"Yeah," David said almost savagely, grinding out his cigarette.
Irving was silent for a moment, then he smiled.
"Tell you what, Davy.
I’ll get all our proxies together and deliver 'em to you.
When you decide what's best, vote 'em for us."
David stared at him. "You'd do that?"
Irving laughed. "The way I see it, I got no choice. Didn't you haul that alky for us from Shocky's garage?"
"Here comes the coffee," Rosa announced, carrying in a tray.
"Jesus!" Irving exclaimed. "Lookit that choc'late layer cake."
Rosa laughed in a pleased voice. "I baked it myself."
Irving leaned back against the couch.
"Oh, Doctor!" he said, looking at Rosa and rolling his eyes.
"Another piece?"
"I had three already.
Another and you'll have to do a plastic job on my stomach to get me back in shape."
"Better have some more coffee, then," she said, refilling his cup. She began to gather up the cake plates.
"I meant to ask you, Davy," Irving said. "You ever hear of a broad named Jennie Denton?"
"Jennie Denton?"
David shook his head. "No."
"I forgot," Irving said, glancing up at Rosa. "You been out of circulation."
"What about her?" Rosa asked. "I knew a Jennie Denton."
"You did?
Where did you know her, Doc?"
"At the hospital. Four years ago there was a nurse there by that name."
"About five six, dark eyes, long, light-brown hair, good figure and an interesting way of walking?"
Rosa laughed. "Sexy, you mean?"
Irving nodded. "Yeah, that's what I mean." "Sounds like the same girl," Rosa said.
"What about her?" David asked.
"Well, Jennie is probably the most expensive hooker in L.A.
She has her own six-room house in the hills and you want to see her, it's by appointment only and you go there.
She won't walk into a hotel room.
She's got a real exclusive list and you want a date, you got to wait maybe two, three weeks.
She only works a five-day week."
"If you're recommending her to my husband," Rosa interrupted, smiling, "you'd better stop right there."
Irving smiled.
"Well, it seems one night, earlier this week, Maurice Bonner went there and she gave him the full treatment.
So, nothing will do the next day but he has Jennie down to the studio for a screen test.
He shoots her in color, some scenes from some old script he's got laying around.
While he's at it, he decides to make it real good.
He dresses her in a white silk sheet. It's supposed to be a baptism scene and when she comes up out of the water in the big tank on Stage Twelve, you can see everything she's got.
In two days, that test becomes the biggest picture on the home circuit.
Bonner's got more requests for it than Selznick's got for Gone With the Wind!"
There was only one script David remembered that had a baptism scene.
"You wouldn't remember the name of the script?" he asked.
"Was it The Sinner?"
"Could be."
"If it was, that's the script Cord had written especially for Rina Marlowe before she died."
"I don't care who it was written for." Irving smiled. "You gotta see that test.
You'll flip.
I sat through it twice. And so did everybody else in the projection room."