The 16mm Caper

Chapter 14

Julia clucked disapprovingly from her perch on the side of Ralston's desk. Without any prompting from her, Ralston had suddenly remembered the offer, and had called all on his own. Would wonders never cease? He glared up at her and she cocked an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Don't you think you should have at least considered your caller's position before chopping him off at the knees?"

"What the hell do you know about it?"

"Nothing, Ralston, but I do know that people respond better to butter than to the whip, whatever you're discussing."

"Yeah? Well I don't have time to butter people. They do what I want or they disappear from my agenda." He swivelled his chair around and faced her, one hand creeping toward the full thigh resting on the corner of the desk.

"How sad, Ralston. You miss out on a lot of things with that attitude." She slid off the desk and started for the door.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"It would seem, to buy some butter. The firm can't operate without contacts or clients."

"Get back here. Don't be such a goddamn Mary Poppins," he pouted.

Julia smiled and ambled back to his desk. Seems a spoonful of butter makes the medicine go down. "Why don't you wipe that pout off and call whoever that was back and be a little more understanding." She resumed her perch and allowed the fingers to finish their original creep.

******

Freddy breathed new air. This film must be worth more than he thought for Ralston Hughes to call back and actually apologize. A recording of that call would probably go for thousands on eBay. Ralston still only wanted the original but at least he agreed to a preliminary meeting to check out the product.

Freddy set up a time and place between Ralston and Cheryl and he had gone overboard with his thanks - a real suck up. Now, Freddy could sit back and wait for the big payday, a payday that would require new terms with Cheryl. Freddy massaged his leg and gave over to erotic thoughts of the woman in the parking lot, frightening though she was.

******

Peter checked the office safe and satisfied himself that his copy remained secure. He then phoned Mediatrend and asked Harv if everything was okay; was he gaining anything from further examination of the film.

"I'm almost afraid to keep it in the office. This thing is amazing. The film itself had a small code on the lead in that we traced back to one of Kodak's original production of sixteen-mil film. Christ, that's like nineteen twenty-three or so! This movie is at least eighty years old!"

"But you knew that from the film archives."

"No I didn't. There is no record of the actual film, just the director Raoul Cadian. You have to bring that copy I made you back here and let me destroy it, 'cause--"

"Destroy it!" Peter blurted, in a panic.

"Yeah. I'll make a new one with the coding as a special feature and we can include a bio of Cadian from the archive. You don't want copies all over the place. We make a new one to replace the one you have."

"How much am I letting myself in for with all this?" Peter was very doubtful about Harv's enthusiasm.

"Make me a partner . . . say fifteen percent, and I'll eat the costs."

Immediately Peter knew that the film was worth big bucks,and that the better the production, the bigger the gain. "Fifteen points and you cover all the costs?"