Gladys Dribbel sat back in her chair and looked out through the windows of her office. Despite her weight, the chair did not creak as she leaned back—the amount of money it cost, it damn well shouldn't. Her navy blue suit and crocodile leather shoes also breathed money. But she was worth it. Without her, Devlin would have gone bankrupt or been arrested years ago and he made sure she was suitably rewarded. Gladys knew he was buying her loyalty and she found she could live with it. After years working for respectable law firms—and being constantly passed over for partnerships because of her weight issues—it was odd to realise that the employer who best appreciated her talents was a womanising dickhead in the porn industry.
Gladys had a view of the parking lot. It was not an attractive view, but she liked to believe that if the Feds or the I.R.S. ever came, they'd come for Devlin first and she'd have to time to make a getaway through the back stairs. Given her size, this was a tad optimistic, but nevertheless she would park her car near the fire exit. Also, being able to see who came and went had its uses. Earlier that week, for example, that shabby private dick, Humphrey Harrison, had been to see the boss—a dumb move on Devlin's part, thought Gladys. The whole point of hiring a private detective was that nobody knew you'd hired one. Still, that was Devlin, showing off even when he was trying to be discreet.
There was a knock on the door.
'Come in,' said Gladys, her face still turned towards the window.
It was Dolores.
'Gladys, do you have a minute?'
'Of course. Take a seat.'
Dolores closed the door and went to sit on one of the chairs on the other side of Gladys's desk. There was a loud creak as she sat down and Gladys had to work to keep her expression neutral. Ironically, fat people disgusted her.
'So how can I help?' said Gladys.
Dolores hated the way she always said that. Gladys was only out to help herself. Dolores coughed to get the resentment out of her voice.
'This rumour about the fluff girl with HIV,' she said. 'You said you'd heard it from Roger Ramrod?'
'No,' said Gladys. 'I said I'd heard there was a rumour about an actor who saw a medical file on a chair.'
'But an actor with a moustache and mullet?'
'That's what I was told, yes.'
'Who told you?'
'Is this a cross examination, Dolores?'
'No.'
'Then what is going on?'
'Nothing. But you said there was a rumour and I'm just asking where you heard it?'
'Our priority is to establish whether or not there is any truth to it, wouldn't you say? We can't have someone running around with HIV, can we?'
'No, of course not.'
'So did you check the files?'
Gladys looked at Dolores with an expression that was amiable, but there was steel in the small eyes. Dolores found herself wondering what Gladys would do if she caught her in a lie. Had Gladys been the one to find the file on the chair? Was she staging this as a test to see if it was her or Phyllis who had done it?
There was a knock and Phyllis stuck her head round the door.
'Could you give us a moment, Phyllis?' said Gladys.
'This is urgent,' said Phyllis. 'There is a file missing; a fluff girl's medical file.'
'Whose?'
'Shirley Goober.'
Dolores was glad she was seated or she would have collapsed. As it was, her formidable guts twisted into knots.
'Shirley Goober,' said Gladys, tapping the keys on her computer. 'Here we go: Age 20. Joined the studio six months ago. Voted runner-up in the Sex Cat Club's annual blow-job competition. Dreams of winning.'
'HIV will put the brakes on that,' said Phyllis.
'Motive to steal a medical file though, wouldn't you say?'
'Pretty dumb motive.'
'Well, we're not dealing with a PhD graduate, are we? What do you think, Dolores?'
Dolores managed to shrug and make some kind of reply. Then she excused herself and went to visit the ladies room where she locked herself in a cubicle and surrendered to another gut-ripping bowel movement. A cockroach that had been hiding under the rim of the toilet bowl experienced Armageddon and after being battered and thrown about for what felt like eternity, it was flushed to a place where it never saw daylight again.
In Studio 69, Cyrus watched footage on the monitor while the lighting guy replaced a dead bulb in a spotlight. The other crew members busied themselves with their equipment. In the middle of them, Shirley lounged naked on the bed, swigging water and tapping her smart-phone. Occasionally, semen ran out of her and down her thigh and she would wipe it away with a towel she half lay on without taking her eyes from the little screen. Had she been lying on the bed in her clothes, the men would have glared at her for goofing off while they worked, but being naked seemed to give her permission to lounge around. It didn't even feel like goofing off. Lounging around is what naked girls do.
'Cyrus?' said Shirley. 'Do you think I could be an actress?'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'Because you have no tits,' said Cyrus.
'But some guys like that. And I'd be perfect for the schoolgirl roles.'
'Shirley, I'd hire you tomorrow, but it's not up to me. If you're serious, you need to fuck someone higher up the food chain.'
'You mean, like Devlin?'
'For example.'
There was a sudden bright light and both Shirley and Cyrus shielded their eyes. 'Sorry!' called out the lighting guy and pointed the spotlight somewhere else. Cyrus went back to staring at the monitor making mental notes and Shirley's phoned buzzed. There was a message and she tapped it open. It said: 'Come to the office immediately. Gladys Dribbel.'
Shirley frowned.
What did Gladys want with her? Then it occurred to her that someone using Gladys's account might be sending her a message. Someone who needed to be discreet. Someone like the owner of this studio. Shirley smiled and tapped out, 'On my way.' She had just pressed SEND when a woman's shriek nearly burst an eardrum.