Joseph Kanon - Stardust

The nurse was running toward them, bringing two aides with a stretcher.

“Get him to Cedars,” Lasner said to her. “When the doc says it’s okay.” Then, his face drained, almost vacant, he started back to the Admin building.

“I suppose you know what’s going to happen when our people see him,” Bunny said to Ben.

“Maybe you should switch unions. Or would it cost you?”

“You don’t know the first thing about it.”

“I don’t care,” Ben said, helping the aides lift Stein onto the stretcher. Stein groaned, eyes half-open.

“Right. Leave it to me to explain. Make a mess and hand somebody else a mop. And when the police come looking for him? Not exactly Mr. X, is he? They know him.”

Ben stood. “And went at him. I saw it. And I have a good memory for faces. Tell them anybody comes after him with cuffs, I’ll ID them. The ones who clobbered him when he was down. And me.” He touched his arm. “Beating up soldiers. I’m still in the Army, remember?”

“Out of uniform.”

“Not when I testify. We can play it that way, if you want. You think this is a mess? You wouldn’t have a mop big enough.” He turned to the aides. “Got him? On two.”

Bunny watched them lift the stretcher. “Why are you doing this?” he said.

“I owe him a favor.”

Stein opened his eyes, watching them both as the group moved past the Admin building toward the infirmary.

“A favor,” Bunny said.

“Plus he’s bleeding.” He turned. “I’d do the same for you.”

In the infirmary, the aides transferred Stein to an examination table, high enough to do stitches. As the nurse swiped his head, stanching blood, Stein reached out his hand, grabbing Ben’s wrist.

“Don’t leave me,” he said.

Ben started, back in the other hospital, another hand on his wrist, a stopped moment.

“You’ll be all right,” the nurse said, reassuring.

A hand with the same urgency, but it was Stein, not Danny, a different meaning.

“Not with them,” he said, looking at Bunny and one of the aides.

Bunny rolled his eyes. “Wonderful. Now I’m Chester Morris. Where did I put my gun?”

“You’d all better scoot,” the doctor said, “while we patch him up. This is going to sting. We can’t use anesthetics until we know what’s going on in there.” He gestured to Stein’s head. “Here, hold on to these.” He put one of Stein’s hands on the gurney frame.

Ben moved the other hand off his wrist. “I’ll be just outside.” He looked toward Bunny, already at the door. “They’re going.”

“What favor?” Stein said, his voice raspy. “Why do you owe me a favor?”

“I figure Danny owes you something. A little payback.”

“Payback?” Stein said, vague.

“He should have been a better friend.”

“Well,” Stein said, shrugging this off, then winced at the antiseptic.

“One more,” the doctor said. “Just a sting.”

“I’ll be right outside,” Ben said.

In the hallway a nurse was wrapping an Ace bandage around a studio cop’s wrist while another lay on a gurney, holding a pad to a cut on his forehead. The aide had gone but Bunny was still there, smoking just outside the screen door. He stepped aside as another stretcher was brought in.

“Christ, Scarlett down at the rail yard,” he said, offering Ben a cigarette. “Looking for Dr. Meade.”

“Thanks,” Ben said, lighting it.

Bunny nodded at the splotch of blood on Ben’s shirt. “Yours?”

“No. Carrying him.”

“How’s the hand?”

Ben made a fist and opened it. “Nothing broken.”

“All very Boy’s Own, I must say. Wading in like that. Who’d have thought?” He looked toward the gate. “The problem is, it won’t solve anything. They’ll be out there again tomorrow. And now we’ve got this little situation here.” He looked back to Stein’s room.

“He’ll be out of here in an hour. What situation.”

“The unions are a little prickly at the moment. Or hadn’t you noticed?”

“Nobody’ll accuse you of switching sides. Act of mercy. The papers got some pictures, by the way. You might want to see what they’re planning to run.”

“Right,” he said, making a mental note. “It wouldn’t do to have Charlie’s boys looking-well, looking unfriendly. Just the big Boy Scouts they are.” He drew on the cigarette. “God, I hate this. IATSE, all of them. We’re supposed to be making pictures, not-whatever they think they’re doing. I suppose you know your new best friend in there is a Red. Just to make things that little bit more complicated.”

“Does it?”

Bunny circled around, not rising to this, then looked over at Ben. “I hear you’ve been talking to Minot.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“Just listening to the drums. Lunch at Chasen’s. Hardly a secret.”

“It was just lunch.”

“What did you talk about?”

“My brother, mostly.”

“Your brother?”

“He worked for Minot. One of his legmen. You know that. You made the call for him. Can we stop this? All the cat and mouse?”

Bunny said nothing for a second, drawing on his cigarette. “All right. I don’t like Tom and Jerry much, either. Dennis asked, I called. Nothing earthshaking. It was an easy favor to put in the piggy bank, that’s all.”

“For someone you’d never met.”

“I didn’t do it for him. I wouldn’t have lifted a finger for him.”

“But Minot-”

“Is important. We need him on the consent decree.”

“So why not help him-what? Tidy up?”

Bunny shrugged. “Very scrupulous they are. Afraid a little of the soot would rub off, I suppose. But who cares? So let’s just say he tripped. Nicer for them. And the family. For you, come to that. Much nicer. And you keep hounding me about it.” He paused. “Now Ken. You’re not hounding him, I hope. He could have you for breakfast before you noticed.”

“And that’s why you jump when-”

“I don’t jump. The studio needs him.”

“For the studio. Not because he has something on you. That’s his specialty, isn’t it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“If he does, he didn’t get it from Danny. If that’s what you think. I checked. All he ever did was put you at a meeting. As a tourist. That’s it.”

“Well, there’s a comfort. He doesn’t ‘have’ anything. There’s nothing to have.”

“Only a meeting? You scare easy. How did Danny know, by the way? Who told him about it?”

“Nobody told him,” Bunny said, dismissive. “He was there.”

Ben looked up, caught off guard. “I thought you said you never met him.”

“I didn’t. We were never introduced. People weren’t. Not exactly a garden party. But I knew who he was.”

“And he knew you.”

“He must have. And, think, to remember all those years. Just store it up here and wait till you need a little mud to throw.”

“So it wasn’t MacDonald.”

Bunny hesitated for a second, either rattled or genuinely confused. “Who?”

“He was at the meeting, too.”

Bunny shook his head. “I told you, nobody was introduced.”

“Danny said you were with him.”

“With him?” Bunny said, wrinkling his brow, acting out thinking. He dropped the cigarette and started rubbing it out. “Oh, Jack. It’s been years. He was in the Pasternak unit, over at Universal. An arranger. He worked on some of the Durbin pictures.”

“A friend?”

“Just someone around.”

“Who took you to meetings.”

“Once. I didn’t know-well, we all say that now, don’t we? Anyway, I didn’t. Not really my idea of a good time.”

“Where is he now?”

“No idea. We’re talking about years-”