Los Angeles Noir Read Online Free Page A

from his ear so he could hold the wheel with two hands on one of the deep curves. He then brought it back.
    “You there?” he asked.
    “Yes, I’m here. I just can’t believe it, that’s all. I’m speechless. I didn’t think it would really happen.”
    You may be speechless, but you’re talking, Clewiston thought. Keep it up.
    “You wanted it to happen, so it happened,” he said. “I told you I would take care of it.”
    “What happened?”
    “He went off the road on Mulholland. It’s an accident and you’re a rich lady now.”
    She said nothing.
    “What else do you want to know?” he asked.
    “I’m not sure. Maybe I shouldn’t know anything. It will be better when they come here.”
    “You’re an actress. You can handle it.”
    “Okay.”
    He waited for her to say more, glancing down at the recorder on the center console to see the red light still glowing. He was good.
    “Was he in pain?” she asked.
    “Hard to say. He was probably dead when they pried him out. From what I hear, it will be a closed casket. Why do you care?”
    “I guess I don’t. It’s just sort of surreal that this is happening. Sometimes I wish you never came to me with the whole idea.”
    “You rather go back to being trailer park trash while he lives up on the hill?”
    “No, it wouldn’t be like that. My attorney says the prenup has holes in it.”
    Clewiston shook his head. Second guessers. They hire his services and then can’t live with the consequences.
    “What’s done is done,” he said. “This will be the last time we talk. When you get the chance, throw the phone you’re talking on away like I told you.”
    “There won’t be any records?”
    “It’s a throwaway. Like all the drug dealers use. Open it up, smash the chip, and throw it all away the next time you go to McDonald’s.”
    “I don’t go to McDonald’s.”
    “Then throw it away at The Ivy. I don’t give a shit. Just not at your house. Let things run their course. Soon you’ll have all his money. And you double dip on the insurance because of the accident. You can thank me for that.”
    He was coming up to the hairpin turn that offered the best view of the Valley.
    “How do we know that they think it was an accident?”
    “Because I made them think that. I told you, I have Mulholland wired. That’s what you paid for. Nobody is going to second guess a goddamn thing. His insurance company will come in and sniff around, but they won’t be able to change things. Just sit tight and stay cool. Say nothing. Offer nothing. Just like I told you.”
    The lights of the Valley spread out in front of him before the turn. He saw a car pulled over at the unofficial overlook. On any other night he’d stop and roust them—probably teenagers getting it on in the backseat. But not tonight. He had to get down to the traffic office and write up his report.
    “This is the last time we talk,” he said to her.
    He looked down at the recorder. He knew it would be the last time they talked—until he needed more money from her.
    “How did you get him to go off the road?” she asked.
    He smiled. They always ask that. “My friend Arty did it.”
    “You brought a third party into this. Don’t you see that—”
    “Relax. Arty doesn’t talk.”
    He started into the turn. He realized the phone had gone dead.
    “Hello?” he said. “Hello?”
    He looked at the screen. No signal. These cheap throwaways were about as reliable as the weather.
    He felt his tires catch the edge of the roadway and looked up in time to pull the car back onto the road. As he came out of the turn, he checked the phone’s screen one more time for the signal. He needed to call her back, let her know how it was going to be.
    There was still no signal.
    “Goddamnit!”
    He slapped the phone closed on his thigh, then peered back at the road and froze as his eyes caught and held on two glowing eyes in the headlights. In a moment he broke free and jerked the wheel right to avoid the