Read Indecent Exposure for Free Online Page A

Cliff made clear that he did not want to spearhead any prosecution of David Begelman but would be willing to testify if the authorities began a legal proceedi ng. That seemed reasonable to Se th. Cliff remarked that he hoped he wouldn't have to interrupt his trip to New Zealand.
    * Seth Hufs tcdler's wife. Shirley Hufstedler was a federal appeals court jud ge in Lo s Angeles and later was name d U.S. Secretary of Education by President Jimmy Carter .
    "Where are you staying?" "The Bel-Air Hotel."
    "If I were you I wouldn't stay in a hote l," Hufstedler said. "Not to ove rdramatizc this, but we have no way of knowing at this point how big this is, who else may be involved, or where it all may lead. Begelman knows you've raised questions. Until we have a better handle on the dimensions, and until we put it in the proper law enforcement channels, you probably should stay away from public places in this community where you'll be recognized."
    "Well, I guess I'll have to call some friends and sec what I can arrange. There aren't that many people here that I'm really close to."
    "I'd stay away from people in the industry as much as possible."
    Coming from Seth Hufstedle r, perhaps the calmest man Robertson knew, the admonition to lie low worried him almost as much as the revelation of Begelman 's crime. He walked out to the reception area where Heather was waiting.
    "Gee, Daddy, when are we going to the hotel?"
    "Honey, what was the name of your friend who went to Disneyland with us a couple of months ago? Do you have her phone number?"
    Heather produced the number from a tiny address book. She and the other youngster had been classmates—and had become close friends—when Heather had attended school in Los Angeles during the filming of Washington: Behind Closed Doors. The friend was one of four daughters of a film editor and the family lived in a modest old home in Central Hollywood. Robertson got the man on the phone and explained that the hotel had misplaced his reservation. He was having difficulty reaching other friends, he said, and wondered if he and Heather could stay overnight. If the idea that a famous film actor could not get a hotel room in Los Angeles strained the man's credulity, he didn't show it, and welcomed the Robertsons warmly.
    It was late afternoon by th e time Cliff and Heather left Seth Hufste dler's office. The lawyer consulted his law partner, Samuel Williams, who was then serving as president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, a civilian oversight body. Williams telephoned the assistant chief of police, who sent to Scth Hufstedler 's office the captain in command of the police department's bunco-forgery division and the lieutenant in charge of the specialized forgery unit. After hearing Hufstedler's account of the forgery, the captain said that the LAPD probably would have to refer the case to the police departments in Burbank, where Columbia Pictures was located, and in Beverly Hills, where the forgery itself apparently had occurred.
    Cliff telephoned Dina in Illinois and told her the news, but he made only a few other calls and did not leave the house in Hollywood until it was time to go to the airport on Thursday morning. Although he kept up an amiable front—sitting in the living room reading, or playing with the girls, or just staring out the window into the hazy sunshine—he felt an upsetting mixture of worry, disbelief, resentment, and confusion. He felt like a fugitive, a spy in hiding, a witness in protective custody. "Tip of the iceberg" were the words Bud Kahaner had used. "Hydrogen bomb." Cliff conjured up notions of high crime and hit men. But that's silly, isn't it? Why me? Why did Begelman have to pick my name to forge?
    Cliff mused a lot about David that day. What gall it must have taken to forge a check in as blatant a manner as this one had been forged! But perhaps he shouldn't be so shocked. Cliff had never particularly liked David, even when they were client and agent. They had