REPRESENTED (26 page)

             
Karin walked over to her SUV and unlocked it.  D.O.G. jumped into the front seat and hopped over the console between the two front seats to sit in the passenger seat where he knew he belonged.  If C.A.T. was along he usually sat in the back with him but he hadn’t been invited, hadn’t even made an appearance when they left so he was out of luck.  D.O.G. dropped his leash on the seat in case Karin wanted to clip it to his collar.  She started the SUV and let it run for a moment.  She put on her sunglasses and opened the sunroof.  D.O.G. arched his neck to put his nose up to the airflow that he knew would come in the open roof.  It was almost as though he was giving his approval.  She rolled both of their side windows down halfway.  Karin checked the radio; she turned it to one of the stations she had pre-set on Pandora.  She didn’t realize it was pre-set to Cassie Summers Radio but playing another singer’s song as she put the SUV in reverse and got out of her parking spot.  She nearly hit another car that had moved at the same time and thought she better be careful, today especially, she knew she was distracted as she waved the other driver on who then proceeded to flip her off.  “Thank you” she called “thank you very much” she said sarcastically hoping they could hear her through her open windows.  As she drove up the ramp to exit she had to brake hard to avoid the stupid pedestrians who in New York didn’t stop for anything.  It was as she was inching out to get past them that she saw Cassie Summers standing in front of her building looking up at it.  What the hell?  She watched her for a minute but shaking her head she rolled her window down the rest of the way.

             
“What are you doing here?” she called to get her attention.

             
Cassie didn’t realize at first that Karin was in the SUV that was coming up from the garage.  She looked around when she heard Karin call again, recognizing the voice.

             
“Cassie!”

             
She looked in surprise at Karin sitting in a yellow Pathfinder staring at her from her designer sunglasses.  Her hair was loose like Cassie liked and she looked relaxed but Cassie knew she had to still be angry.

             
“
What are you doing here?
” Karin repeated in exasperation now that she had Cassie’s attention.

             
Cassie walked over to the rolled down window.  “Looking for you” she said quietly.

             
Karin looked at her through her glasses knowing she couldn’t read her eyes.  Her face gave nothing away, it was set in stone.  “What do you want?”

             
Cassie wanted to answer “you” but knew this wasn’t the time or place.  “We need to talk before you make your decision” she said instead.

             
There was a slight tightening of the jawline in response to this.  And silence as Karin studied her face.

             
Cassie looked beyond Karin and saw a most astonishing sight, a black and white curly haired dog looking at her curiously.  He looked very happy as he panted and ducked his head to see her clearly.  He looked like he was listening too, very intently.

             
A horn beeped behind Karin and she looked in her rear view mirrors to see another car wishing to exit.  She looked back at Cassie and again thought of just driving off.  She wouldn’t be rude though and she flicked her head and said “get in.”

             
“What?” Cassie asked momentarily confused.

             
“
Get IN
!” Karin said running out of patience.

             
Cassie ran around the front of the SUV and opened the door.  The dog looked at her curiously until Karin said “Deeooogee, get in the back” and he turned to look at her and then hopped into the back.  Cassie climbed in and barely had time to grab the seat belt before Karin let herself into traffic.  She wasn’t sure she should say anything as she glanced at Karin’s stubborn jawline.  She was pissed, of that Cassie could be certain, how pissed though she wasn’t certain of at all.  She wanted to ask but something told her to stay quiet as she pretended to look at the sights.  Karin effortlessly drove through the crowded streets; she obviously knew where she was going as she made her way to the freeway.  She headed north and sped rapidly onto the freeway when she had a chance.  She maneuvered over to the carpool lane and when an opening occurred she floored it and they were rapidly on their way, wherever they were going. 

             
Karin realized then that her Pandora station was playing a Cassie Summers song.  How ironic.  Cassie realized it about the same time as she recognized the opening strings of her own guitar.  She listened to it critically as Karin listened to it with a tightening of her heart.  Normally she let herself be open and loving when she heard Cassie’s songs and by now she was certain she had heard them all, or at least the published ones anyway, but she wasn’t really in the mood right now to listen to it and she punched up the display on her radio and changed the station.  Cassie glanced at her wondering if she should speak.

             
Karin drove for nearly an hour as she headed north on the freeway.  She pulled off as they entered an area of high cliffs.  The off ramp was blasted through one of these as she circled around on the rough road.  She pulled into a convenience store and said “stay here” but Cassie wasn’t sure if that was for her or the dog as they both sat tight.  She ran in and came out with three bottles of water and hopped back in.  She headed west on the road they were on and made several turns.  Cassie realized this was a good place to dump a body if she were so inclined; she had no idea where she was but she trusted Karin and she hoped they could talk things out.  Karin stopped when they came to some type of bank or dam of earth.  “We’re here” she said as she rolled up the windows and closed the sunroof.  She reached for D.O.G.’s leash as she opened her door and hopped out.  She slammed the door after D.O.G. hopped out and Cassie closed her door.  She pressed a button on her keychain, locked the doors, and set the alarm at the same time.  She headed to a well-worn path that led up the side of the earthen dam.  D.O.G. ran by her and led their little group.  Cassie wished she was wearing something more appropriate to hiking but at least they were flats was all she could think.  She wouldn’t say a word of complaint but then they hadn’t said a word really since they had gotten in the SUV.  They made their way up the side and Karin walked a little further and stopped.  Cassie gaped at the view as she saw they overlooked the Hudson or what she assumed was the Hudson River.  It looked far away but its immense size was because they were up so high and this wasn’t an earthen damn as she had thought but a cliff overlooking the beautiful valley that contained the river.  “Beautiful” she breathed and Karin nodded.  Karin walked a little further and sat down on an outcropping of rock, she made enough room that Cassie could join her if she wanted and she watched as D.O.G. snuffled his way through the foliage growing around the rocks.  Cassie sat hesitantly down and looked at the scenery.  It was beautiful, it reminded her of the Tennessee River Valley and yet it was totally unique.  Karin breathed a huge sigh of relief and just looked out and ignored her.

             
“Are you ever going to talk to me again?”

             
Karin shrugged “what’s there to say, you’ve done something I told you I didn’t want to do.”

             
“Don’t you want to know why?”

             
“What does it matter, you got what you wanted, that’s all that matters in the long run right?”

             
“No, I care what you want too.”

             
For the first time Karin turned and looked her right in the face.  Cassie couldn’t see Karin’s eyes because of the sunglasses but she imagined they were boring holes in her head as she tried to look directly back into them.  “If you cared what I wanted you would have listened to me, you would have heard that I didn’t want to represent you, that I didn’t want to represent anyone in the entertainment field.  I made that very clear.  In all the months you have known me I stated that time and again, it wasn’t a joke, it wasn’t just for fun.  I don’t want this!” she stressed.

             
“But why?  What happened so long ago that you won’t or don’t want to help me?”

             
“It isn’t about you!  It’s the industry; I don’t want to be associated with it.  It’s a shitty industry and they eat people alive.  I don’t want to get into that again!”

             
“What happened with Em Phillips?” Cassie felt brave enough to ask.

             
Karin’s whole face took on an icy look at the mention of her name.  She looked away and Cassie thought her eyes looked full of tears as she looked out over the Hudson River.  “I don’t want to talk about it” she said tightly.

             
“But if I don’t know or don’t understand...” Cassie began and then wished she hadn’t.

             
Karin stood up and said with menace in her voice “leave it alone Cassie, you’ve caused enough trouble to last me a lifetime.”

             
Cassie was taken aback.  She had never heard Karin talk like this.  Cold, yes, professional, absolutely, loving, kind, and caring, yes but
this, this
had so much anguish that Cassie could only wonder at the cause.

             
Karin walked away a few feet and looked over the edge “do you know how easy it would be to just go a little too far near this edge?” she asked conversationally.

             
Cassie looked at her nervously and wondered.  She had never thought Karin suicidal.  “Is that why you are here?”

             
Karin looked up at her sadly “no, I wouldn’t end my life over this, you’re not worth it” she said with crippling effect.

             
Cassie sat there stunned.  What had she done that Karin was cutting her so?  It angered her enough that she said “then make me understand what I have done to warrant your anger over representing me?”

             
Karin sighed and backed away from the edge of the cliff.  She sat down on another set of rocks as she chewed on her lip.  She rubbed her nose and swatted at a bug that flew around her head.  She brushed her hair back and tucked it behind her ear.  Watching D.O.G. she began to speak.  “When I first went to work for Kreske’s in Chicago I wanted to specialize in Entertainment Representation.  I wanted it all.  The hoopla, the excitement, the crap that went with representing a bunch of privileged children.  I didn’t mind.  I thought it was exciting.  I thought it was glamorous.  I’d studied the stars in Kreske’s stable as closely as I had my textbooks in college, it was incredible to realize the potential of some of these people” she sounded excited.  “My enthusiasm got me far that first year.  I learned a lot that polished me, and honed my skills, and helped me ward off some of the sharks that inhabit these waters.  There are a lot of backstabbing people in entertainment.  Your clients are usually the worst.  They want you to wipe their nose, wipe their asses with one hundred dollar bills” she spoke bitterly on that before continuing.  “I was bringing in new clients too once they took off the choke collar of my ‘newbie’ status.  People like me, I’m efficient, and I’m honest.  That part is what saved my ass.”

             
She picked up a rock and flung it as far as she could.  She picked a flower and began to shred its petals.  “I was given a few higher profile clients to see what I could do with them and I did well.  Then they gave me Phil and Em Phillips.  Phil Phillips, ever heard of him?” she looked up at Cassie who shook her head.

             
“He was a pretty boy, charming, good looking, gorgeous body that made you just want to crawl all over him, and he was also privileged and assuming.  He assumed that since he was so good looking that the world owed him.  They owed him endless deals that he didn’t have to work for, they owed him money, and he should be the highest paid actor in Hollywood, hell the world!  We owed it to him because he was so beautiful.  He was God’s gift to us.  We should worship at his feet.  His sister was actually prettier.  Em Phillips could have had any man or woman just by wagging her finger at them.  Her brother though had brow beaten her so far down that she hadn’t a clue that she had the potential, she had no self-esteem.  Absolutely none.  I began to bolster her self-esteem in my appointed roll of representative to the stars.  I was their manager, their nose wiper, their deal breaker.  I sent countless women on their way after Phil finished with them, he used them shamelessly.  What I didn’t know at that time is that he participated in autoerotic asphyxiation” she glanced up at Cassie to see her reaction.  She was frozen listening to Karin’s tale.  She nodded when Karin lifted an eyebrow wondering if she knew what autoerotic asphyxiation was.  “He usually found new starlets who wanted a ‘leg up’ as it were to victimize.  They were willing.  He was good looking and hadn’t had a hint of scandal thanks to people like me.  He came on to me when he was drunk but I was too adept at dealing with him, or too stupid to realize the danger, or just plain lucky, I don’t know.  He was becoming more dissipated as he delved deeper into drugs, had to get more depraved to get a higher high.  The sex wasn’t cutting it on the level he was at.  He jumped at the chance to play hard core.  Unfortunately he took along Em with him when he went on his sexcapades.”  She shuddered as she remembered back.  “She barely survived what they did to her.  He didn’t survive at all”  Karin’s voice had become deadpan as she related the story and Cassie wanted to reach out to her to stop her from finishing the tale but they were far enough apart that Karin continued “Em stumbled home or rather was kicked out of a moving car like trash in front of the house.  I happened to be there that day and helped her into the house and cleaned her up.  Her mind wasn’t completely gone so she told me where to find Phil.  I left her with one of my staff members while I drove to find Phil.  The sickos let me in to show him off, what they had done to him; they had flayed him alive with whips and chains.  His blood splattered the entire room.  They were watching the snuff film they had made to edit it.  They let me in because they figured a pretty lady such as myself might like to join in or take up where he had left off, they
offered
.  I wasn’t stupid.  I was followed by four huge guys who when I didn’t come out immediately broke into the house and beat these guys senseless, they broke every bone in their bodies, I watched them.  I confiscated all the tapes and smashed all the equipment with a baseball bat.  I had them cut Phil down and put him in a body bag and we took him to a mortuary where I had them enclose him in a casket and seal it.  It took a lot of money to assure their silence but you throw enough of that around, you can buy people.  The four goons who had accompanied me were paid off as well.  I can’t prove it but they killed their own as well.  As far as I know only one of those guys is still alive and even then I found that out later.  I returned home and talked to Em.  I must have talked to her for two days before I got a glimmer of understanding in her eyes.  I had cleaned her up, I bolstered her up, and I hid the body as it were.  She came out of it with a career in Hollywood.  I came out of it scarred for life.”  Karin sobbed and Cassie made a move to come to her and Karin held up her hand.  “Now you know why I don’t want to get involved in entertainment representation.”