To Kill the Duke (38 page)

“Well, get on down here and tell that to the two newest big shots — Joe Lombardo, Sr. and John Accardo, both better known as ‘Sonny,’” Rumberg said. “By the way, I have a funny feeling if you come down here and make a big scene, you will be burned, whacked, hit or clipped.”

“What does all that mean?” Ivan asked his employee.

“Killed. What’s the matter, don’t you speak English?” Barney Rumberg said to Ivan Viznapu very sarcastically.

But Ivan spoke a language in Hollywood that he was learning almost as well as his mother tongue — finance — and he didn’t like what he was hearing about what was going on at the set during the first few shots of the picture.

“At first, I thought having Johnny’s friends in the movie would be a big help with the budget,” Ivan said to Alexei later that night after Ivan went down to the set and met with Barney. “Now, they are costing us at least as much as regular actors with their silliness.”

“Be careful my friend or you might get whacked,” Alexei said with a laugh. “Don’t lose sight of the plan.”

“I’m not, but when I see the actors coming in late, messing up their lines, missing their mark and in general just wanting to be on the set partying and not working, I get mad,” vented Ivan.

“Look. Our target is John Wayne. Not making pictures. Relax, humor them and use them like they are using us,” Alexei said.

“How can I
use
them?” Ivan asked Alexei.

“Maybe they know the inside scoop on a sporting event that we can bet on and win some extra money,” Alexei suggested.

“If the people we had on location knew stuff like that they wouldn’t be stealing from us,” Ivan pointed out.

“You lost me. What do you mean
stealing from us?”
Alexei asked.

“They eat all our food, drink everything in sight, steal all the clothes from wardrobe and even take some of the props home!” yelled Ivan.

“They sound like politicians and not gangsters,” Alexei quipped. “They must be driving Barney crazy.”

“Insane and nuts have been two of his favorite words lately,” Ivan said.

“Look, you do the best you can with the people we have and I’m going to pay Mr. Stompanato a visit about
his
people. I’m sure I’ll be able to iron things out. After all, he wants to make money, too,” Alexei said.

“I sometimes wonder, given the people he hangs out with, how
any
of them make money, the way they leech,” Ivan said.

“Well, they are not spending any of their own money on food, drink, clothes and other goods. It’s all on
Seven Zeros
. I guess we are their
action
,” Alexei said.

“Good points,” Ivan said.

“Toughski shitski,” replied Alexei.

For three days, Ivan didn’t see or hear from Alexei. Late in the first day of Alexei’s absence, Ivan started to worry that Johnny Stomp had whacked, burnt, clipped or ordered a hit on his friend before Alexei could whack, burn, clip or perform a hit on Stompanato. But, true to his learning the game of espionage back in Russia under Alexei, Boris and Mr. Zavert — Ivan kept his cool. He went to the set and worked very hard with Barney at filming the second-unit stuff at
The Coconut Grove
with Allegra, Andrea, Carmella, Lucetta, Paulie, both Sonny’s, Lead Pipe Joe, Tony Stiletto and Vinnie the Thumb. He didn’t even let the former Trotsky Number Seven know that Alexei appeared to be missing. He knew that if Alexei didn’t appear after nine days, that the mission was over and he was to cover all the tracks of the operation and get back to Moscow. Ivan
muttered a lot of ‘toughski shitski’s’ under his breath. Then, on the second day, the receptionist from
Seven Zeros
reported to him that Alexei had phoned and told her to tell Ivan that he was doing fine and would be back at the office in another day or two. Ivan buried himself even further into his film.

In Hollywood, there were no puns between Ivan and Alexei disguising what was going on with their mission. They trusted each other and only spoke about why they were really in the movie business when they were alone. Boris recognized that in them… so did Mr. Zavert. More importantly, Alexei Alexandra and Ivan Viznapu recognized that about themselves and about each other.

“The best bond we have is each other’s back,” Alexei once told Ivan.

“And don’t forget our fronts,” Ivan replied.

After a little more than three days, Alexei returned with good news.

“I have
both
our fronts and our backs,” Alexei told Ivan.

And Ivan knew that Alexei had somehow nailed down a day and a time from Lana Turner via Johnny Stompanato about when their first attempt to end John Wayne’s life would be.

“So, where have you been… Florida?” Ivan asked Alexei sarcastically.

“You know that Hollywood people don’t vacation in Florida. Only Jews vacation in Florida, and I didn’t take Barney with me,” Alexei said.

“Around town?” Ivan asked in a serious tone.

“Actually up North in wine country setting up a safe house,” Alexei lied.

“Russian River Valley?” Ivan asked.

“You writing a book? What’s with the questions?” an annoyed Alexei said.

“Worried,” Ivan admitted.

“We can’t get worried in our business. I thought you learned that,” Alexei said.

“I forgot,” Ivan said.

“Don’t worry. It’s a sign of weakness,” Alexei said.

“So tell me, what’s going on?” Ivan said.

“Nothing but good news. I have a date for what will be our first, last and only attempt to fulfill our mission,” Alexei announced.

“Tell me, and don’t spare the details,” Ivan said.

“Not much to say, except that it was all very professional and business-like. That Lana Turner is tougher than Stompanato and drove a hard bargain,” Alexei said.

“How much?” asked Ivan.

“Just that we fulfill our end of the bargain about helping Johnny Stomp and her have something for the future after she retires or, as she puts it, is ‘forced out’ because she is getting older and the younger starlets are getting better looking and of course… are much younger,” Alexei said.

“They are sure obsessed with aging in this town,” Ivan said.

“There are only two words I can counter with when it comes to the fact that everyone ages,” Alexei said.

Ivan shrugged his shoulders.

“Toughski shitski,” Alexei said with a smile.

“Do you think they are suspicious of what we are asking for?” Ivan suddenly asked.

“Not in this town, especially when it comes to trying to hook a movie star, a role or anything else that has to do with making a big splash in the movie business,” Alexei said.

“We have some cover, don’t we?” Ivan said.

“You bet,” Alexei said. “Who would ever think that two foreign-born producers, with no knowledge of the movie business but with a lot of money, are really Russian super agents trying to kill the biggest movie star in the world?!”

“Nobody,” Ivan said as he prepared the coded pun message to be sent to Boris, which would convey that they had a plan in motion to fulfill their mission. The message was this: ‘The food taster quit his job because he had too much on his plate.’

“One thing bothers me…” Ivan began to say as both he and Alexei scoped out Kirk Douglas’ house in Beverly Hills, getting ready to take out John Wayne.

“Only one?” Alexei shot back sarcastically.

“How did Turner find out about this ‘celebrity car wash?’” Ivan asked.

“You’re not going to believe this, but John Wayne asked her to pop out of the cake at his good friend Ward Bond’s birthday party,” Alexei said.

“That’s it? I’m a little disappointed,” Ivan said.

“One catch — she had to be naked when she came out of the cake. Something about Bond always desiring her. She told me that she always wanted to go out on one of his pranks and that is how she got the information,” Alexei said.

“She won’t be here tonight, will she?” Ivan asked.

“No, I made sure that Johnny got in the way of that. Now go and scout out the back of the house, while I survey up and down the block,” Alexei said.

Not only did Alexei and Ivan share being on the same mission, share being Russian, share running a not-too-successful movie studio; they also shared a hatred of waiting.

Especially the waiting that came before killing.

That is why both men got to their area very early and checked and rechecked their positions in the immediate vicinity where they expected to encounter John Wayne.

“One thing I’ll say about the gangsters is that they don’t put much time into killing their prey,” Ivan said to Alexei as they dressed in their office at
Seven Zeros
.

“Agreed. They just get their orders to kill and walk up and kill the poor son of a bitch whenever they decide to do it,” Alexei said as he donned his clothes for the night.

“Good thing we made that frogmen movie,” Ivan said as he put on his clothes.

“Leave it to good old Trotsky Number Seven to find out during the shooting of
Frogmen in Love
that the black wet suits made a person almost invisible against the night sky, and were comfortable to wear as well,” Alexi said.

“And they make no noise when you move in them,” Ivan noted.

Both men were dressed in their one-piece frogmen suit bottoms, with coats over their torsos as they drove around the block a few times before going about their initial walk-through.

Good thing they were in Hollywood, because if they were stopped they already had a well-rehearsed answer for their get-ups.

“We’re extras in a movie about frogmen.”

“This is the perfect place to wear disguises,” Ivan chuckled as they drove around Kirk Douglas’ neighborhood at dusk.

Besides dark black one-piece underwater suits, they wore boots that were almost as dark as their frogmen suits. If Dick Powell had been driving through Beverley Hills and spotted the footwear that Ivan and Alexei has on their feet, he would have assumed that they worked for Howard Hughes or that Hughes was looking to purchase a house in the neighborhood and had two of his men out canvassing the neighborhood for the home with the best lawn to set up his dinner trays for a picnic.

Their necks were covered by black ascots. Props they had liberated from the
Seven Zeros’
costume department. The hoods from the frogmen suits were in one of the two bags in the back seat along with black leather gloves that they both thought Johnny Stomp would have liked to own. Ivan had a pistol equipped with a silencer in another bag. Alexei’s weapons were a Bowie knife that Johnny Stomp had given him as a present, and a small automatic rifle that also had a silencer on its end. It was their intent to kill John Wayne in as quiet a manner as possible and then disappear back to Russia in an even quieter manner. They strongly believed that Wayne’s murder would never be solved, and would be chalked up by the authorities as a random act of violence, which would encourage millions of Americans to come up with their own conspiracy about who killed their Duke. Mr. Zavert, Boris, Ivan and Alexei all strongly believed in one conspiracy that would never arise; that John Wayne’s assassination was ordered and performed by Russian Communist agents.