True Detectives
A Novel
Chapter One
August 9, 1979
Alleged air-conditioning," said Darius Fox. "What's your take, John Jasper?
Motor pool morons set us on bake or broil?"
Jack Reed laughed and used a meaty, freckled forearm to clear sweat from his
face. Scanning the night-darkened Dumpsters and butt-sides of shuttered,
low-rent businesses that lined the alley, he sucked on his Parliament and blew
smoke out the cruiser's window as Darius kept the car moving forward at ten mph.
Ten years ago, to the day, the Manson Family had butchered Sharon Tate and a
whole bunch of other people. If either Fox or Reed was aware of the anniversary,
neither thought it worth mentioning.
Crazy Charlie's crimes might as well have been on another planet; big-ticket
outrage on high-end real estate. Fox and Reed's Southwest Division shifts were
filled with nonstop penny-ante crap that sometimes blossomed into
stomach-churning violence. Reality that never made the papers because, as far as
they could see, the papers were works of fiction.
Fox said, "Man, it's a steam bath."
Reed sa ... read full excerpt from True Detectives: A Novel ebook
