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    One Grave Too Many
    One Grave Too Many
    One Grave Too Many
    Ebook131 pages1 hour

    One Grave Too Many

    By Ron Goulart

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    About this ebook

    As earthquakes shake Los Angeles, John Easy looks for a missing adman
    John Easy never likes to get out of bed, especially when the woman beside him is as beautiful as Jill Jeffers, but no man can argue with an earthquake. The quake subsides after a few moments, but another one is coming. Something fierce is about to rock Los Angeles, and California’s hippest private detective is going to be right in the middle of it. Gay Holland, Easy’s newest client, is rich, lonely, and missing her brother Gary. The owner of a boutique radio advertising firm, Gary is recently divorced and has a married girlfriend. His apartment has been trashed, and whoever did it was violent, professional, and in search of something to do with Gary’s collection of archaeology texts. Finding Gary will mean digging deep under Los Angeles—assuming the next quake doesn’t shake the city apart first.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMysteriousPress.com Open Road
    Release dateJun 5, 2012
    ISBN9781453257234
    One Grave Too Many
    Author

    Ron Goulart

    Ron Goulart (1933-2022) was the author of several series and standalone novels across several genres, as well as nonfiction books on a variety of pop culture subjects, including pulp magazines and comic books. An Edgar Award nominee, a Nebula Award finalist, and an Inkpot Award-winner, his books include the TekWar series (with William Shatner), the Fragmented America books, the Marvel Novels Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars and Captain America: Holocaust for Hire (as Joseph Silva, with Len Wein and Marv Wolfman), and the Mysteries Featuring Groucho Marx, including Groucho Marx, Master Detective, Groucho Marx and the Broadway Murders, and Elementary My Dear Groucho.

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      Book preview

      One Grave Too Many - Ron Goulart

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      One Grave Too Many

      Ron Goulart

      title

      A MYSTERIOUSPRESS.COM BOOK

      title

      Contents

      CHAPTER 1

      CHAPTER 2

      CHAPTER 3

      CHAPTER 4

      CHAPTER 5

      CHAPTER 6

      CHAPTER 7

      CHAPTER 8

      CHAPTER 9

      CHAPTER 10

      CHAPTER 11

      CHAPTER 12

      CHAPTER 13

      CHAPTER 14

      CHAPTER 15

      CHAPTER 16

      CHAPTER 17

      CHAPTER 18

      CHAPTER 19

      CHAPTER 20

      CHAPTER 21

      CHAPTER 22

      CHAPTER 23

      CHAPTER 24

      CHAPTER 1

      AT THE FIRST RUMBLE of the earthquake the naked girl let go of him. She sat upright, crying out, Oh, Jesus!

      A flat orange candle skittered and hopped off the low redwood bureau, cracking and smashing when it hit the floor.

      Untangling himself from the pale blue sheets, John Easy scooped the slender blonde girl up off the bed. He carried her, trotting barefooted, toward the bedroom doorway, dodging the three matched suitcases open on the floor.

      The full length windows which showed them the bright morning patio were rattling. The palm trees out there were flapping, water splashed up out of the big blue swimming pool. Angry jays clattered up into the air. The big house made a harsh groaning sound, the floor seeming to bounce.

      Oh, Jesus, said Jill Jeffers once more in a softer voice, her lips close to Easy’s ear. Goose pimples dotted her arms and legs.

      It’s not going to be a bad one, Easy assured her, setting her down so she was under the arch of the open doorway.

      It’s bad already. The lovely blonde had her eyes tightly closed as she reached out to hold onto him.

      The patio was quiet. The windows rattled once again, almost gently. That should be about it, said Easy. He was a big wide-shouldered man. Thirty-two, with mahogany-colored hair and a dark knocked-about look.

      Jill opened her eyes tentatively. She sighed. Quakes don’t bother you the way they do me.

      Native Californians, Easy said, are indifferent to them.

      I’ve lived here since I was ten. I guess that’s not good enough, huh?

      Nope, for fullblown indifference you have to be born in the state.

      You weren’t too indifferent to go bounding out of bed with me. Why did we stop here?

      Easy pointed a thumb upward. Doorways are supposed to protect you if the roof falls in.

      Did you expect the roof to fall in on us?

      Apparently my reflexes did.

      Well, I’m glad your reflexes included me in their plans. She stopped holding onto him, hugged herself. Her breasts tapped each other. Where were you born anyway?

      Watsonville.

      The naked girl smiled. You never struck me as a smalltown boy. She wandered back into the bedroom, knelt beside one of her suitcases. Her dark nipples pointed at the neatly packed lingerie. I don’t suppose the earth opened and swallowed the Burbank airport.

      You have to get up to 6 or 7 on the Richter quake scale before airports get swallowed.

      Jill stood, kicked the suitcase shut. Shall I really go, John?

      Easy crossed, sat on the edge of her bed. You already made the deal.

      "I’m not at all sure I want to go to Spain and be in Six Bloody Cowboys."

      "I thought it was Seven Bloody Cowboys."

      Six now. When Eli Wallach backed out they decided not to replace him, the girl said.

      Leaves them with one extra horse.

      Jill seated herself beside him, her warm bare buttocks touching his. You could still talk me out of it. Tell me I don’t want to play the female lead in some spaghetti Western, or whatever the Spanish equivalent of spaghetti is.

      Shaking his head, Easy said, You have to talk to yourself when it comes to your career.

      Well, I guess I do want to keep having a career, the girl admitted. As my agent says, this is a step up from doing commercials and an occasional TV bit, isn’t it? So I guess I’ll go.

      Bon voyage, said Easy, grinning.

      Six weeks isn’t really such a great long time. You’ll miss me, though?

      Yeah, of course.

      She rested a hand on his bare chest. You’re getting gray here and no place else, Jill said. Well, okay. I’ll go ahead and embark for Spain this afternoon. Six weeks. I don’t suppose … I mean, six weeks isn’t a very long amount of time, but it’s a long stretch for you to … will you sleep with other people in my absence?

      Easy narrowed one eye. Gee, I hadn’t given it much thought.

      After a few seconds Jill smiled. All right, no more questions. I don’t want to spend our last day together arguing and hiding from earth tremors. She turned toward him, her left breast brushing his arm.

      The phone rang.

      They ignored it for the first ten rings. Then Jill moved away from him, saying, I’m also one of those people who can’t let a phone go unanswered. Damn it! She went across the rumpled bed on hands and knees, caught the white phone off the night table. Hello? I thought so. Here, John.

      Easy didn’t take the phone she held toward him. Who is it?

      Nan, your secretary.

      Tell her I’ll be in the office around noon.

      He’ll be there at noon, Nan. I know, but you know how he is. To Easy she said, She’s got a very anxious lady sitting there.

      Easy shrugged.

      Nan, he says he won’t be there until noon. His lawyer sent her over? He’d like John to get to work on the case right away as a special favor to him.

      Easy stretched out on his back on top of the pale blue sheets, locked his hands behind his moderately shaggy head.

      I’m afraid it’s going to be no earlier than noon, Jill told Easy’s secretary. Okay. Oh, I’m fine. Yes, I think I’ll miss LA, strange as that sounds. The quake? Yes, it really scared me. I just can’t get …

      Easy reached around her to break the connection. His arm rubbed against her smooth flat stomach as he hung up the phone, then took it off the hook again.

      That poor woman’s going to be awfully anxious by noon.

      Easy pulled her down beside him.

      You still have an erection, Jill noticed. Even the quake didn’t effect it. I bet I know why. It’s because you’re …

      A native Californian, yes. Easy took hold of her and kissed her.

      Easy strode across his chill private office to look out into the reception room. Where’s the eager client? he asked.

      His broad-shouldered thirty-six year old secretary was at her desk reading a two-dollar paperback on transcendental meditation. She steepled it next to her coffee cup. The quake must have jiggled your body clock, John. It’s one-thirty.

      Flat-footing across the gold rug, Easy stuck his finger into a new lightning-shaped crack in the wall. Earthquake damage?

      Yes. Our insurance company doesn’t cover it; I checked, replied Nan Alonzo. Have you had lunch?

      Nope.

      You shouldn’t skip meals. It plays hell with your blood sugar.

      I’m thinking of fasting till Jill gets back from Spain.

      You’re going to miss her. She’s the only girl who’s gotten behind that flippant persona you use to guard yourself against the world.

      My persona’s got more cracks in it than these walls.

      Jill took off, did she? She’s really bound for Spain.

      She’s on her way to the airport now. He sat on the stark sofa. Through the slice of space between drapes he could see highly-polished sports cars racing by on the Strip. Who was the lady who was so anxious to hire me?

      Nan swept a memo pad over in

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