Read Online Hollywood Nocturnes by James Ellroy - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: James Ellroy
Tags: Fiction, General, detective, Mystery & Detective, Detective and Mystery Stories, Mystery Fiction, Short Stories, Political, American, Fiction - Mystery, Mystery & Detective - General, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Modern fiction, Short Stories (Single Author), General & Literary Fiction, Calif.), Hollywood (Los Angeles
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checking temporary licenses then. Dinner soon? Romanoff's or Perino's?"
Leigh kept me under fisheye surveillance: I came home last night with ripped pants and a mangled car. My excuse: some punks tried to hijack my accordion. Leigh was skeptical. I kept smelling Jane's shampoo--maybe Alberto VOS, maybe Breck.
I got Kay alone. "Can you call Pete and deliver sort of a cryptic message? I'll explain later."
"Well . . . sure."
"Tell him to talk to the agent assigned to the Westwood People's Study Collective. Tell him to tell the agent that I know for a fact that Sol Slotnick is not going to shoot the movie Wetback! Tell Pete that Slotnick is _not a Red_, he's just a movie clown trying to make money and get laid."
Kay got it straight and grabbed the hall phone; I covered her so Leigh wouldn't hear. Whispers, whispers--a nudge in my back.
"Pete said he'll pass it along, and he said that you've got a certain credibility. He said that if the agent isn't at the meeting tonight, you'll know he bought your story."
Good--some intrigue resolving my way. The doorbell rang-- Nancy checked the peephole and opened up smiling.
Pizza De-Luxe with three piping hot pies. Sizzling cheese and anchovies--unmistakable. Ramon of "Ramon and Johnny" trilled, "Buon Appetite!"
* * *
I got lost: lunch by myself, a cruise to the beach, dinner solo. I stewed, I fretted--shakedown Danny Getchell, my ratched-up car. Dave DePugh and Janie, Sol Slotnick, the kidnap--some four-orfive-or-six-horse parlay buzz-bombed my brain. Wires crossed, sputtered and finally made contact--I drove straight to the Westwood Collective and parked with an eye on the door.
7:58--Sol Slotnick walked in.
8:01 to 8:06--assorted beatniks walked in.
8:09--Jane DePugh walked in.
8:09 to 9:02--no Fed man in sight--Pete Van Obst probably put the fix in.
9:04--I stationed myself by that door.
Jane and Sol walked out first; I gathered them up in one big embrace. "Not _Wetback!_, _Border Patrol!_ You've got the cars, and you can hire some non-illegals to play illegals! The movie stars Janie and me, and we can start working on the script tonight! Sol, I pulled the Feds off your ass, so now we can work this deal free and clear!"
Jane said, "I'll call my dad and tell him I'll be home late."
Sol said, "_Border Patrol!_. . . . Riiiiiiight. . . ."
* * *
I zoomed by Googie's and copped some bennies off Gene the Queen, this transvestite that deals shit from the men's room. Va va voom!--I chased a handful with coffee and hit Sol's warehouse hummingbird buzzed.
Sol and Jane filled their fuel tanks: Maxwell House, double x Benzedrine. Pencils, notebooks, the _Wetback!_ script to work from, go--
We changed heroic fruit picker Pedro to Big Pete--a Border Patrolman/accordionist hot to foil a Communist band exporting wetbacks to a secret slave labor camp in the Hollywood Hills. Big Pete is in love with torch singer Maggie Martell, formerly leftist earth mother Maria Martinez. Maggie is being pursued by evil scientist Dr. Bob Kruschev, who's brainwashing the wetbacks and implanting slogan devices inside their heads. Big Pete/Maggie/Kruschev-- a hot love triangle!!! Big Pete serenades illegals from the back of a truck; his accordion lures them into surrender and deportation! Kruschev sends his sloganeering robots into the bracero community, where they spout Commie rebop and corrupt a youth group that Big Pete has been indoctrinating into Americanism. The robots and corrupted youths advance on a Border Patrol station; Big Pete makes an impassioned anti-Red speech that instantly un-corrupts the young pachucos and inspires them to attack their corruptors. The robots are demolished; Dr. Bob Kruschev makes a last-ditch effort to corrupt Maggie with a pinko love potion that makes all Commies and fellow travelers irresistible! Maggie unknowingly drinks the evil brew and puts the
Leigh kept me under fisheye surveillance: I came home last night with ripped pants and a mangled car. My excuse: some punks tried to hijack my accordion. Leigh was skeptical. I kept smelling Jane's shampoo--maybe Alberto VOS, maybe Breck.
I got Kay alone. "Can you call Pete and deliver sort of a cryptic message? I'll explain later."
"Well . . . sure."
"Tell him to talk to the agent assigned to the Westwood People's Study Collective. Tell him to tell the agent that I know for a fact that Sol Slotnick is not going to shoot the movie Wetback! Tell Pete that Slotnick is _not a Red_, he's just a movie clown trying to make money and get laid."
Kay got it straight and grabbed the hall phone; I covered her so Leigh wouldn't hear. Whispers, whispers--a nudge in my back.
"Pete said he'll pass it along, and he said that you've got a certain credibility. He said that if the agent isn't at the meeting tonight, you'll know he bought your story."
Good--some intrigue resolving my way. The doorbell rang-- Nancy checked the peephole and opened up smiling.
Pizza De-Luxe with three piping hot pies. Sizzling cheese and anchovies--unmistakable. Ramon of "Ramon and Johnny" trilled, "Buon Appetite!"
* * *
I got lost: lunch by myself, a cruise to the beach, dinner solo. I stewed, I fretted--shakedown Danny Getchell, my ratched-up car. Dave DePugh and Janie, Sol Slotnick, the kidnap--some four-orfive-or-six-horse parlay buzz-bombed my brain. Wires crossed, sputtered and finally made contact--I drove straight to the Westwood Collective and parked with an eye on the door.
7:58--Sol Slotnick walked in.
8:01 to 8:06--assorted beatniks walked in.
8:09--Jane DePugh walked in.
8:09 to 9:02--no Fed man in sight--Pete Van Obst probably put the fix in.
9:04--I stationed myself by that door.
Jane and Sol walked out first; I gathered them up in one big embrace. "Not _Wetback!_, _Border Patrol!_ You've got the cars, and you can hire some non-illegals to play illegals! The movie stars Janie and me, and we can start working on the script tonight! Sol, I pulled the Feds off your ass, so now we can work this deal free and clear!"
Jane said, "I'll call my dad and tell him I'll be home late."
Sol said, "_Border Patrol!_. . . . Riiiiiiight. . . ."
* * *
I zoomed by Googie's and copped some bennies off Gene the Queen, this transvestite that deals shit from the men's room. Va va voom!--I chased a handful with coffee and hit Sol's warehouse hummingbird buzzed.
Sol and Jane filled their fuel tanks: Maxwell House, double x Benzedrine. Pencils, notebooks, the _Wetback!_ script to work from, go--
We changed heroic fruit picker Pedro to Big Pete--a Border Patrolman/accordionist hot to foil a Communist band exporting wetbacks to a secret slave labor camp in the Hollywood Hills. Big Pete is in love with torch singer Maggie Martell, formerly leftist earth mother Maria Martinez. Maggie is being pursued by evil scientist Dr. Bob Kruschev, who's brainwashing the wetbacks and implanting slogan devices inside their heads. Big Pete/Maggie/Kruschev-- a hot love triangle!!! Big Pete serenades illegals from the back of a truck; his accordion lures them into surrender and deportation! Kruschev sends his sloganeering robots into the bracero community, where they spout Commie rebop and corrupt a youth group that Big Pete has been indoctrinating into Americanism. The robots and corrupted youths advance on a Border Patrol station; Big Pete makes an impassioned anti-Red speech that instantly un-corrupts the young pachucos and inspires them to attack their corruptors. The robots are demolished; Dr. Bob Kruschev makes a last-ditch effort to corrupt Maggie with a pinko love potion that makes all Commies and fellow travelers irresistible! Maggie unknowingly drinks the evil brew and puts the
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