Chapter 7

"Interesting, Scott. Very interesting," Harry Halliday remarked as he examined the transparencies Scott had taken of Kathy with the radio in her hands.

"Look, Harry," Scott said quickly, "I'm not going to pretend this technique is easy or inexpensive. It will take several days alone simply to set up the lighting, and as much as a day or two of shooting to get what we want. The film itself costs an arm and a leg, but I really think this will do everything we want."

"The expense, as long as it's within reason, doesn't bother us, Scott," Harry commented. "I'll certainly admit that it's different."

"Think of the prestige a catalogue built around this type of photography will gain in your industry," Scott persisted. "You won't have just another run-of-the-mill brochure. You'll have something distinctive and unique, something that sets Merrill apart from all of the others."

"You don't have to sell me, Scott," Harry chuckled. "I think I'm pretty well sold on it right now."

"Great!"

"But hold on, Scott," Harry warned. "For something as unique as this is, I'll have to have board approval."

"But you can handle that, can't you Harry?" Scott asked.

"Well, I think so," Harry replied slowly. "I've got a couple of ultra-conservative board members to hurdle, though. What worries me is that they'll probably have to see something like a finished product to understand it. How much cost are we talking about for you to set up and take some preliminary shots, Scott?"

"Preliminary shots?"

"Something I can show the board with our product and all," Harry explained. "This girl, by the way, is too young to use. She looks all of eighteen or nineteen. That's not our market. We need somebody in their thirties. Not old, mind you, but a little more mature."

"Harry, to shoot preliminary photos is the same as shooting the finals. The set-up time and all is the same."

"I understand," Harry said. "But what will it cost if you cut corners here and there and give me something to show the board?"

Scott was a moment in replying.

"I'll be honest, Harry, I don't know what corners I can cut. With luck, maybe the lighting can be set up in a day or a day-and- a-half. And maybe I can get something worth looking at in four or five hours of shooting. Look, this is a hip pocket estimate, but I might be able to wiggle in with two thousand to twenty-five hundred dollars."

"That's good enough for me, Scott. Get right on it and give me something by Monday, if you can. Our regular board meeting is Monday, and I'd like to present it then."

"Monday!?" Scott exclaimed. "My God, Harry, that gives me four days!"

"Try."

"Okay, okay," Scott mumbled as his mind worked like a computer on what he would need. "Look, I'll have to have a way to get in here all weekend, if I need it."

"I'll assign you a security man with a key," Harry replied.

Scott spent several hours in the security room where the golf cart was kept studying the best area to use for the actual photography. Harry steadfastly refused to let him take the golf cart outside, so Scott would have to create the illusion of a golf course inside the building. Astroturf would do for grass. Four pieces of sheet rock mounted on a two-by-four frame and taped and bedded could serve as a background. An artist could splash some trees and a fairway on the sheet rock. The quality of the art wasn't critical because the green lights would give a hazy illusion in the background, so an art student could throw that together for him for a hundred and fifty, or two hundred bucks.

He wrote everything he would need on a list and then double- checked himself before he climbed into his car and drove down to the photographic supply house and ordered the materials he would need. His next stop was a lumber yard where he ordered the wood and sheet rock he would need and had it delivered to the Merrill plant. After a brief talk with the manager of a building supply company, Scott made a deal to rent enough Astroturf for a week.

It was after five when he arrived back at his apartment house and as he walked around the swimming pool toward his apartment he ran into Kathy. With the fourteen-year-old girl was a very attractive woman and for a moment Scott thought that it might be Kathy's friend, Lisa. Then he saw that Kathy's companion was a woman in her thirties.

The woman was an older version of Kathy and the resemblance was striking. She had Kathy's figure, hair, even the young girl's face.