This particular job requires patience, careful detail work, and long hours. It also demands tact and people skills, a good memory or the ability to record and recall information accurately, lots of discretion, and a complete poker face when a client sends you out to buy a $200 Lelo vibrator for their big date. You have one particular ace in …

When you’re doing advance planning, there’s time to think about contingencies and get everything exactly right. But now, when you’re out of time, you need to focus on and solve the most urgent thing. Then you can go to the next most urgent, and so on. And then whatever happens will be the best outcome you could achieve in the …

“I think we can guarantee no repeats of that,” you say. Charelle makes a face. “Well, realistically, it’s not like you’ve got time to run background checks in the next fifteen minutes, but I know you’re pretty connected. There’s a reason I came to you.” Charelle checks her watch. “Not a great situation,” she says, “but if I’ve got to …

You bow your head a moment. The effect is undermined a little because you can hear the caterer shouting something about plating the zucchini blossoms, and the bartenders are having a disagreement about which bitters they’re supposed to be using in the champagne cocktail. Any deep thoughts about mortality are probably going to have to wait for a later time. …

Is this a whim of Ms. Falter’s? If she had a last-minute change of heart, it would be inconvenient and thoughtless; it would also be an excuse to bill a whopping discretionary services charge. Charelle looks pained. “It’s nothing like that,” she says. She looks like she doesn’t want to explain. Next Ms. Falter was supposed to be introduced by …

Triumph. You are successful, you are brilliant, you are a genius among concierges. The helicopter is on its way. You have single-handedly fixed everything and saved Angela Falter from a potentially embarrassing incident. Maybe you took a while to get it done, but it is finished and with enough room to spare. Time to Give Charelle the Good News Charelle …

“Not a problem,” you say. “Not that I’m really in a position to argue here.” “Hold on,” Victor says. “I’ll hook you up with our pilot.” There’s a clicking noise as the estate phone system patches you through. A Brief Conversation about Routes Really pleased to be working with Platinum,” says the pilot, when you’ve explained your requirements. “But…not sure …

One of your company’s clients is a pop star with a 50,000-square-foot mansion in Holmby Hills. She probably doesn’t remember you, but her estate manager owes you one. After all, you helped source the matching Japanese toilets for every single one of the pop star’s thirty-six bathrooms and half-baths. “Hi, Victor,” you say when he picks up. “How are your …

You tell Charelle to leave it in your hands, and you pull aside one of the Getty Center employees. “We have to fly in a VIP. Where can we land a helicopter?” The employee scrunches her nose. “There’s a helipad at the north end of the compound, but in anything but an emergency, there’s paperwork…” “I don’t think we’re going …

Chapter One Getty Center, Los Angeles, 2014 Angela Falter Gala reception The first sign of trouble is a woman wearing a linen suit and no expression. You are standing at the opposite end of a stone courtyard. The sun is beating down on the back of your neck, because it is Los Angeles in July. A tram from the parking …