California Dreaming

Chapter 3

"Watch out for zoo escapees," Rick cautions as he ushers Nolan into a suite with a thick carpet already full of plastic animals.

John chuckles. "My son Henry produced the same kind of danger zones, except it was with toy robots. Unfortunately, he had some serious medical issues as a baby, so Sarah, my ex, and I probably overindulged him. And I made him some wood copies of figures we couldn't afford."

"I imagine I'm lucky that aside from usual childhood ailments, my girls have been pretty healthy," Rick mulls. "You have just the one son?"

Nolan nods. "The most important person in my life."

"I guess I have three most important persons," Rick responds. "But you didn't come here to make small talk. Kate put together a list of her salient observations, and I added a few flourishes of my own. You can take it or transfer them to whatever form you use. I don't know about your department, but the N.Y.P.D. has a form for everything."

"And some for nothing," Kate adds, joining them with a sheet of paper in her hand. She gives it to John. "I printed this out in the hotel business center."

Nolan scans the text. "This is perfect! We do have a form, but I can attach this. I'll just need your signatures, and I can let you get on with your day. Anything special you were planning to explore?"

"I have a meeting this morning, but after that, we thought we'd take in the Los Angeles Zoo," Rick explains. "Our little one wants to visit the home of the small mammal with large ears, but I don't think we'll have enough time today."

"Mickey!" Lily pipes up.

Rick sighs. "She's already wise to my verbal maneuvers. But anyway, we figured we'd need a full day to see the magic kingdom."

"Several, if you have them," Nolan advises. "And there's a lot to discover in Southern California besides the theme parks. You should enjoy everything you can."

"Officer Nolan, wait a second!" Rick calls as John starts to leave. "If you're available tonight, would you like to have dinner with us? I thought we might compare a few notes and see if we can figure out some clues to the family tree."

"Uh, the woman I'm seeing is supposed to be off-shift tonight. She's a firefighter, and we haven't seen much of each other lately. So we're planning on making an evening of it." John confesses.

"I'm not sure how long my business will stretch out, but we'll be here at least a week. You could give us a call when you're free," Rick suggests.

"All right," John decides on the spot, "I'll do that."

Director Kevin Fligh sits at the head of the table in a conference room at Q-line studios. He's dressed more casually than anyone else in the room, a move Rick recognizes as a not-so-subtle power-play. That's a ploy that won't work on Rick. If Fligh sincerely wants his services, he can have them, particularly if Rick gets a cut off the top of the box office. But if Fligh plans to throw his weight around, he'll be out of luck.

"I'll start with introductions," Fligh announces. "On my right is head writer, Terence Adler. And going around from Terence, Jim Snow, Darren Radcliffe, Chad Gomez, Jack Bella, Linc Amann, and Liz Halpern."

"Only one woman?" Rick questions. "Most of my readers are women. As my editors frequently remind me, it helps to understand what attracts them to a story."

"Most gamers are male." Fligh points out.

"I regularly play against some very skilled and enthusiastic women," Rick argues. "But you're not writing a game, are you? You're writing a movie, and the fairer sex buys a lot of tickets, not to mention subscribing to streaming services."

"I assure you," Fligh returns impatiently, "Liz will play a prominent role in crafting the story."

Rick watches Liz's eyebrows rise as she scribbles something on the legal pad in front of her. He can't resist sticking one more pin in Fligh's balloon. "Great! Liz, tell me about your ideas."

"How did things go with Q-Line?" Kate asks as Rick returns to their suite.

"The director, Fligh, is an A-S-S-H-O-L-E," Rick spells out, conscious of Lily's alert ears. "But I think I can push him in the right direction in a couple of ways. One of those will be that if Q-Line wants my services, it will have to support that new school Clooney is starting to promote industry diversity. You should have seen Fligh squirm when I brought it up. You'd think I put itching powder in his underwear."

Kate giggles. "I would have liked to see that. But Lily's been pretty restless while you've been gone and not because of anything in her pullups. I heard her tell her animals, 'Wait for Daddy.'"

"Well, the wait is over," Rick declares. "To the zoo, we shall go."

Almost upsetting her stroller, a bouncing Lily points excitedly at the mandrill exhibit. "Gamoee fam-ly!"

Rick unbuckles his daughter and lifts her up so she can see better. Lily gazes in confusion at the pale-faced females. "Need Diva."

Rick stares at his daughter and back to the monkeys before chortling. "Did I miss something?" Kate asks.

"You know Lily keeps calling Mother the, uh, word she just used, since she saw that video clip. And she's seen how good her grandmother is with make-up. So I think she wants Mother to make up the female mandrills so they'll look as bright as the males."

Kate studies the description of the exhibit on her phone. "According to this, the brighter the colors, the more testosterone those monkeys have. I think those ladies are better off pale. If we can drag Lily away, maybe we should move onto something else. How about the birds? They have flamingos here, and she loves those."

"Mingoes!" Lily echoes.

Rick hurriedly secures Lily back in her shaded stroller. "Let's go before she changes her mind."

Bailey pokes Nolan's arm. "Earth to John. Where were you? Did Henry have a setback?"

"Oh, no, thank God. Henry's OK. I was just thinking about someone I met, Richard Castle."

"The writer?"

"Uh, huh. You're familiar with him?"

"I've read some of his books. " Bailey points her thumb at her chest. "Firefighter. A character named Nikki Heat called to me. I heard somewhere that Castle married the detective he based her on."

"He did," Nolan confirms. "I met her too, and their little girl. But the weird thing is, he looks like me. Did you ever notice the picture on the back of his books?"

"I read them on Kindle, so no pics. But lots of people look a little like each other. What about it?"

"We both have fathers who did God knows what and mothers who had their days too. He and Kate, his wife, want me to have dinner with them to figure out if there's a genuine family connection."

"Sounds like it could be interesting. You should go," Bailey advises.

"How about if you go with me?" John proposes. "I think Castle must be worth a fortune. I saw his hotel suite. Even for L.A., it was pretty up there. I doubt that he and Kate will mind a plus one."

"A plus one again," Bailey teases. "I thought we got past that with Angela's almost wedding."

"Significant other?" John offers.

Bailey runs her finger down his cheek. "Sounding better. How significant?"

Playfulness vanishing from his face, John leans across the table. "How significant do you want it?"

Bailey reaches for his hands. "That's something we'll have to find out."

A/N George Clooney really is starting a school to train more diverse crews for the film industry. Given Castle's admiration for strong women and considering the diverse nature of his friends, I imagine that Rick would be a diversity advocate. So, I'm making him one.