in-law’s best friend, Sarah, who had left an estranged father and been widowed for about six months. They met her father’s G5 at SantaMonicaAirport. The woman withWilliam Smythe-Jones was the man’s grand-niece,Melissa, and a spitting image of her mother, whom Paul knew had been killed 18 months earlier. She asked Paul to speak with her in the hall. “Whatmy uncle was about to blurt out, for all the ears in that room, youmay want to keep pri- vate.You see, this has become a familymatter.Mr.Manning, I amyour daughter.”


P v


T R A N S P O R T A T I O N TRAFFIC ENGINEERS • TRANSPORTATION PLANNERS


DESMAN PARKING CONSULTANTS • TRAFFIC IMPACT STUDIES


• SITE ACCESS & CIRCULATION ANALYSIS • PARKING STUDIES • MICRO-SIMULATION MODELING • CORRIDOR STUDIES • MASTER TRANSPORTATION PLANS • ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS


New York


212.686.5360 Cleveland


216.736.7110 Chicago Boston 617.778.9882 Denver


312.263.8400 303.740.1700 Hartford


860.563.1117


WashingtonDC 703.448.1190


Las Vegas 877.337.6260 WWW. D E S MA N . C O M 48 APRIL 2009 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com I stood there silent. I’m not usually at a loss for words, but


this little tidbit certainly brought me up short. Unless the birds and bees have changed their habits, I knew that what Melissa said was absolutely impossible. Sure, I had known her mother, Betty Beeson. Twice. First,


when I thought I had saved her life, and second, 25 years later, when I found out she was the head of organized crime in LA. I also was sitting next to Melissa’s mother when she had gone literally mad and was driving my car at extremely high


speeds down a dirt road in the mountains above Los Angeles. Two of her cronies were with us, and we weren’t sure who had fired the shot, but one of them had killed her, and the car ended up in a ditch. Both her associates were armed, both had fired shots, both


had dropped theirweapons in the crash.Therewas noway to tell who fired which bullet. The two were in prison for various crimes against the city, state and everything else the DA could find to throw at them.


DEATH BY PARKING – Episode 4 – Stack Parking BY JVH


I’mNot Your Father…


RIVATE INVESTIGATORPAULMANNINGFOUNDADEADWOMAN in the trunk of a car blocking his in the stack parking lot at the Hollywood Bowl. His business card was in there, too. Once back home, Paul found an envelope with a picture of the person in the trunk, very much alive, and a note saying they wanted $1 million. The woman turned out to be his sister-


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