Silent Predators, Silent Streets

"This is why you thought up that crack about Connie trading her private jet in for a

bicycle?"

"I just knew something about the debate," said Will. "Anyway, the editor had approved the

story so he wasn't about to fire me. Instead, he moved me to the property desk, where I also helped

out with personal investment stories. The cancelling didn't extend to stories from those desks.

That's why I know something about those areas."

They arrived at the venue, a new hotel, a Regal Grand, in West Hollywood, a little off the

boulevard itself which had agreed that the publicity from the event was worth a discount. George

opened her door and Clarise Chalmers emerged in a dazzling red club dress in front of a wall of

paparazzi held back behind a rope barrier by security. She then worked her way down a host of fans

behind another rope barrier who had been waiting for hours, exchanging a few words and stopping

for selfies. George followed close behind, constantly scanning the crowd. After that she posed in

front of a backdrop featuring the hotel's name for the more formal pictures – the ones that

commentators would use to judge the dresses. Apart from Connie and Clarise, four other lesser

known but still recognisable personalities had found time to attend the event.

Will, in contrast, slipped out of the limo on the other side and walked around to check in

with Mia, nodding at the hotel security guys. As event organiser he was able to move around

unchallenged. He was inside the hotel when Connie arrived, with a roar from the crowd far louder

than that which had greeted Clarise. This annoyed the star, who was still having pictures taken.

Why was Connie always so much more popular than her?

The rest of the evening was a blur of chatting with a host of people, all the way from

Meghan's friend Misty Dawn through to an ill-favoured gentleman who wanted to buy a dance with

one of the stars, perhaps Ms Chalmers who seemed like a "sporting lady", as he put it. Will said that

there was no space in the schedule for paid dances and told George to keep an eye on the man.

As master of ceremonies for the evening, Will got on the stage to remind the crowd that they

were there to raise money for the Haddenbach Children's Hospital – they agreed noisily although

they didn't really care – and conducted a small celebrity auction of memorabilia donated by the

stars. Meghan still had the underwear she had worn in the famous sword fight which she happily

handed over, to be bought by the ill-favoured gentleman, and Connie had found the shoes she had

worn in her very salacious first video. A Silicon Valley billionaire type got those. More money for

the hospital.

Later, as the attendees mingled with the stars, Will spoke to Connie for a time who took the

trouble to hassle him – a sign of her high opinion of him – then said, "I think you better go and get

Meg, she look's uncomfortable."

Will who had lost track of his "date" in the crowd for a few minutes, turned around a did a

double take at the sight of Meghan sitting on a table, feet on a chair, surrounded by a dense crowd

of men, with another, looser crowd mainly of women surrounding the first crowd.

"Lordy!" said Will.

George was by Meghan's side, but Will thought the usual bright Clarise smile was a little

strained.

"Excuse me. Dance later?"

"We'd better dance, Will, or else," Connie said.

Will then dived into the crowd declaring "photo call Ms Chalmers". As he was MC, Meg's

many admirers made way for him. He nodded at George who was glad to see Will, grabbed

Meghan's hand and said, "Time for the pics with the hospital people, Ms Chalmers. Say goodbye to

the nice gentlemen."

"Goodbye nice gentlemen," said a relieved Meghan, waving.

"Shit!" said someone.

Then came the photo op with the chief executive of the Haddenbach Children's Hospital

where Meghan and Connie symbolically handed over a display cheque made out with the estimated

amount for the night. The outrageous ticket price of several thousand a person plus incidentals

meant that the event had raised close an amount not far short of one million dollars. That money,

plus the much higher public profile making it easier to attract donors, meant that the hospital's

financial future was considerably brighter. It's very young patients would get better care, which was

the whole point of the night. Not incidentally, both Meghan and Connie received grudging praise in

media outlets and websites coast to coast. Their image was softened.

With business out of the way and dinner eaten, the two bad girls toured the tables and then

got down to the dancing. After some discussion with the Connie camp Will had settled for a top DJ

instead of a live band which meant all the hits were played. At Will's suggestion and with him coordinating, the headliners danced with their own entourages then each other's entourages and with

other stars, rather than mix with the mass of invitees, without seeming to hold themselves aloof.

A lot of dancing later Meghan declared herself ready to go home and Will went with her,

leaving hotel security to move on the last of the party goers. Outside he was surprised at the host of

determined fans who had hung around out the back just to catch another glimpse of the Hollywood

star Clarise Chalmers.

"Your fans are enthusiastic," he said as they got into the limousine.

"I was overawed when I first met Robin," she said. "But I don't think I'd ever hang around

the back of a hotel hoping to see him. Anyway, what were you talking to Connie about for a while

this evening?"

"You mean while you were surrounded by male admirers ten deep? She was telling me to go

and get you as you looked uncomfortable."

"She told you that? Anyway, I don't mean then. I mean later. You stopped dancing for a

while."

"Oh right, then," said Will. "We were arguing over who was the bigger Diva, you or her.

We finally agreed that she was the bigger diva."

"William Moreland!" she said, turning on him and pointing to herself, "I'm the bigger Diva

and don't you forget it!"

Will laughed and, after a moment, Meghan joined in.

"Anyway, coming in we hadn't finished discussing William Moreland's life story," she said.

"I thought we'd covered all the bases," he said.

"No we have not," she said, firmly. "Why did you drop out of the national team? It must

have been hard to get into in the first place."

"It was, but I really wasn't competitive enough for a medal at the international meetings –

the ones that count. To win at that level takes a lot of work and it stops being fun. All events at that

level are hard, but I'll put in a word for the two hundred metre butterfly, the four hundred metre

individual medley – that's four different styles in one race – and the big one, the fifteen hundred

metre freestyle. When you get out of the pool after one of those events everything hurts."

"You still keep in good shape," said Meghan. "Maybe you could still compete."

"There's a world of difference between what I do and what I'd need to do to swim at an

international level. Nope. Pass! What I could do I suppose is enter a major race and have you by the

pool side in that one piece of yours to distract the male swimmers then, while they're floating open

mouthed in the pool, I'll sneak by to the finish line."

"William Moreland! I'm not going to help you cheat at swimming," said Meghan, giggling.

"What I want to know now, is there anything else major you haven't told me about yourself?"

"You mean apart from two trashy Military SF novels with another on the way, and this

slasher film project thing."

"I wish I didn't know about those things but I do," said Meghan.

"Um, well I scuba dive, although I haven't for a while now and, um, well, the last one is a

bit of a shock."

"Okay," said Meghan, leaning back, and crossing her legs again for effect. "Hit me."

"I'm an officer in the naval reserve."

"What?" said Meghan. "You were in the navy?"

"No, you don't have to have been in the navy to be in the naval reserve, although most have

been. I did three months of training a few years back, a couple of weeks a year and weekly evening

sessions which I haven't been getting to since Vi left. The regular navy looks down on us part

timers. Henry you were in the navy." Meghan had never bothered to raise the partition between the

passenger compartment and the front seats. "What do you think of the reserve guys?"

"Weekend sailors who get in the way," said Henry, looking around briefly.

"There you are," said Will. "But in my case, it's not about hanging around on ships and

annoying people like Henry. I'm a diver. A specialist. The theory is that if the navy needs a lot more

divers than it has for big tasks such as clearing harbours or checking wrecks then guys like me are

flown there to take over the routine tasks while the regulars go off and do heroic stuff."

"Makes sense, I guess," said Meghan, "but you haven't been doing it for a while."

"You can drop out for a while. Now they are trying to tempt me back for a course in really

deep diving, where you breathe a helium-oxygen mix and have to spend a long time in

decompression stops coming up. Sound interesting. I think I might do it."

"How long will this course take?"

"It's one of those things you do properly or not at all, as it's dangerous. About a month."

"A month! You're going to going to leave my work to dangerous underwater stuff for a

month?"

"You won't be paying me and the others can handle all the routine matters. Josh can write

captions to his pictures. Just try not to break up with your next boyfriend while I'm on the course,

and everything will be fine."

"Humph! I can't control that," said Meghan. "Anyway, I need you for other things."

"If you want someone to yell out," said Will, "then hire Henry for a while and yell at him –

or Noah."

"No problem," said George.

"My wife yells at me all the time," said Noah. "Being paid to be yelled at sounds good."

"I don't have any reason to yell at George or Noah," said Meghan. "But I will have a reason

to yell at you, especially if you're going to go off for weeks on this course and this film project of

yours."

"The film project will be in LA," said Will, "and you can always ring me up to yell at me."

"It's not the same," she said. "Why did you get into this navy reserve thing anyway?"

"Money is part of it. I did a few things to keep solvent while at Chicago. My swimming

scholarship paid tuition but I still had to live, and Lilith's Yale foray strained the family finances.

She got in but no scholarship."

"And you still had a big fight with her," said Meghan, amused.

"And I still got beaten up by her, yep."

"Poor Will."

"Yes, poor me."

They arrived back at the house.

"I want coffee, Will," said Meghan, getting out "decaf this time".

As Will got out George nodded towards Meghan opening the front door of her house and

spoke softly. "You going to get anywhere?"

"No. Just light entertainment and coffee, that's me," said Will. "But as a friend of mine

pointed out, a lot of cute girl next door types will be fascinated to hear that I've served coffee to

Clarise Chambers."

"That's what I call a dating edge," said George.