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If there’s life on Mars,Danny thought,they know how long you’ve waited to get what you want.

“I’m aware,” was all Danny said.

“What time is the vote tomorrow?” Gallo said.

“Ten o’clock.”

“Secret ballot?”

“Show of hands.”

“Then who will deliver the news to your sister?”

“The commissioner.”

Danny heard Gallo chuckle now.

“If only it could be me,” he said.

Seventy-Five

THE NEXT MORNING, Ididn’t want to wait outside the Bordeaux Room. The owners had other business once they’d voted and might be in there awhile.

Clay Rosen had said he’d let me know how the vote had gone as soon as he could get outside and make a call.

“How long will it take?” I said.

“No way of knowing with these things,” he said. “Anybody who wants to say something before the vote is allowed to. The commish will probably weigh in, too. And A.J., because he runs the ownership committee, will probably ramble on awhile.”

“Are you going to say something on my behalf?”

“Bet your ass,” he said. “I got you on this.”

“Thank you.”

“You prepared for whatever’s going to happen?”

“I am.”

Then I said, “So the hard-liners are the ones who are going to do me in.”

“They’re so dug in it’s like they’re calcified.”

He asked where I’d be. I told him I was going to take another walk around Beverly Hills, maybe up to Santa Monica Boulevard and back. Or maybe all the way to Malibu and back. But I would try to return to my room before it was over.

He asked if I was taking my phone with me.

I said no.

He asked why.

“Not sure,” I said.

Bobby Erlich called then.

“It might be closer than we thought. But you just don’t have the votes, from what I heard last night.”

“Thanks for sharing.”