Chapter 8

I drove Ginny to Waikiki beach. At night the quiet surf and the lack of people made it ideal for calming.

"Do you smoke pot?" I asked.

Shrugging she said, "When in Hawaii..."

I leaned over her and opened the glove compartment. Grabbing the pill bottle of pot I had extracted from the baggie and some papers I closed it quick. "What's with the gun Barry?" asked Ginny.

"For character," I lied. "Like the car, it's a friend's."

"He a cop?"

"She's private."

"A private dick without a dick," said Ginny. "You fuck her?"

"Used to. We're just friends."

"What's wrong with her?"

I shrugged. Reaching back I grabbed my backpack and pulled out the movie script and rolled up a doobie on it. We smoked it.

"I haven't smoked in a decade," she said giggly. "This is some pretty strong shit."

"Probably the best hash buds in the world," I said. "You ready?"

During the walk she took my hand. "This is nice. You're nice."

"Thanks."

"I'm not so nice," she said.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"It's the company I keep."

"Bern's a cool guy," I said.

Suddenly she dropped, her ass landing on the soft sand probably barely feeling it. She sobbed. "Talk to me Ginny," I said sitting beside her.

"It's bullshit. I'm not so nice company or not."

"What's going on?"

"Marnie," she said.

"She's your daughter?"

"She ... was..."

"And Bern's?"

She chuckled despite her tears. "Probably not. I think I was pregnant before that movie. I think I liked the idea of him being the daddy. But I never told him or pretended he was her dad until..."

"Why not?"

"For one I haven't seen him for five years, but that's neither here no there. You see, me and Vinnie..."

"Who's Vinnie?"

"My husband. Calvin Carpenter. I call him Vinnie because he reminds me of a Vinnie. Not outwardly. He couldn't be more of a WASP except of course the Protestant part. You heard of Anton LaVey?"

"Sure. Church of Satan. He's a huckster isn't he?"

"Yeah. I think my husband gave him pointers. Anyway, we're like a brain trust. We're like the sum being greater than its parts. I'm supposed to be this dumb big breasted blonde nymphomaniac, but only the last part is true. I'm an Italian natural brunette. You know that of course. But it was a pact made in hell me and Vinnie meeting."

"He shot the footage," I guessed.

She looked at me oddly. "How did you know? Who are you?"

"Just an actor trying to get gigs," I said. "I figured you still making love to Bern and still married to Calvin after all these years..."

"Be nice," she smiled.

"They must have known each other for awhile."

"Since grade school. But they couldn't be more different. I loved Bern right off. He picked me up at a dance club. We fucked like rabbits. He realized I'd rather fuck and suck than do anything, so he brings me to Vinnie and we click only differently. My heart belonged to Bern, but my head and my mouth and my cunt belonged to Vinnie. Bern's too good for me basically and he certainly couldn't give me what I needed like his friend could, and would have treated me like some sort of stay at home wife and never would have seen my potential and I would have suffocated. Vinnie and I collaborate. We're equally bad. That's why we decided to keep Marnie a secret. We had Vinnie's sister adopt her.

"Marnie ... The apple didn't drop far from the tree. I decided to get my tubes tied, too much confusion with my lifestyle about fatherhood and all that and Vinnie wasn't the father type anyway to say the least and she represented the exclusive next generation of me, the whole mother drive or whatever. I probably spent too much time with her. We loved each other. I represented the crazy aunt, the rebellious one, and my sweet Marnie rebelled. Her adopted parents never had much love to give her. Their sphincters ... I wondered if they ever took a shit. I never told her I gave birth to her. It was my only lie, and I think she knew. I mean, she had a broader face and a smaller nose, but she looked like me. She developed the big sexy butt and the nice tits. I started out as a c cup. I kept her away from the porno, but I told her about it. I told her when she got to be eighteen she could come visit. By then we'd gone legit and her first job she worked as script girl. She was smart and theatrical, acted in school plays playing the leads, interned at a summer stock that developed plays and was precocious even with my bias. Vinnie through me had Bern hire her."

"How'd Vinnie have that happen?"

"He executive produced Opal's first production. He paid for it. We're rich, Barry. Not so much now..."

"What happened?" I asked. She gave me the odd look again. I definitely played a weak game in this case. "Did you lose distribution or something?"

"It's not like that. We've got a few interests going. We own video stores and Vinnie owns a photo lab and equipment rental place, which he owned before we met. He's an entrepreneur and I helped him expand. We've got ... other interests like the porn thing but ... Let's just say the cops questioned the legitimacy of some of them and started playing hardball, slandering us to our buying partners and auditing us. We had to scale back. Vinnie got out of porno basically..."

"But..."

"I didn't, okay?"

"Sorry."

She shrugged. "Anyway, Marnie." She choked up.

"Ginny..."

"No, its helping. During the first production they flirted, Bern and Marnie. She being half his age and he being married, they kept their pants on. When the second production arrived, they couldn't stop themselves. They fell into each other's arms the moment they reacquainted and didn't separate for the whole production. Bern divorced his wife. But Marnie, like I said, didn't drop far from me. She needed sex. She became a porn star in my productions. Bern found out and broke it off. But he couldn't stay away and began coming to the sets. He discovered he liked watching her perform and it enhanced their sex ten fold. It became a crutch. But things went cold after awhile. They remained friends and she kept working for him. Except..."

"What? She started dating Roger?"

"What are you talking about? What about Roger?"

"They went to the Big Island and disappeared and..."

"Who are you?"

"I'm..."

"Who are you?"

"You're paranoid. It's good weed."

"Bullshit!" She stood up. Then she bounced back down. "Tell me," she said quietly.

"Shit," I said, not meaning to say it out loud. "What are you going to do?"

"I hate cops."

"I'm not a cop," I said.

"Private," she said. I nodded. "You knew the Asian detective and the swarthy guy."

I nodded. "Nakamoto's a captain."

"Really. Wow."

"He came as a favor. We've known each other a long time and he likes fucking my partner."

Laughing she said, "The female dick who doesn't fuck you."

"I lied about that too," I said.

"Well at least she's not stupid."

"Anything but; unlike me."

"Does Rebecca know?"

"Becky knows. Like you RJ figured it out and we shared the information with her. I've definitely lost my edge."

"I know cops, private or otherwise. RJ knows bullshit."

"So you've met him." We laughed.

"I tried call girl for awhile but didn't like it. I like being in control in relationships and not playing to the john unless that's part of the control. It is, but not enough. Besides its too risky."

I nodded. "My best friend's an escort. She's the best in town. RJ happens to be our favorite cool actor so I set them up."

"That was sweet."

"I thought so."

"I remember he's a good lay, although that was a few years ago."

"He still is."

"The old goat." We laughed.

"I should hate you," she said.

"You should."

"I should kill you."

"I'd rather you didn't. How about immunity?"

"From what? I didn't kill my daughter and neither did my husband."

"Kidnapping."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Tell me what happened. Tell me about the snafus."

"Revenge I guess. You heard about the drug comedy. Bern insisted on doing the script. Vinnie thought it crap and ... uhm..."

"A little too close to home."

"How did you know?"

"I have very talented friends."

"It's not like my husband couldn't take a joke, but the whole thing with the Video store owner, Bern had the writer add it. It's actually pretty funny, but he poured salt on the wound. Instead of letting Bern go off the deep end for one picture to show Vinnie could tell a hit from a flop like Bern can, the added scenes drove a shiv into the relationship and Vinnie sued."

"Why didn't he finish the suit?"

"I don't know. The film became a hit and made Opal flush and maybe Vinnie felt like a fool, which Vinnie never feels like, you know? He's a proud man, arrogant I guess, but I like that about him. That's just what I figure. He came home one day and got drunk and said he withdrew it. Things started going to shit after that. Not like a ship sinking, more like a slowly developing cancer.