Chapter 28

It was late October, and it was the moment of truth. That night — Friday — the first sneak preview of Kelly was going to be run at a theater in Beverly Hills. Both Brad and Kim were amazed at the location. Although neither knew much about the business side of the film business, they thought that films were often previewed in the Hollywood vicinity, but they didn’t think a preview would be in a place like Beverly Hills.

They decided to wear Levi’s and since Brad was wearing his sweatshirt from Berkeley, Kim wore hers from Cal Tech. They knew the Douglases were planning to attend with Lisa along with others from the film, but they had also decided not to attend together.

Arriving at the theater, they saw a sign close by the ticket window indicating there would be a sneak preview that night and indicated on which screen in the multiplex it would appear. Standing together in the line, they were surprised to hear so many different people talking about the preview, and as they got closer to the cashier they were amazed at how many of the people were buying tickets for it.

They decided it was a good thing they had arrived early; the preview looked like it would be a sellout, and was. When Brad asked her about popcorn, Kim eagerly nodded her head, so he bought the biggest bucket they had.

As the film rolled, they were pleased that the audience seemed to be reacting appropriately to what was on the screen. Their first love scene was greeted with gasps of awe. The final one was accompanied by moans as more than a few men and women got themselves off while watching the action on the screen.

Although they had seen every scene a number of times, it was the first time either Brad or Kim had ever seen the whole thing in one pass, let alone on a big screen. Even they agreed it was awesome. To their surprise, the last scene as they walked toward the waiting Blackhawk clearly showed the expansion of the blood stains on the back of Kim’s blouse.

Finally it was over and the couple exited the theater while each tried to listen to any comments about the film from the other people. What little they heard was uniformly great.

They had agreed to meet the Douglases at the entrance when the film concluded. There was a spot close to the entrance that was devoid of people and it was a perfect place for them to wait. While they were waiting, they noticed a group of young people — apparently high-school age — standing about 40 feet away, just watching them. Finally a girl separated from the group and came toward them. She was followed by other young women while the boys remained where they were.

“You’re Kim Kramer, aren’t you?” the girl said softly.

Kim just nodded her head.

“That was the greatest performance I’ve ever seen!” the girl gushed. She paused and then continued, “The lovemaking on screen was real, wasn’t it? It had to be.”

By this time the other girls were crowding around. One of them said, “Of course it was! Didn’t you see the blushing that began at her tits and moved up to her neck and face? Not only was the lovemaking real, she had a real honest-to-God orgasm on camera! That might have been an all-time first; I don’t think even the girls in the porn films really cum on camera.”

Another girl was looking at Brad. “Sir, you’re a real hero, too, aren’t you?”

Brad tried to temporize, but Kim replied, “He certainly is. My darling husband holds a Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star and a Purple Heart. Those are the second- and third-highest awards for bravery in combat our country can award. And you’re not going to find any of them in a cereal box, either.”

“And you two can really shoot, can’t you?” another girl commented. “That business at the bank a couple of weeks ago was unreal!”

Brad and Kim had been driving from Huntington Beach to Hollywood when they had pulled off the freeway so that Brad could take care of some banking business. Although they didn’t know it at the time, the city where they had stopped had some of the strictest gun-control laws in the nation. A permit to carry a concealed weapon was essentially impossible to obtain.

The couple were unaware of this, and also unaware of the fact that three bank branches had been held up in the city over the prior four weeks. Because every one of the holdups had resulted in shootings and death — the death toll was up to seven by then: two bank guards and five customers had been shot and killed — the holdups had been featured on the local TV news shows. What had not been featured, though, was the fact that all the holdups were in the same city, nor was there any mention of the city’s gun-control laws.

They entered the bank during the noon hour, and the teller lines were long. Kim stayed close to the entrance while Brad stood in the line at the last teller window; it appeared to be the shortest. While Kim was woolgathering, six men burst into the bank. All were hooded and were carrying M-16s or similar-appearing weapons. One of them immediately shot the guard while another fired into the ceiling.

“On the floor!” another yelled, and the customers dropped.

At that instant, things came together for both Kim and Brad, both of whom were armed with the weapons Kelly had given them. Because Kim’s was in her purse, she had easier access. By this time the six gunmen were spread across the banking floor in two groups of three. Kelly pulled her gun and opened fire with double-taps. At her first shot, the five remaining gunmen looked in her direction providing Brad with his opportunity. An instant later, both guns were firing and all six robbers were on the floor.

Jumping to her feet, Kim raced for the door closely followed by Brad. There were two cars at the curb with their motors running. The two drivers were hauled from the cars and put on the ground.

Another girl spoke up. “My dad is chief of detectives here in Beverly Hills.” The girl grinned and continued, “He said that screaming, ‘On your face, asshole!’ isn’t the most appropriate way to make an arrest.” She paused, then added, “But it was effective, though. By the way, he also said that the local police tried to give you two a hard time. Is that true?”

“Let’s just say that it was a good thing that Brad called the FBI on his cellphone,” Kim replied. “It saved us a lot of hassles.”

That was a massive understatement on Kim’s part. What had actually happened was that, as soon as Kim and Brad took their shots, a teller hit the silent alarm. She had been too frightened to do it earlier. A short time later, local police started to pour into the bank, and two officers immediately moved to pick up the felons’ weapons that were lying on the floor.

“Stop!” Brad yelled. He got the officers’ attention.

“Leave everything right where it is until the crime lab people arrive,” he continued.

“But...” one of the officers protested, “there are guns lying on the floor. And they’re probably loaded, too. Someone could get hurt.”

Brad could scarcely believe his ears. “Look, guns don’t shoot people. People shoot people. None of those weapons is going to fire by itself!”

But then he became aware of the fact that other officers were about to move the bodies. “What in hell are you guys doing?” he yelled.

“We’re ... we’re going to give CPR until the EMTs arrive,” was the response. The victim was one that Brad had shot.

“That’s going to be a very good trick,” Brad commented while shaking his head. “His heart is in pieces. There’s no heart to resuscitate.”

At that point a police sergeant appeared. He was shocked to find that both Brad and Kim were armed. As he was about to draw his gun, he found that Kim had her gun out and aimed in his general direction. “Don’t touch it!” she said softly. Although her weapon was not pointed at him, its direction was close enough.

“But guns are forbidden in this city!” the sergeant exclaimed. “The ordnance was passed by the council unanimously,” he added proudly.

“That’s wonderful,” Kim commented acidly. “Might that have anything to do with the fact that you’ve had seven people killed in bank robberies here over the last few weeks?” Then she added, “Brad and I are both Federal officers.” She showed the officer her Justice Department ID and he was still poring over it when the first FBI agents appeared.

“These are fakes!” the sergeant declared. “The government doesn’t issue things like this.”

The FBI’s senior agent on the scene had already heard from Washington. “The hell it doesn’t!” he responded. “And I got that word from the Director himself only moments ago.”

By this time the crime lab people had appeared. They marked and identified all the bodies on the floor and carefully tagged all the weapons to know which was in the hands of whom. When they finished their initial work, the coroner’s people appeared. That was when they found that two of Kim’s targets showed only single bullet holes in their heads. With the help of the crime lab people, they tried to determine from the relative positions of the body and Kim’s firing spot where the stray bullet might have gone.

“Don’t bother,” Kim said. “I’m certain you’ll find two bullets in the brain. I’ve done this a couple of times before on the range. Two bullets entering a single hole.”

And that’s exactly what they did find when a post mortem was performed awhile later.

The two drivers were being held without bail on charges of felony murder. Each had been identified from video tape as having shot and killed people in earlier holdups. Both had been wounded by other gang members who were careless with their weapons.

“Dad says your shooting was unreal,” the girl continued. “Apparently it was easy to tell who shot whom. Mrs. Kramer, you apparently shoot for the head while Mr. Kramer aims for the heart. In every case, there were two bullets on the target; they were all very dead.”

“They were trigger-happy punks,” Brad commented. “Already there were seven dead, and Kim and I were glad to be able to stop the carnage there. Fortunately, the bank guard where we were was only wounded and is expected to recover.”

“Unbelievable!” the first girl exclaimed. Then, looking at Kim she added, “But I’ve seen you someplace else, too...”

“Probably one of those Female Fitness interviews,” another girl said. “She runs that company.”

“My God!” the first girl murmured, “You really do it all, don’t you?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Dan Douglas replied, having just joined the group with Donna. “Our problem with Kim Kramer is trying to find time for her to do another film for us.”

The girls didn’t recognize Dan but certainly recognized Donna. They put the two things together and realized that he was the film’s producer/director.

Another girl had been studying Kim carefully. Finally she blurted, “You’re not wearing any makeup, are you?”

“No, she’s not,” Penny Watts said, joining the group along with Henry Hall. “And if there were many more like her, I would be out of business.”

It had become clear that many of the girls who surrounded them were daughters of people in the film community. As a result, they not only knew the stars, they also knew many of the behind-the-scenes people.

Henry Hall was asked, “Sir, what do you think of Kim Kramer?”

Henry just laughed. “What do I think? I think she’s the most beautiful woman in Hollywood, and the most capable. Do you realize there were no doubles used in the filming of that motion picture?”

“None?” another girl gasped. “You mean... ?”

“I mean!” he replied emphatically.

“Ms. Watts, there are two things that I was wondering about. I just don’t see how you could do it...”

“Do what?” Penny asked.

“Well ... In the last lovemaking, it looked like blood was running down Kim’s side. And then in the final scene where they’re walking to the helicopter, it almost looked like the bloodstains on her back were expanding in size. How did you do that?”

“It’s back to what Henry said a moment ago,” Penny explained. “Kim was actually whipped; those were real bleeding stripes on her back. Apparently their lovemaking got a little strenuous, and the cuts opened up. What you saw was her blood flowing down her side. And it was the same thing in the final scene; those cuts were still bleeding as they walked to the chopper.”

“But how could you?” a girl gasped.

“It’s what really happened to Kelly Jackson in Germany,” Kim explained, “so that’s what we did.”

“What’s next?” a girl asked Dan Douglas.

“I really can’t answer that,” Dan replied. “It’s up to Ali Clifford, their agent. Even though this was the first public screening of the film, the buzz is all over town. The Kramers are the hottest thing to hit town in many years. And there is no end to the kind of films they can do.