Forty five years ago a friend introduced me to the crime fiction author, Ross MacDonald and his detective Lew Archer, a descendant of the hard-boiled detectives Sam Spade (Dashiell Hammett) and Phillip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler)   I devoured the series, reveling not so much in the plot lines – the type of seamy family dysfunction where…

I started to walk across the lawn towards my car, but Henry spoke up again.  As I turned I saw his gun pointed at me.  “Simba, I really insist that you stop ignoring me.  I asked a simple question, and I don’t think that it’s too much to ask.  So I’ll say it again, and…

Henry emerged from a side door and stood on the stone patio.  Sam and I were about 50 years away and down a small dip in the landscaping overlooking the canyon.  But even at this distance in the dark, I made out the unmistakable shape of a small hand gun.  Sam stopped moving toward the…

I walked out the gate and pondered my options, which turned out to be very limited.  Just didn’t seem right for a private eye to arrive at a potential crime scene in a cab.  But then I remembered that Mary had moved around here a couple of years ago.  It was her statement house, she…

As I got back into my car, I realized that I hadn’t eaten all day.  I figured I would have a bite to eat, and then just sack out at Ralph and Fanny’s.  It really didn’t make any sense for me to cross town to my apartment, particularly if I had to head back into…

I sat in the car to regroup.  I sure could’ve used a session with Ralph and Fanny and some white boards, but I didn’t want to keep driving back and forth to Santa Teresa.  Besides, I had to be realistic; the car was basically my office.  I couldn’t imagine how my father functioned as a…

Chapter 44 We both climbed into the car, mutely put on our seat belts, and I was about to turn on the ignition when Simba grabbed my arm.  “Will you listen to Dessa’s message for me?” she said, “I’m too nervous, if she says that she never wants to see me again, all this won’t…

Simba didn’t say a word and my mind raced.  What evidence could Grimes have put together since yesterday?  No judge would grant a search warrant based on a partial match of a license plate.  He must have come up with additional evidence, some sort of relationship between Penny and Henry, and I didn’t even have…

Chapter 41 As I ran along the bike path at the beach, I began to think that going to see Henry on my own was a bad idea – I suppose being a neutral go between was a decent enough idea, but I don’t think that Henry would perceive me as neutral.  This would almost…

I slept fitfully that night, and was entirely groggy when I heard phone ring at six.  I couldn’t catch it in time, and momentarily fell back asleep, and then it rang again.  I struggled awake, grabbed the phone and said hello as briskly as I could. “Liza, it’s me Simba.  Is it too early for…