“So who won?” Todd wanted to know.
“Quincy broke two fingers when he fell against his car, and Dinny got a bloody nose. So I don’t know who won. It’s all so ridiculous. Acting like children.”
“Did you actually see them fighting?”
“No, but I saw Dinny afterwards. Blood all over his shirt.” There was a pause. “I think he knows something.”
“What?”
“He was quite civilized about it. You know how he is. Shriveled up little prick. He just said to me: I hear Todd’s had some medical problems, and now you’ve got him under lock and key. And I just looked at him. Said nothing. But he knows.”
“This is so fucked.”
“I don’t know how we deal with it, frankly. Sooner or later, he’s going to suggest a piece to Vanity Fair, and they’re going to jump on it.”
“So fucked,” Todd said, more quietly. “What the hell did I do to deserve this?”
Maxine let the question go. Then she said. “Oh, by the way, do you remember Tammy Lauper?”
“No.”
“She runs the Fan Club.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Fat.”
“Is she fat?”
“She’s practically obese.”
“Did she come to the office?”
“No; I got a call from the police in Sacramento, asking if we’d seen her. She’s gone missing.”
“And they think I might have absconded with her?”
“I don’t know what they think. The point is, you haven’t seen her up here?”
“Nope.”
“Maybe over in Bel Air?”
“I haven’t been over in Bel Air. Ask Marco.”
“Yeah, well I said I’d ask you and I asked.”
Todd went to the living-room window, and gazed out at the Bird of Paradise trees that grew close to the house. They hadn’t been trimmed in many years; and were top-heavy with flowers and rotted foliage, their immensity blocking his view of the opposite hill. But it didn’t take much of an effort of imagination to bring the Canyon into his mind’s eye. The palm-trees that lined the opposite ridge; the pathways and the secret groves; the empty swimming pool, the empty koi pond; the statues, standing in the long grass. He was suddenly seized by an overwhelming desire to be out there in the warm sunshine, away from Maxine and her brittle gossip.
“I gotta go,” he said to Maxine.
“Go where?”
“I just gotta go,” he said, heading for the door.
“Wait,” Maxine said. “We haven’t finished business.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“No, I’m afraid this part can’t.”
Todd made an impatient sigh, and turned back to her. “What is it?”
“I’ve been doing some thinking over the last few days. About our working relationship.”
“What about it?”
“Well, to put it bluntly, I think it’s time we parted company.”
Todd didn’t say anything. He just looked at Maxine with an expression of utter incomprehension on his face, as though she’d just spoken to him in a foreign language. Then, after perhaps ten seconds, he returned his gaze to the Birds of Paradise.
“You don’t know how wearying it gets,” Maxine went on. “Waking up thinking about whether everything’s okay with Todd, and going to sleep thinking the same damn thing. Not having a minute in a day when I’m not worrying about you. I just can’t do it anymore. It’s simple as that. It’s making me ill. I’ve got high blood pressure, high cholesterol — ”
“I’ve made you a lot of money over the years,” Todd broke in to observe.
“And I’ve taken care of you. It’s been a very successful partnership. You made me rich. I made you famous.”
“You didn’t make me famous.”
“Well, if I didn’t I’d like to know who the hell did.”
“Me,” Todd replied, raising the volume of his voice just a fraction. “It’s me people came to see. It’s me they loved. I made myself famous.”
“Don’t kid yourself,” Maxine said, her voice a stone.
There was a long silence. The wind brushed the leaves of the Bird of Paradise trees together, like the blades of plastic swords being brushed together.
“Wait,” Todd said. “I know what this is about. You’ve got a new boy. That’s it, isn’t it? You’re fucking some kid, and — ”
“I’m not fucking anybody, Todd.”