DEATH BY PARKING – Episode V: The Shakedown BY JVH


the Hartisons’ living roomwith Hartison thinking Paul was cheating with his estranged wife. And ah, yes, thewoman next to himwas the onewho first hired Paul to keep her husband,who turned out not to be her husband, out of trouble, the woman who had told Paul she was divorcing her millionaire husband. Now, that hubby number 2 was standing next to her, andMary had turned into a seductress who seemed very comfortable with theman shewas trying to divorce.Before Paul could say anything, hewas frog-marched out the door to a truck and later dumped in the desert.Hewas saved by another PI, JamesNelson,who for his own reasonswas also trying to bring downMoncrief Hartison. They returned to Paul’s office. They had determined thatMary’s son also was Nelson’s. “I don’t thinkMary is ‘with’Hartison,” Paul told Nelson. “I think she is there out of fear and would leave in a second if she thought she could. She doesn’t know what to do, particularly as it relates to her, or your, son. “But parking, what does all this have to do with parking?” “I don’t really know,” Nelson said. “I just know there was a lot of cash and it was goingmissing.” Then a man entered the office, talked with Paul and Nelson, and hired themto take downMoncrief Hartison, pub- licly.William Jefferson owned a parking company, and he said Hartison was using it to steal money from his cus- tomers and launder ill-gotten gains. Paul picks up the dialogue:We had a client who was paying us.We could get the accusedmurderer,my girlfriend’s boss, off the hook and take downMoncrief Hartison, while freeingMary fromhis clutches. The only problem was that I had absolutely no idea how we were going to bring down Hartison, and on the front page of the LATimes to boot.


T We Hatch a Plan


Nelson and I talked about how we


could do it. We needed a public way to show the world that Hartison was a liar, a thief, and most likely causing fear in the heart of Nelson’s former girlfriend. There was something … something


that Nelson had said when I first met him. Hartison was a big donor to the university, and a gala fund raiser was to be held in a couple of weeks in the huge entry hall at the new geology building Hartison had underwritten. Black tie and all the trimmings. Everyone from themayor on down would be there. OK, we had our public event.What


“But who knows everything about


Moncrief Hartison?” I was thinking out loud, and Nelson answeredmy question. “Mary Hartison,” said Nelson. “We


will know for sure if she was playing you for a fool or if, when she slipped you that


sent Nelson off to arrange that meeting, and Imade some phone calls. Wewere going tomeet atmy place on


“You got some ‘splainin’ to do.”


knife so you could escape in the desert, she was sending you amessage.” It was a good idea, but how were we


could we do to get the cops involved in a very public way? It was time to call in some reinforcements.We needed a cop, a parking expert, and someonewho knewall of Hartison’s secrets. The cop part was easy – my old boss


at the LAPD.A couple of bottles of single malt scotch and he would join the Foreign Legion. The parking expert? That would bemy on again/off again girlfriend and her boss, who was out on bail for the murder of his parkingmanager.


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supposed to get to her without Moncrief knowing? She wasn’t working any more. She seemed to have moved back in with him in his Palm Springs mansion. I know shewas probably only trying to protect her (and Nelson’s) son, but she was there, sur- rounded by a dozen gunsels. “Look,” said Nelson, “what about our


son,Roger?He’s probably still living at the house inArrowhead. Hartison hates him, doesn’t want him around. Roger could probably call Mary and arrange to meet her somewhere and we could be there.” It was just dumb enough to work. I


JANUARY 2011 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


Mulholland. It would be interesting to see what happened when I put the man accused of murder in the same room with the man who had arrested him. But ifmy old boss, Lieu- tenant Bill Vose, was any- thing, he was flexible.And he trustedme.To a point.


The meeting was set for 9 p.m.Vose


arrived first. I may have neglected to tell himwhat themeetingwas about or, in fact, that anyone else would be there. I men- tioned a bottle of 18-year-old Laphroaig singlemalt and that was enough. Vose was on his second “wee dram”


when my girl Shirley walked in with the accusedmurderer, Larry Levinson. “What the hell …” Vose said. “OK,


Paul, to quote Desi from that new TV show:You got some ‘splainin’ to do.”


To be continued… PT


HE BOSS OF CRACKERJACK PI PAUL MANNING’S GIRLFRIEND was in jail for the murder of a parking garage manager. Paul was trying to help and discovered that the boss was having an affair withMary Hartison, wife of the very jealous gangsterMoncrief Hartison.Mary had confessed the affair to Paul just before he had been hit over the head and ended up in


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