"The Eternal Night" drabbles by Christopher
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 171
The Eternal Night #171
I also discovered that Lily had indeed danced at The Devil's Den under the stage name Lily Rose. So, even though I hadn't seen any dirty pictures of Lily, if she was signed to Gertrude Stratton's modeling agency she probably had posed for them.
Lastly, I found a piece of paper with the Lexington Talent Agency on it. I'd found a business card for that place in Lily's bedroom at her parents' house in Aspen. The talent agency was obviously mixed up in this somehow.
I told Mason to go out front and watch for the cops to show up...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 170
The Eternal Night #170
I combed through some more files before the police showed up and got a little more information.
It seemed the dorm that Lily had referred to on the photo of her and Sandra from 1947 was a rooming house that all the girls in the modeling agency shared. I guessed it was easier to keep them all sequestered together than to worry about them running around loose and possibly spilling the beans about the operation.
And I was able to find Sandra's full name: Cassandra Elizabeth Snow.
The next step was to try and track her down.
If I could...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 169
The Eternal Night #169
"Can you call him, Jim? I'll give you the address. This warehouse is full of pornography. But make sure he doesn't just call the vice squad. I want someone I can trust. And if you trust him then I trust him."
I got the address of the warehouse off of an envelope lying on Gertrude's desk.
"Tell him to get here quick, Jim."
I heard Harrigan grunt and swear under his breath and then say, "Okay, Jake."
Then he hung up the phone.
Busting a pornography ring was great, but I still needed to find out about Lily and Sandra...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 168
The Eternal Night #168
"Jim, is there anyone in the San Francisco PD that you trust? I mean really trust?"
There was silence on the line and then Harrigan responded, "Yeah, Detective Chet Lyman."
"Is he vice?" I asked. A lot of vice cops took kickbacks to look the other way.
"No, homicide. What's going on, Jake?"
"I'm up in San Francisco. I'm in a bit of a jam."
Another round of silence. "Jake, are you detecting again?"
"No, Jim. I'm just trying to help someone out and I've stumbled into a big mess."
"Your whole life is a series of stumbles and messes."
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 167
The Eternal Night #167
Our relationship through the war and after I became a private eye was antagonistic to say the least. But if there was one man on Earth I trusted wholeheartedly, it was Harrigan. And I think he felt the same way. His attitude toward me had softened after I gave up the detective game.
He rose through the ranks very quickly, from beat cop to detective to sergeant all in a few years. Because of his stellar work he jumped from sergeant straight to captain, skipping lieutenant altogether.
Then, after a shake-up in the department, he became deputy police chief...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 166
The Eternal Night #166
I found an address on a piece of paper that was the same address that I picked up off the pad in Lily's room at her parents' house.
I grabbed the phone and asked the operator to give me a number in Los Angeles, collect.
After a couple of minutes Harrigan answered the phone saying, "Randolph, it's 1 AM! Why the hell are you calling me this late?"
Harrigan was my old Army buddy. We went through the war together. When we got back in '45 he went to the police academy in L.A. and I became a private detective...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 165
The Eternal Night #165
So, Gertrude Stratton ran a modeling agency, apparently a legitimate front that was a recruiting center for the girls they used in the dirty pictures. And the card Sperry had given me that he'd found among Lily's possessions was a photography studio run by a Jack Salem. He must take the pictures. The Devil's Den is probably training ground for the girls, getting them used to taking their clothes off by performing stripteases.
Most of it was coming together, except for who Sandra was and why the bartender and Gertrude were so freaked out by the mentioning of her name...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 164
The Eternal Night #164
They did as they were told. I repeated the order for the blimp.
"I ain't laying on that filthy floor!" she said.
"Would you rather your quite ample frame slump to the floor after it's been shot?" I asked.
She got out of the chair, which took about 15 seconds, and joined her men on the floor, taking another 15 seconds to get prone.
Now I could start rifling the desk. It was all starting to make sense now. Apparently the beached whale on the floor was Gertrude Stratton, of the Stratton Agency.
The one Lillian Wells had signed with...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 163
The Eternal Night #163
I got behind the chair and pressed the barrel of the gun to the fat woman's head just as the second goon walked in.
"Okay, gentlemen," I said, "drop the heaters slowly and then lie face down on the floor, or I'll punch a hole in this tub and watch the lard ooze out."
They just stood there and the woman said, "For God's sake, you morons, do what he says! He's crazy!"
They both drew their pistols, dropping them.
I looked at Mason and said, "Get the guns."
He did and I repeated my order to lie face down...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 162
The Eternal Night #162
"You wouldn't hit a lady!" she said.
I grinned, "Now, who in their right mind would think you'd qualify as a lady?"
She looked offended. Her tough luck.
I told Mason to start looking around the office for anything to identify her or anything else we could use. I glanced at the desk briefly and saw a paper with a list of girls' names on it. It was probably the girls they used as models for the nudie pictures.
The door opened and one of the goons said, "Hey, boss...we got the..."
His words trailed off as he saw me...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 161
The Eternal Night #161
I said, "Unless you want to get a night job in an arcade moonlighting as a one-armed bandit I suggest you put that big salami roll back on the desk."
She stopped cold and slowly put her arm back on the desktop.
I stood up and walked around the desk. "Just who the hell are you?"
She looked up at me with a scowl and said, "I ain't tellin' you squat!"
I flipped the gun over to where I was holding the barrel end.
"How about I take this gun and beat about 200 pounds off your fat ass?"
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 160
The Eternal Night #160
She leaned forward and put her elbows on the desk and laced her big meat hooks together.
"Never heard of either of those dames. And you don't get to ask questions here, you little shit!"
I pulled my pistol out and pointed it at her big bulbous head.
"Does this entitle me to a few enquiries?" I asked evenly.
She shook her head, "Those idiots didn't frisk you, did they?"
I shook my head, "It is so hard to get good help these days, isn't it?"
She pulled her hands apart and slowly was lowering one toward a desk drawer...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 159
The Eternal Night #159
She yelled, "I don't have time to dick around with you chumps! Now, tell me who you are and who you're working for or I'm going to let my boys work you over until your tongues, and teeth, are a little more loose."
I thought I'd try a little fishing expedition.
"The bartender at The Devil's Den got a little uncomfortable when I mentioned Lillian Wells, but he practically wet his diaper when I mentioned the name Sandra."
Her face twitched. That's the second person who didn't like that name being mentioned.
Just what the hell had I stumbled onto?
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 158
The Eternal Night #158
"Sit down, chumps," the woman said, before telling her goons, "Go get those boxes at the loading dock on the back of the truck. Now!"
I looked at Mason and we both sat down.
"Now," she said like a school marm, "just who are you two assholes?"
"Grinn and Barrett," I said. "We were in the middle of our show at The Devil's Den when your goons came in and abducted us."
The woman slammed the palm of her right hand down flat on the desktop. It reverberated loudly like a shotgun blast in the confines of the little office...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 157
The Eternal Night #157
"Bring 'em in," the raspy voice called out.
The first goon opened the door to the office and the second goon pushed us in. There wasn't much in it except a few metal file cabinets, a couple of floor lamps, a chalkboard covering one wall with a lot of numbers written on it, a mahogany desk with pictures and papers stacked up on it, and a couple of folding metal chairs.
And behind the desk was one of the largest and meanest looking women I'd ever seen in my life. She was easily 400 pounds if she was an ounce...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 156
The Eternal Night #156
One of the boxes on the floor was open at the top and I looked over inside: dirty pictures. Naked girls lying on bearskin rugs; bearskin rugs lying on naked girls; men and women engaged in various sex acts.
This was starting to make a little more sense now, but I was reserving judgment until I found out who the boss was.
There was an office in the back corner of the warehouse with a light burning inside it. We approached the door. The first goon knocked.
"Yeah?" a gruff voice called out.
"We got 'em," the first goon said...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 155
The Eternal Night #155
I was contemplating whether or not to take these guys out at this point, but I really wanted to see who their boss was. I figured I'd just play it by ear once we got inside.
I leaned over to Mason and whispered, "Stay cool," as I pulled my coat back and showed him I still had my gun.
He nodded and the two goons starting shoving us toward the door.
"We can walk, assholes," I said as the first goon unlocked the door.
They pushed us inside. The warehouse was full of cardboard boxes stacked up to the ceiling...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 154
The Eternal Night #154
I doubted that, considering their boss wanted to see us, but I took him at his word.
We drove through the dark, foggy streets of the wharf district until we came to a warehouse. I felt a keen sense of deja vu. I'd never been there before, but all dark warehouses look the same and I'd seen my share of them. I'd been tied up, beaten and nearly killed in them. I left that life behind and yet, there I was, right back at a dark warehouse facing another life-or-death situation.
The goon pulled up to the front...
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 153
The Eternal Night #153
These guys were dumb. Really dumb. They didn't frisk either one of us. I still had my gun. But I wanted to see where we were going. It might be to someone who could shed some light on this mess.
"You mind telling us where we're going?" I asked.
The goon behind the wheel said, "You gotta date with the boss."
"And who's the boss?" Mason asked.
The goon behind the wheel started to speak when the goon in backseat with us said, "Shaddup! One more word out of any of the three of youse and I'm gonna start firing!"
Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 152
The Eternal Night #152
"The Body In The Fog," Mason said.
"The Body In The Fog, that's right!" the first goon said.
The second goon said, "Everybody shut up! That includes you!"
He pointed to the first goon.
"Jeez," the first goon said, "some people just aren't movie lovers."
We got to the car, a black '54 Plymouth Belvedere, and the second goon opened the back door on the driver's side and said, "Get in! Both a-youse!"
I got in and slid over, followed by Mason and the second goon. He kept his gun on us.
The first goon got behind the wheel...
