Billy Lives Read online

  BILLY LIVES!

  Gary Brander

  a division of F+W Media, Inc.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Also Available

  Copyright

  CHAPTER 1

  Seven thousand feet above the flat, brown desert east of Los Angeles a Cessna 172 Skyhawk throttled down to seventy miles per hour. The pilot looked over his shoulder at the two parachuted passengers in the rear seats. He nodded okay to the older one, then turned away and kept his eyes front and the headphones clamped on his ears.

  The pilot hated parachute jumpers. He figured anybody who would jump out of a plane when he didn’t have to was probably dangerous on the ground or in the air. If it weren’t for the twenty-five dollars an hour they paid, he would refuse to take the crazies up at all. For this trip he charged double because they seemed even crazier than usual. Also, the blond kid was supposed to be a celebrity in the rock music world. The pilot wouldn’t know about that. Country and western was his style.

  Now that he had the speed and altitude they wanted, the pilot disassociated himself from the others in the plane. He had collected his money, gotten his waiver signed, so now the jumpers could do what they liked. As for the bearded freak with the camera who shot endless pictures of the blond kid for some magazine or other, that was none of his concern either. All the pilot wanted to do now was hold his speed and listen to the sizzle of static in the headphones until it was over.

  • • •

  Nat Spieth, the older of the two jumpers acknowledged the go-ahead nod, but the pilot had already turned away. Despite his general dislike of pilots, this was one time Nat could not blame the man for his lack of interest. Nat wished he could just turn away from this whole idiotic scheme. He should never have agreed to it in the first place. If only he hadn’t needed the money so damn bad.

  He leaned close to the ear of the blond youth to make himself heard over the noise of the engine and the rush of wind where the right-hand door had been removed for jumping. “Are you still sure you want to go through with this?” Nat shouted.

  The young man bobbed his head up and down, the shoulder-length blond hair whipping and snapping about his face.

  The cameraman kneeling in the seat next to the pilot made a gimme motion with his hand. The young man smiled. The camera clicked.

  “You know you’re supposed to make five static line jumps before you try a free fall.” Nat was talking into the wind, but felt he had to say it once more. “That’s the rules.”

  Yes, that was the rules — one of them — of the Parachute Club of America. Nat Spieth had long ago been kicked out of the PCA for violating rules. Never before, though, had he done anything as wild as this — taking up an inexperienced kid for a free fall on his very first jump with a bare minimum of ground instruction.

  But the kid couldn’t wait for the formalities required by the PCA. He wanted to go out of a plane now, and he wanted to go free fall. The kid had the money to pay for it, and if Nat Spieth hadn’t brought him up, somebody else would have.

  And actually, there were no laws being broken. The Federal Aviation Agency was concerned with parachutists only if they jumped over a populated area. Out here over open country you could send a spastic out of a plane with a beach umbrella and the Government couldn’t care less.

  Nat leaned close to the blond youth again. “Check your harness one more time,” he shouted.

  The young man tugged at the straps holding the backpack chute and the auxiliary chute in place. Everything seemed to be snug.

  “You remember the ready stance I showed you when we were on the ground?”

  The young man nodded, but Nat went over it again anyway. “Your feet are on the metal step above the wheel, you’re in a half-crouch, hands straight out in front on the wing strut. Look ahead at the horizon. Okay?”

  Another nod.

  “When you get outside on the step, you won’t be able to hear me. I’ll give you two claps on the shoulder — like this — as a signal to drop. Got that?”

  The young man patted his own shoulder twice to show he understood.

  “Now remember, don’t jump up in leaving the step. Kick off gently and let your feet float out to the rear. When your body is stretched out flat, let go of the strut.”

  The photographer was leaning back between his seat and the pilot’s, waving the blond youth into position in front of the open door.

  “As soon as you’re free of the plane,” Nat continued, “go into the basic spread position that I showed you. The cross, remember? And start counting by thousands. At five, pull the ripcord. Count three more seconds, and if your canopy isn’t up and properly opened, use your reserve chute. Got that?”

  Again a nod. A smiling wave for the photographer.

  “Okay, out you go. I’ll follow you in ten seconds.”

  The young jumper pulled a bright red helmet on over his flowing blond hair. He waved one last time at the cameraman, who clicked away steadily, careful to stay well away from the open door.

  Gingerly the young parachutist reached out through the opening and fought the wind to grasp the slanting wing strut. With both hands on the strut he stepped out of the cabin, right foot first, then left, onto the 6-by-18-inch metal plate bolted over the naked wheel.

  Inside Nat Spieth moved into the seat next to the door. He reached out to lay a hand on the young man’s shoulder. Looking down, he could make out the tiny vehicles and the cluster of dots that were people, their faces no doubt turned upward right now waiting for the bloom of a parachute. There being no wind to speak of, the kid shouldn’t land too far from his friends. With no practice at the landing fall, he would probably sprain an ankle, but that would be a good lesson for him. Nat would steer his own chute to land at the same spot, and the off-road vehicles down there could pick them up right away.

  The cold blast of wind dried Nat’s lips and whipped the tears from his eyes. Still, he was sweating under the arms. He could smell it. Now or never.

  Nat lifted his hand from the red-clad shoulder and thumped it once, twice. The kid, instead of kicking his feet free to get into the horizontal position, let go of the strut immediately. He vanished as though jerked from sight by wires. A metallic bang jarred the airplane. Nat leaned out the doorway to look down. The figure in red tumbled out of control toward the earth, one arm flapping like an empty sleeve.

  Nat Spieth closed his eyes and tasted bile. “Dear Mother of God!”

  • • •

  Never in the twenty-three years of his life had Billy Lockett felt more alone than at the moment he stepped out of the airplane onto the little metal plate. His hands gripped the wing strut as if it were life. He felt the firm pressure of Nat Spieth’s hand on his shoulder. If only Nat would drag him back inside, rip the parachute harness from his body, sit on him if necessary to stop him from doing this idiotic thing.
r />   But of course Nat Spieth wouldn’t stop him. Billy had paid him well to see that he did go through with it. Nobody but Billy himself could stop it now. And he might even have done that, climbed right back into the plane, if it hadn’t been for that bearded sonofabitch from Lifestyle with his damn camera. It was that damn magazine that got him into this mess in the first place. They told him there was a possible cover story in it for him, and a Lifestyle cover could sell half a million records and assure a sellout at the Forum for his concert in September. Why the hell had he told that fag reporter that he was into skydiving? Because the fag was starting to look bored, that was why, and Billy saw his cover going out the window if he didn’t liven up the interview.

  He had said the first super-macho thing that popped into his head. “I’m into skydiving.” It never occurred to him that he would have to prove it. Unfortunately, the fag leaked the story to a wire service, and here Billy was a mile and a half in the air with a bunch of reporters and so-called friends on the ground waiting for him to float down like a big bird.

  One thing Billy Lockett vowed — this would be his first and last jump out of an airplane. Once he had proved himself, he would never have to do it again. When he was back safe on the ground, there was no way he would ever buckle on one of these idiot parachutes again. No way.

  The reassuring weight of Nat Spieth’s hand was lifted from his shoulder.

  Oh, Jesus!

  The two light taps felt like the blows of an axe.

  Don’t think, just do it!

  With the wrenching effort of will, Billy released his grip on the wing strut. In the same instant he remembered he should have kicked his feet back first. The steel edge of the step plate clipped his left arm just below the elbow, snapping the bones like dry sticks.

  The pain shot like sudden fire from the arm into his brain. The universe was a whirling blur of blue and brown. Then everything faded to a gentle gray mist and, blessedly, the pain went away.

  Fragments of Billy Lockett’s mind continued to function as his body tumbled toward the earth.

  You’re falling! one said.

  No, it’s only a dream. A falling dream.

  Count to five and pull the ripcord!

  One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand, five thousand.

  But there was no ripcord. There was no parachute. There was no danger. It was only a dream.

  You’re falling!

  A dream.

  You’re going to die!

  No, Billy Lockett cannot die. He is just beginning to live.

  You’re going to die!

  No. Old people die. Billy is young. Billy is alive.

  You’re going to die!

  What if he did die? What would all the people say? The people in the plane and the people on the ground? Al Fessler his manager and Madeline? Conn Driscoll, the hotshot publicity man? His one-time partner, Rick Girodian? And dumb, delicious Iris Ames? How would they feel? Would they cry for Billy? Would any of them cry?

  “I’m going to die!” The wind tore the words from his throat. The blazing pain was back in his brain, in his arm. Billy saw his hand and wrist flapping loose at the end of his sleeve. A darker red stained the cherry color of the material.

  Then he saw the ground. Hard brown earth rushing toward him at one hundred and twenty miles per hour. Faces. Mouths open in horrified black O’s.

  Ripcord.

  The clawing fingers of Billy’s good hand found the cold metal D-ring a millisecond before he smashed face down onto the hard-packed dirt of the San Bernardino desert. Blinding white lights exploded in his head, then all the lights went out.

  Forever.

  CHAPTER 2

  Sunday morning found Al Fessler stretched out on a patio chaise watching sunlight dance on the ripples of his Anthony swimming pool. In his hand was a glass of unsugared iced tea. In the old days Al used to go for a hefty slug of bourbon, but at fifty-six a guy had to watch his condition. Especially if he had a slim, beautiful wife twenty-four years younger than him.

  The relaxed attitude was most unusual for Al Fessler. To make it in Hollywood in the talent management game, a guy had to keep moving or be trampled by the passing parade. During his thirty-plus years on the Coast Al had been a man on the move constantly. The first few years, right after World War II, he had hustled and scraped for acting jobs. His dark, sinister looks and Chicago accent got him parts in a few Grade B gangster movies, but that was about it. He liked to tell people, “I was the guy who always said, ‘You want we should lean on him a little, boss?’”

  With the growth of television, B movies disappeared, and sinister-looking gangster types were in small demand. It was then Al turned in his Screen Actors’ Guild card and became an agent.

  Over the years he had never quite found the one Big Talent — the one who would enable him to put daylight between himself and his creditors. More than once he had come close, but something always went wrong. A girl singer who was all set for stardom got religion and disappeared into a convent. A promising juvenile got busted when the cops raided a gay bar. A couple of others he lost to William Morris or MCA just when they were starting to pay off.

  Now at last Al Fessler was ready to enjoy some of the rewards he had missed for all the years of nonstop work — all the babysitting and hand-holding for the grownup children who were his clients, all the hustling and the conniving and the ass-kissing that were part of his profession. He finally had exclusive rights to a piece of talent that was going to be his annuity. Billy Lockett would keep him comfortable for the rest of his life. He could pay off the house here in Sherman Oaks, or, what the hell, even move to Beverly Hills. He and Madeline could buy a boat. Take a vacation.

  He said the word aloud to himself. “Vacation.” Jesus, when was the last time he had taken more than one day off to do something he really wanted to?

  The telephone rang.

  Al Fessler did not hold with ESP or premonitions or any of that psychic crap. That was for the freaks down on Hollywood Boulevard. All the same, something in the sound of the ringing phone sent a chill to his bones.

  Moving deliberately, he set down the glass of iced tea and walked across the patio to the sliding glass door that opened into the living room. He picked up the apple-green phone and said, “Hello.”

  He listened with dulled eyes as the voice on the other end of the line told him that the unthinkable had happened. Feeling cold and numb, Al kept nodding at the telephone as though the gesture could somehow be transmitted through the wires to the speaker. Finally, when the voice was through, Al said, “Okay,” and hung up.

  For a full sixty seconds he stood looking down at the green plastic instrument as if it were a pampered pet that had betrayed him.

  “Shit,” he said. “Shit shit shit! Oh, fuck dirty goddammit shit!”

  Ruined. He was wiped out. Every penny he had, everything he could borrow, had gone into the promotion of Billy Lockett and the Forum concert six months from now. The concert was going to be the start of the new good life he had worked for so long. On the outcome of that concert waited a fat record contract, a network special on prime time, a world tour. Also the Beverly Hills House, the boat, the vacation.

  Madeline came floating in from her bedroom. Thin, blond, ethereal Madeline. When Al met her she was a fiercely dedicated actress, utterly without talent. She had an air of being unattainable that had fired Al Fessler’s desire. Now there were times when it almost drove him crazy.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked in the cool, modulated tone she always used.

  “Matter? Everything’s the matter.” Al ran a hand over his bare scalp to the back of his head where the black hair still grew thick and oily. “We’re ruined. Finished.”

  “What happened, Al?” Madeline asked patiently.

  “Billy killed himself, that’s what happened.”

  For a moment an emotion of some kind flickered in the cool gray eyes, but when Madeline spoke her voice was level. “Killed himself?
How?”

  “The stupid little shit jumped out of an airplane. Just because of that fucking interview with Lifestyle where he told them he was a skydiver, he thought he had to go be a skydiver. Of all the dumb, fucking, stupid moves …”

  “Billy’s dead,” Madeline said, as though trying out the sound of the words.

  “Jesus H. Fucking Christ, yes, he’s dead. He jumped out of a fucking airplane and his fucking parachute didn’t open. That usually does the job.”

  “There’s no reason to shout at me, Al. And I don’t appreciate that kind of language.”

  Al spread his hands. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m not really yelling at you, I’m yelling at … God, I guess. Do you have any idea what we’ve lost?”

  “Yes, Al, I think I do.” She turned away from nim and walked out of the room.

  Al stood with his hands balled into fists watching her go. What he wanted to do right now was go to her and put his arms around her and ask her to share his pain. But he didn’t have the words to tell her. When he talked to Madeline everything that came out of his mouth sounded like the Chicago hood he used to play in the cheap movies. If he could just break through that finishing-school reserve once in a while, maybe their life together would get better.

  Then, remembering the phone call, Al sagged into a chair. What life together? Forget Beverly Hills. Hell, forget Sherman Oaks for that matter. He’d borrowed heavily on this house. Among other things. And it was all because that dumb little asshole had to prove something by jumping out of an airplane. He couldn’t have waited until after the concert, at least.

  Al would have liked a drink. In the old days a slug or two of good bourbon had helped him over many a crisis. He gave it up when he married Madeline, along with cigarettes, rich foods, poker playing, and a few lesser pleasures. Not that Madeline ever said anything, but she had subtle ways of showing disapproval. Having a wife with Madeline’s looks and class was good for the ego, but there was a price.

  Now he wished Madeline had stayed out here with him, comforted him, or at least joined him in cursing the rotten luck. Of course, she probably didn’t know how really deep in debt he had gone to put Billy Lockett over. Or what kind of people he had borrowed from. And he couldn’t expect her to feel any personal loss. Madeline had never liked Billy, not from the first day Al brought him home.