The lawsuit Marty O'Brien had filed against Artists Unlimited (or AU as we called it) and his former partner Chuck Tyler looked to be a nightmare. Chuck now ran AU but before they spilt their interests, they used East Coast Image for all their photo work. East Coast was founded by my close friend Chris, who'd generously, made me a partner. We'd been considering a big money offer to join Chuck at his mega-agency, but Chris died before we made a final decision. To my surprise, he left the agency to me and rather than try and run the whole show myself, I accepted Chuck's offer and joined the Artists Unlimited family.
Chuck was livid in the meeting when I was first told about the lawsuit, I was livid as well because I'd been named in the suit. Chuck reassured me that, as an employee running their photo division, I would have the full support of AU. Chuck's second in command Jeff Murphy had given me the address of AU's legal counsel Michael Baldwin, whom I'd be meeting for what I assumed would be some kind of deposition in the case. His office was in yet another high-rise in downtown LA. I was a nervous wreck the whole way down there.
The lobby of the enormous building seemed to stretch up into infinity. I took a deep breath and looked at the directory and it seemed like every lawyer in the state was based here. And there were a lot of Baldwin's too, lovely.
"Jim?" I heard a hesitant female voice to my right
"Yes?" I turned
"Oh my god, it is you!" she said as her face lit up "It's me, Dana Liebowitz. We went to school together about a thousand years ago."
Whoa! This was a definitely a blast from my past! I hadn't seen her since the summer I graduated high school, which certainly seemed like a thousand years ago.
"Son of a gun! Wow!" I exclaimed as we hugged "What are you doing here?"
"I think should be asking you that!" she replied
I was about to reply when I suddenly remembered Jeff's directions not to discuss the case with anyone.
"Oh! I, uh, I'm supposed to meet an attorney here." I quickly said "Nothing big..."
"Which one?"
Now I'm trapped.
"Uh, Michael Baldwin." I finally said
"Wow! That's my boss!" she said excitedly "Come on, I'll walk you up."
Her boss? I didn't see that coming.
But then, perhaps I should've.
I'd gone to junior high with Dana many years ago, and had what could be called a schoolboy crush on her. Then she went to a different high school than me and we lost touch for several years. We unexpectedly met again on the track at my high school after we'd graduated. And we had quite a nice time under the bleachers. Her plans were to go to law school and intern with her dad's firm in New York. But how did she wind up here?
Before asking that, I had to take in how pretty she still looked. Her hair was a beautiful honey blonde and she wore a crisp gray suit like a pro.
Dana breezed me past the security desk and onto the elevator.
"The last time I saw you" I began "You were heading off to law school and your Dad's firm in New York."
"...And the last time I saw you." She now began "we were having a nice bit of fun under the bleachers at your high school." She said with a giggle in her voice "You have a good memory."
"So, how'd you end up here?" I asked as the elevator climbed upwards
"The usual way, graduated from NYU law school." She said before adding a little braggadocio in her voice "...summa cum laude I might add."
"Not bad."
"Michael was part of dad's firm, then he got an offer to move out here and he asked if I wanted to join him. So, California here I am."
Just as she said that, the elevator doors opened on a bustling law office, several secretaries were answering phones as we walked in.
"Wait here and I'll get Michael."
I guess seeing someone familiar took whatever nervousness I had off. It was still a weird feeling knowing I was about to experience the legal system close up.
"James," I now heard turning to see Dana's boss "Michael Baldwin, good to meet you. Please, this way."
Michael was all business as I could tell. He led me down a hallway to a conference room where a video camera was being set up. Dana was assembling papers and had added a pair of chic glasses to her already stylish look. But now with the glasses, she looked like the bookish girl I'd had a crush on in junior high and wished I could've known in high school.
"I'll make this as easy a process as possible," he said "from what Jeff told me you're a little nervous about this case, that's understandable."
"He's right about that."
"I've also spoken to your attorney, Roger Sullivan" Michael said as he shuffled some papers "Roger is over in Dubai now but he'll be back at the end of the week if you need to meet with him, he's fully up to speed on what we'll be doing here and I'll be calling him later today."
I breathed a sigh of relief
"I guess you have everything covered, then."
Michael smiled
"Indeed I do. The easiest way to handle this is for you to just tell your side of things, I'll ask whatever questions I have and everything will be transcribed. Do you have any questions?"
"I guess not."
"Good, let's begin."
For the next hour, Michael asked how I'd met Marty O'Brien, what our dealings were like with him and with Chuck. I told him all about what happened on the "Dark Hills" film project in West Virginia, the conflicts he had with my late partner Chris, and how I'd resolved some of them. The fateful night I last saw Chris was probably the hardest part for me. It had been awhile since I'd confronted my memories of the last night I saw my friend alive. But I had to be honest with Michael when asked what Chris' state of mind was, had he been drinking, was he looking for a fight with Marty?
As we talked, I remembered a detail about our time filming "Dark Hills".
"I don't know if this is important..." I started
"In a court case, everything is important." Michael quickly replied
"Well, one night during filming Marty invited me to go with him to this place in the hills with his brother, I'm not exactly sure where."
"Was Marty's brother connected to the film in any way?"
"Yes, Marty said he was a producer and one of his other brothers was a screenwriter, I think."
"What kind of place was this?"
I hesitated
"Um, it was a, geez I feel weird saying this...a bordello."
Michael looked up from his legal pad and Dana snickered.
"A what?" he asked, his eyebrows looked rather comical at this moment.
"A bordello...apparently he knew the proprietor."
Michael seemed deep in thought
"Go on...continue, please."
"Uh, okay...we went to this place one evening..."
"Did you, shall we say, partake of anything there?" he asked before quickly turning to Dana "Excuse me, Dana. Sorry you have to hear this."
"No, go ahead." She replied firmly, I guess details like this were nothing new to her.
"Uh, yes, yes I did. And so did Marty and his brother."
"Was money exchanged?" he asked
"Well, that's the weird part" I started "I wondered about that too, I don't exactly carry a ton of cash on me, you know."
"Go on."
"When I started to pay for a drink there, the bartender said it was all taken care of. And then when I was talking to one of the ladies there, she said the same thing."
"It was all taken care of?"
"Yes, exactly." I replied "anyway, I asked Marty about it on the way home, what they meant by that. And he said something like it would be charged to the studio, something about half of Hollywood was built on places like this."
"So, he was implying that the studio would be paying for your entertainment that night?"
"That's what I thought he meant. I know there's lots of creative bookkeeping that goes on but this just seemed a little strange."
Michael smiled as he took notes
"You're right about that." He said as he continued writing then looked at his watch. "OK, I think we've covered enough for today. I have another appointment coming in I need to get ready for. I'll set up another session and get back to you."
