Shooting for the Stars by R. G. Belsky Page B

There were photos of celebrities on her desk and walls. Some I knew, some I didn’t. But no sign of any pictures that looked like a husband or children. I glanced down at her left hand. There was no ring there. I’m a reporter. I notice stuff like that.
    â€œWhat about her husband?”
    â€œHolloway?”
    â€œHe was her husband, wasn’t he?”
    â€œIn a manner of speaking, I suppose.”
    â€œWhat are we talking about here?”
    â€œPeople tell me that marriage was arranged by Beverly, the same way she tried to arrange everything in Laura’s life.”
    â€œWhy would Laura’s mother want her to marry Holloway?”
    â€œI don’t know, but Beverly had a reason for everything she did.”
    She talked more about how surprised she was when Laura suddenly became an overnight star after struggling for so many years.
    â€œI kept sending her up for every part I could think of, but nothing ever happened,” she said. “She got very depressed. At one point, I think she dropped out of the business altogether—I didn’t hear from her for nearly a year. Then one day she calls me up out of the blue. She said she was in Hollywood, there was a movie project called Lucky Lady , and they were looking for a teenage ingénue with a new face to play the lead. They thought she was perfect for the role. The rest, as they say, is history. She became a star.”
    â€œSo what happened to you?” I asked.
    â€œAs soon as Laura hit it big and got the offer, Beverly decided she wanted a big-name agent. Now you have to understand, I never had anything in writing with them. It was always a handshake deal, right from the very start. I never thought I needed anything else. I thought I was their friend as well as their agent. Like I said, I really cared about Laura as a person. I tried to tell Beverly that. But she didn’t care, she just told me that my services were no longer needed. She fired me.”
    â€œDid you fight it?”
    â€œI did for a while. I consulted a lawyer. He said I had a pretty good case if I got in front of a jury. At the very least, I could walk away with a big cash settlement for the Lucky Lady deal, since I wasstill her agent when she got the offer to star in the film. But, in the end, I just thought it would be too painful to go through all that.”
    â€œSo you simply walked away from probably millions of dollars in agent’s fees?”
    â€œEasy come, easy go,” she smiled.
    â€œDoes it bother you a lot?”
    â€œWhat do you think? Laura was the star client of a lifetime. America’s sweetheart. And, just when she hit it big after all the early struggles, I lost out on all that fame and money.”
    â€œWhich raises the question, Ms. DeConde . . .”
    â€œDid I kill Laura Marlowe out of rage and for revenge after being fired? It’s a viable scenario, I must admit. I mean I’ve got a good little thing going here with my agency business, but my life is nothing like it would have been if I had hit it big with Laura when she became a superstar. So maybe I arranged a meeting with her that night at the hotel, brought along a gun, and shot her to death as payback. Was that going to be your question, Mr. Malloy?”
    â€œWell,” I smiled, “I wasn’t going to put it quite that bluntly.”
    â€œI was mad about losing Laura. But I wasn’t mad at her. What made me feel really bad was that I’d let Laura down. Maybe I could have helped her if I’d stayed around and fought her mother. Maybe I could have protected her somehow. Now we’ll never know.”
    DeConde said she tried to maintain a relationship with Laura, although she was no longer her agent. But even though she agreed to drop the legal action, she received a lawyer’s letter from Laura’s mother ordering her to stay away from Laura.
    â€œI was too heartsick over everything that had happened to fight