Page 35 of For Better or for Ransom

“Nah!” Fairbanks didn’t even think before answering. “His method is more painful. He just keeps finding and advising on the worst possible deals. Fortunately, Leonardo tends to ignore him. But can you believe fucking Bobby told Leonardo not to do my show? The fucking bastard!” When there was no reaction from the detectives, Jasper added: “Plus, he was the one who got Leonardo in trouble with Supreme Video a couple of years ago!”

Sol

Sol’s journalistic radar started beeping. Not because of Jasper being the ultimate egomaniac who believed a manager not liking their show was a grave offense. But could this trouble Leonardo got himself into with Supreme Video be the bit of gossip Moon had told Luke and Divya the day before? The very reason Moon had wanted Sol to leave the apartment and not listen to what they had to say about Leonardo?

Divya and Luke exchanged complicit stares and Sol knew she was right.

“We’ve been told Leonardo got some executives at Supreme Video mad because he stood them up for a meeting,” Luke said in a more measured manner than he’d done before.

“Yeah, yeah. I heard the gossip version of the account. Then the next day he stood them up again and he wouldn’t pick up their calls. And then there were some paparazzi pictures of him tanning on a beach when he was supposed to be meeting the Supreme Video executives, and that’s why they will never work with him…” Fairbanks continued saying in his Los Angeles tone and accent.

“Yes, that’s what we’ve heard.” Luke was still being careful.

“That’s all mumbo jumbo. The simplified version of events planted by fucking Bobby to make it look as if it was his client’s fault. But it was him.”

“Jasper, could you be a bit more specific?” Divya asked, and Luke thanked her from across the table with his eyes.

“Listen, my dad is an entertainment lawyer, my mom is a production designer, my godmother is a very high-profile director, all of my friends and relatives work in the business… I’m the ultimate Hollywood nepo baby, okay? If something happens in Hollywood, I know it.”

“So can you tell us what really happened?” Divya again.

“Bobby didn’t tell Leonardo he was supposed to be at a meeting with Supreme Video. He managed to really make a mess about the whole thing and gave the streamer Leonardo’s old cell phone… meanwhile Leonardo was on some island taking a few days. But the thing is, he’d have taken the meeting on vacation anyway. Leonardo would never stand someone up. He’s really the nicest person in the business—and a real hard worker.”

Luke was rolling his eyes. It made Sol wonder: why was it that he’d never liked Leonardo?

“So why is Leonardo still working with Bobby?”

“Because he didn’t know half of it. But I told him everything. This summer, when we did the hike together, I said: ‘Leonardo, dude, you need to fire Bobby. He’s an absolute liability and incompetent.’ He told me he’d fire him.”

“He did?”

“He wasn’t sure at the beginning. Look, unlike me, Leonardo has had to work hard for everything in his career: every introduction, every new connection.”

There was something about Fairbanks. If she ever got to meet the showrunner in person, Sol would probably dislike the guy. Yet she sort of was loving his direct, unabashed ways of conducting that conversation, and of openly admitting his privilege.

“He finally decided he’d get rid of him right after the theater play run and before doing my show,” Fairbanks continued. “And then he goes and fucking disappears.”

Luke raked his hair in a gesture that Sol had learned to recognize as investigative thrill and nervousness. Divya simply whistled. It looked like they had yet another name to add to their long list of possible people involved in the disappearance of Leonardo Pascual.

20

Luke

Luke was freaking out. They’d hang up the call with Jasper Fairbanks half an hour before. Divya had left shortly after. She had to call Moon. Luke believed that was code for: she needed a long conversation with her romantic partner, but not that she wanted to update their client on how things were.

He hoped he was right because things were utterly and bloody complicated—and fucked. The list of possible leads just kept multiplying: Isabel Teixidor, the director, had got an extended run of her play out of Pascual’s disappearance. Pili Garcia, the co-star, would also be in that extended run of the play and she hadn’t liked the older Pascual playing her son—she’d always preferred Sandro Palau for the role.

Pascual was having a romantic relationship with someone who Sol and Divya—and reluctantly also Luke—believed to be Palau. Sandro—who was objectively the person benefitting the most from Pascual’s being missing—looked devastated and had said he wouldn’t be in the extended run of the play until Pascual was found.

Then there was Jasper Fairbanks telling them Pascual had forced him to move the production of The Single Dad Situation from Atlanta to London. Was the showrunner really as happy about that as he pretended to be? He’d told them Leonardo was a man who’d at least abandoned another production before, Theo Summer’s Bibliophilia. And, if all that wasn’t convoluted enough, Pascual was about to fire his manager Robert Lancaster, AKA Bobby, and the person supposedly responsible for damaging Pascual’s reputation in Hollywood.

Add to that pile of confusion, an ominous note left inside Pascual’s dressing room claiming they’d not reach him in time, an open window, the person who Sol had seen addressing Pascual at the W, and the lack of any demands for ransom despite the note claiming they needed to offer something in exchange for the actor. If Pascual had been kidnapped, the kidnappers didn’t seem to want to get rid of him yet—which only added to Luke’s anxiety.

Plus, production of The Single Dad Situation was supposed to start in London the next Monday, but that would have to be postponed since the star of the show was still missing. Not only didn’t they know if Leonardo was okay or not, Luke was told two hundred people could end up without a job if they didn’t find the leading man soon—Divya’s lover among them.

Luke huffed. He was pacing Sol's rooftop terrace and running his fingers through his hair while contemplating the sight. There were views of Tibidabo hill, the Sagrada Família, and a stretch of the sea. He had always loved that rooftop space, perhaps because the first time he’d kissed Sol had been there. But today he wasn’t feeling the charm of the place. And it wasn’t just because of the chilliness in the air.

They still had no clue what had happened to Leonardo Pascual. And even if Luke had never been a fan of the actor, he was starting to be genuinely concerned. What if something bad had happened to him? The Bakshi & Contadino Agency had been hired to find him, yet he wasn’t sure how that was going to be possible.