| Chapter 1 Part 1 | Chapter 1 Part 2 | Chapter 2 Part 1 |
| Chapter 2 Part 2 | Chapter 3 Part 1 | Chapter 3 Part 2 |
I had two places to check out. There was Curly's Towing, which was my first stop. Then there was the owner of the car, whose VIN I'd run and gotten a name and address for thanks to the miracles of online databases. I didn't expect to learn a lot at either place, but you start with what you have.
I started with Curly's first, because I send him some business from time to time. Today, however, he was a bit irate.
"I'm not in the business of disposing your bodies for you," he told me.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head in exasperation. "Why does everybody seem to assume that I leave a trail of bodies behind me? What, do I look like the John Wayne Gacy of East San Jose or something? 'Cause last time I looked in the mirror, I'm a whole lot prettier, y'know?"
"Well, your reputation..."
"Hey, chulo, like reputation is always true? Anyhow, what I can't figure is why you smelled a body in the trunk and I didn't."
Curly looked a bit uncomfortable. "Well, ah..."
I sighed. "You jacked the trunk looking to steal the spare and anything else out of there, okay? And found something you weren't expecting. Just tell me what you saw, compadre, and I'll go annoy someone else."
Curly gave me the goods. The guy was Mexican, fairly young, big, "built like a football player", which pretty much matched Officer Dick's 250 pounds description. I wondered whether he was anybody I'd gone to school with at East Side High. The guy was also buck naked, and the trunk was clean, other than anything that might have been under the guy.
I asked Curly if the car was still here. But they'd already paid Curly to haul it over to the police impound yard as evidence.
"You got the officer's card?" I asked, and Curly handed it over. I copied the name and phone number into my notebook, and handed it back.
"What about my towing fee?" Curly asked.
I shrugged. "File a lien," I said. Not my problem. I mounted my valiant steed, the Toyota of Mass Invisibility, and rode off into the afternoon sun.
Remember, this is a *FIRST DRAFT*. You're getting it slower than I'm writing it, but not much slower. So there's going to be some pacing issues that will get patched up in the next draft. But don't go away, there's some real killer action coming up (pun intended!).
On the edge of my seat!
ReplyDeleteReads well. It's a romance, isn't it? :)
ReplyDeleteHeh. It's a noir. With a gender switch. Think Raymond Chandler if Phillip Marlowe had been a gal. In a future scene she's eating a tuna sandwich while discussing a murder with a county coroner while the dead body is at their feet with gore everywhere and the smell of blood and urine and feces filling the air, and a cop is puking behind them. Hard-boiled.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, there's going to be a romance of sorts. It's going to end up bad, of course. It always does, in noir.
- BadTux the Noir Penguin
keep up the anti bush work, badtuxs! I hear that the democratic party will be getting a spine real soon, but untill then its up to penguins and michle moore to save this country.
ReplyDelete