Chapter 71

Jacksonville wasn’t a dud by any stretch, but it lacked the energy from San Diego, Los Angeles and Phoenix. Part of it was the long layoff. Liz had relaxed during her break and it showed in her performance. It wasn’t as crisp as what I’d grown to expect.

I would have blamed it entirely on the leaked recording if the rest of the stage show wasn’t slightly off, too.

The crowd enjoyed it but they hadn’t seen the West Coast shows so they had no frame of reference.

Liz wasn’t the only person to pick up on a distinct frostiness between me and Stephanie. Jill and Ryan both asked me about it but I shrugged it off. I only wish I felt badly about what I’d done. I didn’t.

Oh well.

The call everybody had been dreading came just after 11 p.m. on the East Coast. Liz was showering and preparing for the trip to the airport and the flight to Dallas when my phone buzzed.

I offered a silent thanks to Chris for “procuring” an experimental app that displayed the city a call was coming from even if the caller blocked the number. I saw Asheville, North Carolina, and the blocked number on my screen.

“Hey!” I yelled to the others in the room. “It’s time and I need you to be quiet!”

Jill started to retort before the realization dawned on her. Her face went white and she put her arm around Brian’s waist.

“Hello,” I said. “Can I assume this is Steven Morton?”

I was greeted by silence and a few stammers.

I read off his address and Social Security number from a piece of paper I kept in my pocket.

“W ... wait!” he said.

“I’ve been expecting your call,” I said. “This is Travis Blakely. I’m Liz Larimer’s publicist. What can I do for you?”

The man on the other end of the line lapsed into silence again.

“I’m preparing to post an exposé on my web site,” the man said eventually. “I wanted to let Miss Larimer comment.”

I waited for him to continue but he didn’t.

“And?” I asked.

“Does she have a comment?” he asked.

“It’s customary that you tell me what you’re alleging before I can offer a response,” I noted. “You’re not very good at this, are you, Steven? Or would you prefer I call you Stefan Gordon. That was the name you used to fraudulently register your domain name. You do realize those are overseen by a commission associated with the federal government and you might be charged with perjury. I guess we can discuss that in a moment. Right now, I’m interested in hearing what your ‘exposé’ is about.”

“I think you know,” he said.

“Pretend I don’t,” I said.

“I have two sources that have given me evidence of Miss Larimer’s involvement in the deaths of three police officers outside of Milan, Italy,” he said.

“Now you’re just being silly,” I said. “Who are your sources?”

“I can’t reveal my sources,” the man said.

“You’re not a journalist,” I said. “You’re a website owner. You don’t have the same protections. But, just for giggles, let’s pretend you do. I’ll let you keep Michael McHenry and Lillian Graves a secret until the judge makes you produce them. What’s your evidence?”

“I ... I have an audio of Liz Larimer confessing!” the man tried.

“No, you don’t,” I said dismissively. “Is that what McHenry told you? God, you’re a dupe. Look, Sport, let me fill you in on a few facts. The audio you heard is not Liz Larimer. It was someone else paid with drugs by Michael McHenry’s lover – the other voice on the recording – to make allegations as part of an extortion scheme. And, if you publish it, I will make it my personal crusade to see you in prison right beside McHenry and Graves.”

I consulted the paper in my hand again. I didn’t want to leave anything unsaid.

“Let me tell you about your sources. Michael McHenry was a quarter of a million dollars in debt to a Las Vegas bookie and needed money to keep them from killing him,” I said. “So he concocted a scheme with Lillian Graves, a failed Nashville singer with a monstrous drug habit, to put together the tape you’ve got. It isn’t Liz Larimer. But it is somebody well known. Think about the other names mentioned and you’ll have a clue about who’s on the tape.”

“I...” Morton stammered. “What other names?”

“They edited it, didn’t they?” I asked with a laugh. “Holy fuck, did you piss away fifty grand or what? Well, that’s tough shit, Bucko. McHenry already spent that. You made a deal with the devil and he stuck the pitchfork right up your ass! OK, Steven or Stefan or whoever you want to be today. Here’s the deal. First off, do you think you’re the first person they tried to sell the recording to? You’re not. You’re just the only person dumb enough to actually give them cash for something as stupid as this. So, here’s how things are. If that story goes up, I’m coming for you. You better take a long look around that house tonight because I’ll be there with the sheriff next week to set you, your darling wifey and that cute little girl of yours out on the fucking street. The defamation suit will be just the start. I’ll take every penny you have and every penny you’ll ever have. Your website isn’t registered to an LLC. It’s registered under your fake name.

“I won’t have much trouble proving it belongs to you. After all, I have your name and your address and your phone number. Liz Larimer Entertainment will own your soul. Now, under normal circumstances, that would be good for you. Liz is really a sweet person and she’d laugh this off. Sadly for you, I’m a prick and I will fucking bury you. So, if you want to try to raise your kid from a cardboard box, do your thing and I’ll see you in the morning.”

I heard heavy breathing coming from the other line.

“That was the stick,” I said. “Now, I don’t want you to think I won’t do everything I told you I would. I will see you charged with extortion. I will see you do time in federal prison for perjury. I will bankrupt you and, if I can swing it, I’ll put your fucking kid into the foster care system. But, I’ve been spending a lot of time around Liz and she’s rubbed off on me a little, I guess. I know you mortgaged your house to pay McHenry because you expected someone to make a bid to buy your little site from you after you used it to bring down Liz Larimer. That’s not going to happen. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you but the money you spent is pretty well gone. No one can buy something with a lien against it and that shitty gossip site of yours will be the first thing a judge attaches.

“Now, here is the carrot. It probably won’t make you the fifty grand you tossed away but it should keep the bank from showing up to toss you out and keep your wife from divorcing you when she finds out what you did. I will become an anonymous source to lead you into the depths of the Nashville and Los Angeles music business. I’ll provide you with documents that show how the labels use the artist’s innocence and desperation to coerce them into signing one-sided contracts that include the loss of their intellectual property rights, the exploitation of their image without regard to the artist’s wishes and the theft of royalty payments through collusion with the radio stations. It won’t win you a Pulitzer and you’re going to actually have to put that two-year degree to use but I will point you in the right direction. Oh, and I’ll help you get a pound of flesh from McHenry. Flesh is all you can get because his wife is going take all the money. That’s the best you’re going to get from us.”

I heard more heavy breathing on the other end.

“And, should you decide to publish that ludicrous story, you can add this quote from Liz Larimer,” I said. “Quote: That is the most laughable recitation that I’ve ever heard. End quote. And you can add that Miss Larimer categorically denied that the voice on the recording belongs to her. That will be the starting point for the defamation suit.

“For God’s sake, do yourself a favor. Find one of Liz’s interviews on YouTube and compare it to the one on the tape before you find yourself in a world of shit that drags your entire family down with you. You have my number if you want help on the contract story – and I have your address if your story sees the light of day. Count on me paying a very personal visit to you if you decide that doing the right thing is too much trouble for you. Have a nice night, Steven.”

The room was still silent after I put the phone away. I sat down heavily in a chair and exhaled noisily just as Liz and Stephanie walked in.

“God damn!” Dom said, breaking the silence. “You fucking ripped that guy a new asshole! How did you get all that shit on him?”

“Travis?” Liz said, turning to me.

“It came,” I said, wiping sweat from my brow. “Just like we thought it would.”

“And?” Stephanie asked.

“McHenry told him it was Liz on the recording,” I answered.

“Recording!” Stephanie exclaimed. “You didn’t tell us anything about a recording!”

“I didn’t know about it until Saturday,” I said.

“How bad?” Liz asked.

“Travis fucking destroyed the guy!” Jill said. “He started off the call by reading off his address and Social Security number. Then he lit into him and explained that the guy had walked into something he didn’t want to be a part of. Christ, if I was that guy I’d close the website tomorrow and head for Mexico.”

“It was deftly done,” Skye said, looking at me with an appraising eye. “He didn’t actually deny the allegations. He pointed out the flaws in the evidence and the shortcomings in the sourcing. Then he explained the travails that would follow if the story went public. He never actually said you’d do anything, Liz. He always said he’d be the one to bring him down. Given the amount of information he had on the guy ... I would have believed him.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly and started to speak but closed her mouth.

“I totally believed him,” Jill said. “He was ... I don’t know what he was. Scary, I guess. His voice was so icy.”

“Do you think he’ll hold the story?” Liz asked.

“I think so,” I said. “I gave him all the incentive I could think about. I took your advice and offered him a story about the way labels abuse young artists. He’s not a real journalist so I’m not sure he’ll take it. But I think I made certain that he understood he’d put his money on the wrong horse. McHenry really oversold his hand. I think the fact he edited the audio and said it was you will be enough to get the guy to think twice.”

“OK,” Liz said.

“You knew about this?” Stephanie asked, almost in hysterics.

“Of course she knew about it,” Ryan said angrily. “I don’t know why she kept it from us but I’m sure she has her reasons.”

“She kept it from you because I kept it from her until yesterday,” I said. “I convinced her that telling you about it before we knew for sure wouldn’t help anything. She needs you focused on your jobs right now, not about what the future might hold.”

“Can I assume you have the same sort of information on everybody else?” Skye asked, formulating the question she wanted to ask earlier.

“You can assume anything your little heart desires,” I said. “If I went looking for information and you’re still here then you should probably assume that either I couldn’t find anything or I don’t think it will affect your relationship with Liz. Anything I might know will never be used for any purpose. I don’t care that you once shoplifted a pair of panties from a lingerie store.”

“I did not!” Skye said.

“Oh, wait, that was me,” I said, smiling at her. “We all have transgressions in our past. I’m no angel and I won’t pretend to be. The only reason I looked into anyone was because of something a friend of mine told me. A person turns traitor for one of three reasons: Cash, Ideology or Extortion. I discounted the first two. You’re all paid really well; you all believe in Liz. So that left the last one. I had to ensure that nobody had a skeleton in their closet that would cause them to reveal something secret to hurt Liz. Once we determined what was coming, I dismissed everyone here and focused on...”

“He calls them the ‘retard models, ‘“ Liz added. “I’ve been aware for the past couple of weeks that Travis delved into our backgrounds far more extensively than Ryan did.”

“That’s not true,” I said. “Ryan was focused on the present and the recent past. I went all the way back as far as I could find stuff. Well, I didn’t do it. I hired someone with a lot more experience in muckraking. It wasn’t personal. I did the same thing to Liz as I tried to figure out what was headed our way. If you guys want, I’ll have the guy dig up stuff on me and pass it along to you. Then we’ll all be even.”

“I thought about doing the same but I didn’t think Liz would pay for it,” Ryan said.

“Liz didn’t pay for anything,” I clarified. “This was done on my own with my own money. She did not consent and she did not pay for it. In fact, she told me that she would not repay the money I spent.”

“But you obviously expected her to,” Stephanie noted.

“No,” Liz cut in. “He didn’t. When he told me about it, I asked him how much it cost him. I told him I wouldn’t pay for it and he told me that he never expected me to. Now, let’s put this behind us for the next few hours and focus on Dallas. We still need a lot of things to go right or McHenry is still going to come out on top. I will not have that happen without one hell of a fight.”

Liz was still slightly perturbed at me when we arrived at private airfield near Dallas. She had slept most of the flight and she had a promotional appearance in the afternoon so we took her back so she could get a little more sleep.