Shadow Games by Ed Gorman Page B

got her seated and got her a Diet Pepsi.
    "Anne Addison..." Veronica said. "Now I remember. You wrote an article about Cobey ."
    "Yes."
    "That's the best thing ever written about him."
    "Thank you."
    "You're still writing, I hope?"
    "Writing about Cobey again, in fact."
    "I'm surprised you haven't written a book by now," Veronica said to Anne.
    "Well, I'm trying to put one together—the best of my pieces on movie- and TV-stars over the years. Even a lot of the things I had to do under pen names."
    "Why did you use a pen name?"
    "Usually because I had more than one article in the issue and the editor didn't want my name appearing twice. I'm making decent money now, but when I was just starting out I really had to write a lot."
    "God, I wish I could write," Veronica said. "I'm twenty-two years old and I don't have any talent at all. For anything."
    "C'mon, now," Cobey said, gently kidding her. "Don't get into this." He leaned over and put his hand fondly on Veronica's shoulder. "This is a woman who was a piano prodigy and paints well enough to have her work hung in several New York galleries...but she says she doesn't have any talent."
    "I'm a dabbler," Veronica said. "I'm not a professional the way Anne is or you are."
    Puckett could certainly understand Cobey's fascination with the young woman. She was even prettier when you watched her close up. And her self-deprecation was so sincere and painful, it was fetching. You wanted to put your arm around her and protect her.
    "I know how you feel," Puckett said. "I'm the same way, Veronica. I'm constantly surrounded by really talented people, but there isn't a damn thing I can do."
    "By the way," Cobey said, "Puckett is a cop. A private one these days. And one of the best paid in Los Angeles. So he must be doing something right." Cobey clapped his hands together as if he were leading a hoe down. "But, c'mon, people. Let's stop all this self-deprecation and really dish somebody."
    Anne giggled. "Now that's more like it, Cobey . Let's really do a number on somebody."
    "Have you heard the gerbil story?" Cobey said.
    "That old chestnut?" Anne laughed. "You can do better than that."
    "But apparently it's true. He really did put a gerbil up his—into his behind," Cobey said.
    "I'd like to take his defense," Puckett said. "I don't think that ever happened. I think it's one of those stories that some malicious twit started that took on a life of its own."
    "You know the guy?" Cobey said.
    Puckett shrugged. "I did some work for him and got to know him a little bit. And I don't believe that gerbil story at all."
    The man they were discussing was one of the screen's hunkiest hunks. He was also a man whose sex life the gossips never tired of whispering about.
    "All right, then," Cobey said, "did you hear the one about Dirk Fleming? The new guy on Precinct 19 ?"
    And then they were off. Story followed story; laugh followed laugh. Puckett felt guilty about even listening to tales like these. There was a nastiness to gossip that always started to wear on him—a cruelty that too many people seemed to relish.
    Somewhere in the middle of all this, Veronica suggested that the four of them have dinner the following evening at a restaurant Cobey had wanted to try. Anne accepted without asking Puckett. But what was he going to say? "No, I'd rather not?"
    Puckett was finishing his Diet Pepsi when he looked up and saw a familiar figure in the doorway. Cobey's old friend and enemy—and now director—Richard Boyle.
    "There's an interviewer here from the Trib , Cobey ," he said. "Wants to do a piece on the show. You want me to handle it alone?"
    Cobey smiled at the other man. But it was an icy smile. "Unless you plan to stab me in the back."
    Boyle had the dark good looks of a 1940's leading man. His own smile was just as thin and empty as Cobey's . He wore a green suede car coat, white shirt and black trousers. His curly hair was fashionably mussed. "I've got a vested interest in this show, Cobey ,