Betrayal

Chapter 5

ON THE WAY to Palm Springs with Brigitte the next morning, Tallie mentioned her conversation with Victor about the cash.

“Are you paying some of the bills in cash?” Tallie asked her as she sipped a light vanilla latte from Starbucks on the way. They had stopped for it as they left town.

“Of course not. What’s he talking about?” Brigitte looked annoyed. “I pay all the bills by check, or credit card. He knows that.”

“That’s what I thought. I don’t see how he can think we’re spending that much in cash. I knew we weren’t. Maybe he screwed up the accounts.” Anything was possible. Maybe it was a bookkeeping mistake at his end. Tallie thought that was more likely than she or Brigitte spending twenty-five thousand a month in cash, which would have been astounding and sounded utterly impossible to her.

“He seems so distracted to me lately,” Brigitte commented. “Maybe he’s sick. Or too old to do his work and keep the numbers straight.” She sounded annoyed.

“Yeah. I don’t know. It sounded crazy to me too. I’ll tell him it’s a mistake of some kind.” And then she thought about the hotels. Maybe that was a mistake too. But she had to ask her anyway, just to be sure. “He showed me a list of hotel bills too, for the Chateau Marmont and the Sunset Marquis.” There was a momentary silence, and feeling slightly embarrassed, Tallie went on. “I hate to ask you this,” she said apologetically, “but did you happen to stay there and accidentally charge it to the joint card?”

“No.” Brigitte looked puzzled. “I’ve never stayed at either hotel. Why would I? If I were going to sleep with someone, I’d go to my own house, not a hotel right here in L.A. That sounds crazy to me too. Maybe it’s identity theft again.”

Tallie had thought of that too.

“That’s what I thought, or I figured you stayed there, charged it to our joint card, and reimbursed me later.”

“I’m not that sloppy,” Brigitte said with a broad smile.

“I know you’re not.” Tallie smiled back at her apologetically. “Especially if you’ve never stayed at those hotels. It must be a mistake then.” Tallie knew there had to be a reasonable explanation for it, whatever it was. And without thinking about it further, she pulled out the script and read the new changes on the way to Palm Springs. The incorrect hotel charges were the furthest thing from her mind.

She called Victor from her cell phone that morning from her trailer on the set, while Brigitte went to get her coffee. They had an espresso/cappuccino stand set up by catering that was as good as Starbucks. Tallie told Victor on the phone that she had no explanation for the cash or the hotel bills. She sounded unconcerned about it, and he sounded surprised.

“Hunt said he goes to those hotels with you,” Victor said clearly, and Tallie suddenly felt her stomach curl itself slowly into a knot like a boa constrictor in her belly. Had Victor misunderstood? Was he senile?

“I think you misunderstood him, Victor,” she said firmly. If Hunt had said it to him it simply wasn’t true, and Brigitte had denied that the charges were hers. So who had been charging hotel bills to her?

“It must be identity theft again,” Tallie said simply, as the boa constrictor in her belly relaxed.

“I’ll check it out,” Victor said cautiously, “and I’ll call you back. The credit card company should have a record of who signed at the hotel.”

“Probably no one we know,” Tallie said quietly. Victor said nothing and hung up a moment later, as Brigitte came back to the trailer with Tallie’s coffee. It smelled delicious.

“Everything okay? You look pissed,” Brigitte commented as she handed Tallie the cup of steaming latte. Tallie laughed when she said it, and felt instantly better.

“Not pissed. Just annoyed at Victor. He’s so ridiculously stubborn sometimes. He’s like a dog with a bone when he gets something in his teeth. He’s all worked up about the cash he says we’re spending, and I’ll bet you anything, it’s some kind of clerical error on his end when his assistants put our entries into the general ledger.”

“I’m pretty precise about them,” Brigitte said calmly.

“I know you are. I’m not worried about it. He’s being a pest, although I know he means well. But they probably screwed up and we didn’t. I don’t want to get upset about it. And he keeps harping on the hotel bills he claims I charged, and I agree with you on that too. I’m sure it’s identity theft again. The last time someone stole my credit card number, they went to a sex shop in Detroit, and about thirty bars. I’m sure the hotel charges are the same thing. He claimed that Hunt said he stayed at those hotels with me, and I’m sure he didn’t say that. Victor gets so nervous, he gets it wrong sometimes. For about an eighth of a second I got nervous about Hunt when Victor said that. And then I realized that’s just me being crazy. Victor will get it straightened out, tell me it was a mistake, and I’m not going to accuse Hunt of staying in hotels because Victor got a bee in his bonnet. Shit, I hate accounting. Thank God, you do it for me. He makes me crazy.” Brigitte laughed as she said it, and Tallie grabbed the script and stood up.

“I don’t love the accounting either. He’s such a nervous Nellie,” Brigitte said as she handed Tallie her BlackBerry.

“I know. Well, I’ve got to get to work.” Tallie finished her coffee, put the script under her arm, and slipped her BlackBerry into a pocket of her shorts after putting it on vibrate, and a moment later she was riding a cherry picker with the cameraman, setting up the shots with him for that morning, and her irritation with Victor was already forgotten.

It was another long shooting day to make up for lost time. Tallie worked straight through lunch, and it was midafternoon before she took her BlackBerry out of her pocket and checked it for messages. She had felt it vibrate several times. She had four messages from Victor and rolled her eyes as she sat down in a chair on the set and cracked open a bottle of water. As she called Victor back, Tallie noticed Brigitte talking and laughing with one of the actors, and she wondered if he was the man of the moment. While Tallie was watching them, Victor answered.

“I wanted to get back to you about the Sunset Marquis and the Chateau Marmont,” her accountant said without preamble, and Tallie was reminded of the image of a dog with a bone again.

“It’s probably identity theft, Victor, just like all the other times we couldn’t explain charges on the cards. And you said there have been no charges for those hotels on my card for the last year anyway. What’s the problem?”

“I don’t like unsolved mysteries,” Victor said sternly, “not when it’s about your money.”

“I appreciate that, but it’s not recent anyway, and it can’t be a very large amount.” Tallie was trying to be casual instead of worried.

“I still have an obligation to explain it. I called the credit card company this morning. They keep the signed charge slips on microfiche, and I had them fax them to me to see whose signature was on them.”

“Don’t tell me I signed them,” Tallie said, almost laughing at the absurdity of it.

“No. Brigitte did. Her signature is clearly on all the hotel charges, at both hotels. Yours is on one from the Bel-Air, but you already explained that. The ones I mentioned to you are all signed by Brigitte Parker.”

“She said she’s never stayed at either hotel,” Tallie said firmly, far more willing to believe her assistant than her accountant. She still believed that the mistake here was his, not Brigitte’s, or any improper use of the credit card on her part.

“Maybe she’s forgotten. It’s been a while,” Victor said calmly.

“I don’t think so, Victor.”

“Maybe she’s embarrassed to tell you that she used the card for personal reasons, and she reimbursed you without our knowledge.” He was willing to believe that she had made it up to Tallie, although he couldn’t prove it, but he was entirely unwilling to believe that she’d never been there and checked into the hotels. Her name on the charge slips said otherwise. “It’s clearly her signature on the charge slips.”

“Maybe someone forged it,” Tallie suggested coolly.

“I doubt that.”

“I never look at things like that, Victor. Brigitte handles all the statements when they come in. I don’t have time. That’s why I have her. And you check the accounts and the general ledger.”

“Yes, I do. This only came up because of the recent audit. And we still have no explanation for the twenty-five thousand in cash you’re spending every month and can’t account for. I’m much more concerned about that than the hotel bills we can’t explain.”

“So am I. If you don’t mind, I’d like to show the accounts and the spreadsheets to my father. He’s a lot better at this kind of thing than I am.” She always relied on her father’s advice and wise counsel.

“Of course, I have no problem with that.”

“Thank you, Victor. I’ll call you later.”

She sat thinking for a minute after the call to Victor, wondering again about the hotel bills. And then she called her father. As always, he answered on the first ring.

“Hi, Dad,” she said, trying to sound casual, but he knew her too well for that.

“What’s wrong?” He went right to the point.

She laughed at his question and tried to sound unconcerned. “Some stuff came up in the audit that I’m confused about. Maybe my accountant made a mistake. Would you look at it for me?” Her father was good with spreadsheets and figures, and his mind was still sharp. His body had failed him, but his brain was still operating at full speed.

“I’ll be happy to take a look. Send it over whenever you want. What’s the problem?”

“My accountant says I’m spending twenty-five thousand dollars a month in cash. I’m not spending it, Brigitte says she isn’t. I can’t figure it out.”

“Do you have a joint account with Hunt?” he asked her bluntly, although he liked Hunt immensely, and Hunt certainly had more than enough of his own money and didn’t need Tallie’s, and he’d been very generous with her and Max.

“No, I don’t. We haven’t commingled anything. But I can’t imagine that twenty-five thousand dollars is disappearing every month. I think it’s got to be a mistake, and I don’t want to get upset about it till I know.”

“Have your accountant send me the spreadsheets and I’ll take a look,” her father said in a concerned voice.

“Thanks, Dad.” He was always there for her. She didn’t mention the hotels to him, there was no point. It was either identity theft, or one of them was lying, and her father couldn’t know that. But he might be able to figure out the cash or see where Victor Carson had made a mistake. She called Victor back afterward and asked him to messenger copies of the spreadsheets to her father. He promised to do it immediately. And she felt better after that when she went back to work. She was sure that the mystery of the missing cash would be solved with another pair of eyes on the spreadsheet.

Brigitte drove her back to town that night. They chatted amiably on the way home, but Tallie was distracted, thinking about her conversations with Victor, and the conversation between them felt a little strained, which was unusual for them. She wanted to ask Hunt about the hotels, but when she got home, he was out with investors that night. He’d left her a note telling her he loved her. And she sat down on the couch, thinking about the hotels again.

She called Max in New York then just to chat. They talked for half an hour and then Max said she had reading to do for school, and Tallie reluctantly hung up. Tallie’s father called her as soon as they hung up.

“He’s right,” Sam Jones said, sounding disturbed. “You’ve got twenty-five thousand going out the door in cash every month, give or take a thousand. Can’t Brigitte account for it somehow? She’s always so organized and efficient. That’s a lot of cash to lose track of.” Her father sounded as concerned as Victor had.

“I know, Dad,” Tallie said. “I can’t account for it either. And I’m not sloppy with my money.”

“I know you’re not.” He was disturbed about it.

“She pays all the bills and signs the checks, and there’s never been any slippage before, or I thought there wasn’t. But Victor says it’s been going on for a few years.” The same length of time that Hunt had lived with her. But he had no access to her money that she knew of, so that didn’t solve the mystery either. She knew just enough to scare her now, but not enough to figure it out. And there had to be an answer somewhere. “And I know it’s not Brigitte, Dad,” she added. “Her family has a ton of money, and she makes a big salary from me. She doesn’t need to steal cash from me.” It hurt to even say it, but she wanted to get to the bottom of this. “Besides, she is the most impeccably honest person I know. I’ve never had a problem in all these years.” She had been paying Tallie’s bills for sixteen of the seventeen years she’d worked for her, and there had never been a concern or an issue about money. Tallie trusted her completely, and Brigitte had earned that by how reliable and trustworthy she was.

“Well, somebody is taking money from you, if you’re not spending it yourself,” her father confirmed. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Tallie said, sounding distressed. She had been hoping he would tell her that Victor had made a mistake, but he hadn’t, which complicated everything now.

She had no idea where to turn or who to ask. And the issue about the hotel bills was upsetting her too. Brigitte claimed she’d never been to the two hotels, yet she had signed the credit card slips, and Hunt had told Victor that he went there with Tallie, if Victor had understood him correctly. Neither of them was telling the truth, and she had no idea why. Or someone else entirely had gone to the two hotels and charged it to her, which was also possible. There had to be an explanation, but maybe it was one she didn’t want to hear. She lay in bed wide awake, torturing herself that night. She had been turning it round and round in her mind. And she always came out in the same place. Brigitte and Hunt were the two people she trusted most in the world, other than her father and daughter, and for the first time ever, in both relationships, she had the feeling that they weren’t telling the truth. It felt awful. She had never had any reason to doubt either of them before.

When Hunt came home, he slipped into the darkened bedroom, careful not to wake her, and she pretended to be asleep. She didn’t know what else to do. She didn’t want to talk to him about it and question him at that hour. And what if he denied going to those hotels? She didn’t want to catch him in a lie. She was afraid to ask him and hear what he’d say. She lay wide awake long after Hunt fell asleep, and she’d only had two hours of sleep when Brigitte picked her up in the morning. Tallie looked terrible, and Brigitte looked serious as they drove away. There was very little conversation between the two women, which was rare for them. Brigitte didn’t say anything all the way to Palm Springs after they picked up coffee at Starbucks, and then just before they got to their location, Tallie was startled when Brigitte pulled off the road. She glanced at Tallie with an agonized look, as Tallie watched her. Something was very wrong.

“I have to talk to you,” Brigitte said in a shaking voice. “I always wondered what I would do in a situation like this, and I hoped I would never have to find out. I have to talk to you about Hunt. And I have a small confession to make too.” The two women were sitting in the car, and Tallie dreaded what she was about to hear. Whatever it was, she already knew it wasn’t good. It was written all over Brigitte’s face. She looked as though she hated what she was about to say. For an instant, Tallie wanted to run away before she heard it.

“About three years ago,” she went on, “right after he moved in, Hunt asked me for some cash. He said you had asked him to pay for something. I can’t even remember what it was, but whatever it was, it sounded believable. He had just moved in with you, and you seemed madly in love with him.” Tallie had never been madly in love with him, it was something that had grown over time. But she had certainly been in love, enough to want to live with him and they had been happy and still were. Brigitte went on. “It kept happening. He kept asking me for cash. It wasn’t a lot at first. Just small amounts. He would tell me that he’d forgotten to cash a check, or that you’d asked him to get cash from me. It just kind of snowballed, and eventually I realized he was doing it all the time. I didn’t know what to do or say. I didn’t want to mess things up for you, after all you’ve been through, and he really is a nice guy. It’s just gone on and on and on. I had no idea how much it came to until you told me the other day. I don’t know what he does with the money. I guess he spends it on himself, or socks it away, or whatever. I figured if I said anything to you, it would be all over, and I didn’t want that for you, so I’ve been going along with it for all this time, worried sick about it and scared for you, and mostly sad. I think he’s a nice guy, but maybe not an honest one. Tallie, all that cash is going to him.” She looked mortified as she said it, because she had been giving it to him. “Now he just expects it.”

“And you just gave it to him and didn’t tell me?” Tallie looked horrified. The man she lived with and loved had been stealing money from her for three years, and her assistant and best friend hadn’t told her? Worse, she’d been giving him the money? Tallie felt like a total fool, and she was angry at Brigitte for not telling her sooner and hiding it from her. Three years was a long time to remain silent. Brigitte had become his unwilling accomplice, but his accomplice nonetheless. Tallie felt betrayed, by both of them.

“How could you do that and not tell me about it?” Tallie asked with a shocked look on her face.

“I didn’t want to screw up your romance. You need someone in your life, Tallie. You can’t do it all alone. And the picture you made together was such a big hit. I didn’t want to jeopardize that for you either.” There was a lot riding on their relationship now. Tallie knew it too.

“So you let him take money from me and didn’t tell me? Whose side are you on?” Tallie accused her.

“Yours,” Brigitte said without hesitation, with tears in her eyes. “I made a terrible mistake. I let him manipulate me, and I didn’t tell you. I didn’t realize until yesterday how much it had cost you. It’s always a few hundred, a thousand here and there or two, but I guess it adds up in a hurry.” It was a lot. Twenty-five thousand dollars a month was a huge amount to her.

“And he’s been doing it for three years?” Brigitte nodded in answer. “Do you realize that it cost me nearly a million dollars in the past three years? And why would he do such a thing? He makes more money than I do.” It just didn’t make sense, but Tallie believed her. The story was too ugly not to be true, and she knew Brigitte wouldn’t make that up. She still trusted her, although her faith in Brigitte had just taken a heavy hit. “Did he tell you not to tell me?” Tallie wanted to know everything now, down to the last word and detail, although she didn’t know what she was going to do, or what to say to him. Victor had been right. She was losing a huge amount of cash. And now she knew how, why, and to whom.

“Eventually, he told me not to tell you. He knew what he was doing, and so did I. Stealing from you, and it makes me feel sick that I helped him.”

“You call that a ‘small confession’?” Tallie looked appropriately shocked.

“That wasn’t what I meant.” Brigitte looked profoundly distressed, as well she should be. It was the most upsetting thing Tallie had ever heard about a man in her life, worse than discovering that her British movie-star husband was cheating on her with his leading lady, and reading about it in the press. What Hunt had done was profoundly dishonest. It was stealing. “My ‘small’ confession was that I did go to the Chateau Marmont once, and charged it on the card. I didn’t have my credit card with me. I’m not even sure now who I went with. I think it was that cameraman I was so crazy about. He was married, and you didn’t want me to sleep with him, so I didn’t have the guts to tell you. I paid back the money though, in cash, to the petty cash account, every penny.”

“Victor says there was more than one credit card slip with your signature on it from the Chateau Marmont and the Sunset Marquis,” Tallie said sternly. “He checked.”

“I may have gone twice, but I always reimbursed it. Maybe someone forged my signature on the other slips. Maybe even Hunt. And that’s the other thing I have to tell you.” She took a breath and plunged in. “I think he’s been seeing someone for about a year now. I suspected it at first, and I have a friend who works in his office. He confirmed it when I asked him. She’s some young secretary, very young I think. She has an abusive ex-husband and a child, a three-year-old boy. I think she’s about twenty-five or twenty-six. My friend says that Hunt must have been sorry for her, and tried to help her. Her ex came back to beat her up, and the kid, after she left him. Hunt was very sympathetic, and helped her find a place to live, and I guess it all started from there. They’ve been having an affair for about a year. He stays at hotels with her, mostly when you’re away, I think. And the maid says he never sleeps at the house now when you’re gone. Apparently that’s true. I checked.” Brigitte looked devastated as she told Tallie the details.

“The maid told you about this? Does everyone know except me?” He had played her for a fool, while stealing money from her and cheating on her. She never would have suspected it of him in a million years. Instead of being the best man she had ever had, he had turned out to be the worst one.

“What are you going to do?” Brigitte asked, looking desperately worried and remorseful. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m always trying to protect you. I knew you’d be upset about the money, but I thought maybe you’d think he was worth it, and I thought the affair with this girl would blow over. But it hasn’t. They say it’s very serious, and she wants to marry him as soon as her divorce comes through.”

“And when was he going to tell me that little piece of news? After their honeymoon? Jesus, he’s a shit.” Tallie looked as though the bottom had just fallen out of her world.

“And so am I for not telling you all this before. I only heard about the affair with the girl about six moths ago. I should have told you then. And about the money before that. I really made all the wrong decisions on this one.” Her confessing it now made Tallie feel a little more benevolent toward her, but she was badly shaken. Brigitte had hidden important information from Tallie, because she didn’t want to hurt her. But she had hidden Hunt’s cheating on her and stealing money from her. Both were serious offenses, and Tallie didn’t deserve it. Brigitte had never been in such a tough position in her life. She was crying as she sat in the car looking guilty and devastated.

“I have to figure out what to do,” Tallie said, looking shell-shocked. “I need some time to digest this before I confront him.” There were tears in her eyes as she said it, and they were both crying as they looked at each other and Brigitte hugged her in sympathy and remorse. She felt terrible about the news she had delivered.

“I thought you’d want him around, at any price,” Brigitte said as she blew her nose.

“I don’t want anyone that badly, no matter how much I love him. I don’t want anyone enough to let them cheat on me and steal my money.” She was most hurt by his cheating on her, even more so than the money. Money could always be replaced, but her faith in him couldn’t. She couldn’t imagine ever trusting him or any man again. He was the last of a long, checkered career of bad men. And she no longer trusted her own judgment.

“I’m so sorry, Tallie,” Brigitte said as she sat there and cried, and finally Tallie looked at her watch and said they had to go to work. She didn’t reach out to comfort Brigitte. She was much too upset at her for not telling her the whole story sooner, and at Hunt for what he’d done.

Tallie had no idea how she was going to work today, but she had no choice. Even with her heart breaking, she had to continue working on the film. She wished it were already over. And she wanted to confirm the two stories first, for her own peace of mind, before she accused him. She had to figure out how to do that and who would help her. It was going to be agonizing living with him in the meantime.

“Are you going to fire me?” Brigitte asked her with a look of terror.

“Maybe. I don’t know.” It was as honest as she could be with her. “I don’t want to. Let’s let the dust settle on this and see what happens.” It was the best she could do for now, and Brigitte was grateful that Tallie was taking some time to think about it. It was a terrible shock and an ugly story. They drove to the set then, both of them with heavy hearts and in silence, wondering what would happen. Tallie felt as though her world had just come to an end. Again.