DEATH BY PARKING – Episode V: The Shakedown So,Nowwe are a Team BY JVH


ing Hartison in his living room. Hartison thought Paul was the guy who was cheating with his wife. Ah, yes, thewoman next to him,who first hired Paul to keep her husband,who turned out not to be her husband,


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out of trouble and who had, an hour earlier, told Paul she was divorcing her millionaire gangster husband, had turned into a seductress who seemed very comfortable with theman she was trying to divorce. Before he could say anything, he was frog-marched out the door toward a truck. “Stop!” It wasMary. “I want a


last word with this creep,” she said. Then, laughing, she sashayed back to Hartison’s side. He had to move quickly before he was shoved into the truck. He needed to hide the knifeMary had put in his hands. On Hartison’s orders, two of his gunsels hauled himoff to theMojave to die. But a desert hermit named James


Nelson found him. He told Nelson the story of why he was dumped in the desert. “Well, if we’re going to get to the bottom of this caper,” said Nelson, “We had better get going.”A state Investigator’s license was clipped to the sun visor of his car. “I’mtrying to run to ground theman who causedme some ‘issues’ a few years back – and costme mymarriage,my profession and nearlymy life – oneMoncrief Hartison.”


I was stunned.The desert rat who had rescuedme fromcer-


tain death in the Mojave, was a PI and on the trail of the very man who had me abandoned in the desert.As we headed down Interstate 15 to my office in Hollywood, Nelson, a college pro- fessor, told his story. “Hartison was a big donor at the university when I was


teaching geology. He funded a lot ofmy research. He also used his money, suave persona and good looks to seduce my fiancée. OK, I was working long hours and didn’t give her the time she wanted, but he was right there to pick up the pieces of a failing courtship. “He made sure my research failed by recommending assis-


tants and then bribing them to cook the books. The university discovered the bad data and I was out, and Hartison was in – with a newwing at the “U,”my fiancée, and data that showed his new country club in PalmSprings was going to be built on a site directly over the SanAndreas earthquake fault.


“Hartison had the data changed to make it appear that the


fault line ran miles to the east. However, I was in no position to stop him,” Nelson said. “He built the country club, made mil- lions, and is now just hoping that ‘the big one’won’t hit any time soon.” The pieces began to fall into place. “What was your


fiancée’s name.” “MaryWilliams.” “Was she pregnant when you two broke up?” Silence filled the car. Nelson pulled over and stopped


alongside the road. He turned and facedme. “How could you possibly have known that? Mary was


pregnant, but I heard she lost the baby just after she threw in with Hartison.” I decided it was best to fill himin with the rest of the story. “I met that baby last night atMary’s lodge at LakeArrow- head. She told me that he was her son and not Hartison’s, and


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 fac-


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OCTOBER 2010 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


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