Claudia said to Cross. But he didn’t answer her.
All during the trip from Malibu, Cross had been thinking hard. That this was the opportunity he was looking for. It would be dangerous, but if it worked he could finally make a break from the Clericuzio.
“Skippy,” Cross said, “I have a proposition I want to make to you and the Studio. I’ll buy your picture right now. I’ll give the fifty million you’ve invested, put up the money to complete it, and let the Studio distribute it.”
“You’ve got a hundred million?” Skippy Deere and Claudia both asked in astonishment.
“I know people who have it,” Cross said.
“You can’t get Athena back. And without Athena, there’s no picture,” Deere said.
“I said I’m a great persuader,” Cross said. “Can you get me a meeting with Eli Marrion?”
“Sure,” Deere said, “but only if I stay on as producer of the picture.”
The meeting was not so easy to arrange. LoddStone Studios, that is to say, Eli Marrion and Bobby Bantz, had to be convinced that Cross De Lena was not just another big-mouth hustler, that he had the money and the credentials. Certainly he owned part of the Xanadu Hotel in Vegas, but he had no personal recorded financial worth that indicated he could swing the deal he proposed. Deere would vouch for him, but the clincher was when Cross showed a fifty-million-dollar letter of credit.
On the advice of his sister, Cross De Lena hired Molly Flanders as his lawyer for the deal.
Molly Flanders received Cross in her cave of an office. Cross was very alert, he knew certain things about her. In the world he had lived all his life, he had never met a woman who wielded power in any way, and Claudia had told him that Molly Flanders was one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. Studio chiefs took her calls, monster agents like Melo Stuart sought her help on the biggest deals. Stars like Athena Aquitane used her in their quarrels with studios. Flanders had once stopped production of the top miniseries on TV when her star client’s check had been delayed in the mail.
She was much better looking than Cross had expected. She was large but well-proportioned and dressed beautifully. But on that body was the face of an elfin blond witch, the aquiline nose, the generous mouth and fierce brown eyes that seemed to squint with intense, intelligent combativeness. Her hair was braided into snakes around her head. She was forbidding until she smiled.
Molly Flanders, for all her toughness, was susceptible to handsome men and liked Cross as soon as she saw him. She was surprised because she had expected Claudia’s brother to be homely. More than the handsomeness, she saw a force that Claudia did not have. He had a look of awareness that the world held no surprises. All this, however, did not convince her that she wanted to take Cross on as a client. She had heard rumors about certain connections, she didn’t like the world of Vegas, and she was dubious as to the extent of his determination to take such a horrendous gamble.
“Mr. De Lena,” she said, “let me make one thing clear. I represent Athena Aquitane as a lawyer not an agent. I’ve explained the consequences she must bear if she persists in her course of action. I’m convinced she will persist in it. Now, if you make your deal with the Studio and Athena still doesn’t go back to work, I will represent her if you pursue legal action against her.”
Cross looked at her intently. He had no way he could read a woman like this. He had to put most of his cards on the table. “I’ll sign a waiver that I won’t sue Miss Aquitane if I do buy the picture,” he said. “And I have a check for two hundred thousand