"The Eternal Night" drabbles by Christopher

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 291

The Eternal Night #291

I didn't know why I agreed to go. I didn't want to but Mason insisted. But the more I sat there looking at Roxie and that guy laughing and making eyes at each other the more my blood boiled.

I finally told Mason, "I'm gonna go, man."

"Why?"

I didn't answer but said, "Remember that question you asked me? Whether or not I missed the detective game?"

He nodded.

"Well...the answer's no."

I walked back out into the eternal night. I'd had enough of Hollywood to last me a lifetime.

And besides, I'd already starred in that movie.

THE END

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 290

The Eternal Night #290

By September, Derek Slade, Private Eye was ready for its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. I was invited and walked the red carpet with Mason and Sperry, who had another young girl on his arm. If he wanted that one checked out he was on his own!

I saw Roxie looking as beautiful and fabulous as ever. We hadn't spoken since that night at the cafe. That must have really touched a nerve in her. She was with a tall, handsome guy that looked like he should've been starring in the movie.

We took our seats in the dark theatre...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 289

The Eternal Night #289

Detective Chet Lyman flew down to L.A. to tell me he was forever grateful that I'd cleared up the murder of Sandra Snow. Harrigan and I took him on one of our fishing trips. I liked him.

Gertie died in the burn ward at the hospital a few days after the events at the warehouse. But it was probably for the best. She would've had a tough road ahead of her.

Jack Salem, Nigel Buckingham and Gertie's goon that survived all got long stretches in prison. Salem and Buckingham weren't all that bad, but those are the breaks, I'm afraid...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 288

The Eternal Night #288

The next few months passed pretty uneventfully. I spent the time running the Existential Cafe, except when Harrigan and I would go on fishing trips, which was usually every month. And at least once a week I'd be at the studio watching them film the Derek Slade movie. It was cool seeing behind-the-scenes of a movie production.

The three little punks that had been stealing liquor out of my stockroom showed up every week as I'd instructed them, each with a dollar, until they had the estimated $40 paid back.

Setting them straight was worth losing Roxie over...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 287

The Eternal Night #287

I got Mason back to his bungalow in Topanga Canyon and helped him clean up some of the mess that got broken when Gertie and her gang kidnapped him a hundred years ago. Or was it just yesterday?

"Thanks, Jake. If my performance in the Derek Slade movie is any damned good it's going to be because of you," Mason said.

"I just showed you what was out there, Brick. What you do with it comes down to your talent. But I know it's going to be a success."

I told him I'd see him at the studio that night...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 286

The Eternal Night #286

Even though his whole world had just come crashing down around him, Sperry let out a laugh that could be heard from the moon.

"You got it, Randolph!"

"Now," I said, "I'm gonna take Mason home and help him get his place cleaned up so he can sleep and be ready to put on film tonight some of the things I've been teaching him."

"Please come to the studio tonight, Randolph," Sperry said.

I nodded and Mason and I headed out the door.

"Shouldn't we stay for the cops?" Mason asked.

"Nah," I said, "they know how to find me."

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 285

The Eternal Night #285

He rose up from Lily's body. "You and me both, Randolph. You and me both."

I turned to look at Mason and he just grabbed me and hugged me. I started to pull away and then just gave in and hugged him back.

"Randolph," Sperry said after regaining some composure, "You can write your own ticket in this town, son. Anything you want, you just name it and it's yours."

"Well," I said, "there is one thing you can do for me."

"Just name it."

"Can you set up a special screening so I can see Riot At Reform School?"

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 284

The Eternal Night #284

"My God!" Sperry said. "To think I almost married someone like you!"

Lily grabbed the wine bottle that was sitting on the coffee table and broke the end off it and started toward Sperry.

I pulled my gun and said, "Lily, stop!"

She lunged toward Sperry and I fired. Her lifeless body crashed to the floor.

Sperry started crying. He still loved her, even after what he'd found out. I guess I couldn't blame him. He knelt down beside her body.

"My little Lily," he said, sobbing.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Sperry. I had no idea things would be this bad."

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 283

The Eternal Night #283

"And Gertie and her bunch helped you cover it up, didn't they?" I asked.

She nodded, still with that determined look on her face.

That was why they were all freaked out by hearing her name. They were accomplices after the fact.

"They didn't have time to dispose of the body because that damned vice cop showed up. But they helped me get rid of the gun and kept it quiet. They even managed to throw some false leads at the cops. Pretty clever, huh? They were my true friends, not like that backstabber Sandy."

Yeah, they were true friends...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 282

The Eternal Night #282

"Yet she got the part and you didn't, and you couldn't stand that, could you?"

Her face began to twist and contort. The tears stopped and she got a very determined look. One of her eyebrows rose. She spoke almost in a whisper.

"They should've picked me. I wasn't about to let her make it in Hollywood before I did. I came to The Devil's Den to pick her up and take her somewhere to do the job. But then I saw her standing in an alley near the club. So I pulled the gun I bought...and I shot her."

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 281

The Eternal Night #281

Lily was still sobbing on the floor.

"The trouble was," I continued, "Sandra got the part and Lily didn't."

Lily yelled, "Shut up!"

"According to Jack Salem, who took the dirty pictures of Lily and Sandra, Lily was a lot prettier but Sandra was a much better actress."

"That's not true!" Lily screamed. "What does that hack know anyway?"

"Well, can you explain why Sandra got the part and you didn't?"

"She was probably blowing the producer!" she yelled.

"Lily!" Sperry said, admonishing her like a child.

"Sandra was always in my shadow, following me like a lost little puppy!"

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 280

The Eternal Night #280

"You see, Mr. Sperry, I was wrong. I thought the worst thing in Lily's past was taking part in a pornography ring. But that pales in comparison to murder, doesn't it, Lily Rose?"

She started crying.

"Oh, it's too late for tears now, Lily Rose. Did you shed any while you watched your best friend bleed out in a damp alley in San Francisco after you shot her in the stomach?"

"What?" Sperry said as he brought his hand up to his mouth.

"Oh yeah, Sperry. Lily and Sandra came down here from San Francisco to audition for a movie."

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 279

The Eternal Night #279

"Shut up, William!" Lily barked. "Why did you have to go digging into things that didn't concern you?"

"I needed to know if you had anything in your past that would cause me scandal," Sperry said, practically sobbing.

"Well," I said as I came up behind Lily and snatched the gun from her hand, "Lily has more skeletons in her closet than Marilyn Monroe's got dresses. Ain't that right, Lily dear?"

She started to hit me and I put my hand over her face and pushed. She went flying backwards over the settee, landing in a pile on the floor...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 278

The Eternal Night #278

Sperry's sour butler was lying on the floor of the foyer with a hole in his gut and blood oozing out. I can't say I didn't have that thought myself but I wouldn't have actually done it.

I heard a voice yelling in the drawing room. A female voice.

I eased up to the drawing room and looked in.

Lillian Wells was standing there with a .45 pointed right at Sperry, who looked like a kitten in a dog pound.

"You just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you, William?" she said.

"Lily, can't we just...," Sperry started to say...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 277

The Eternal Night #277

I yelled at Harrigan to call me when he needed me at the station and he gave me the thumbs up. I jumped in my car and Mason followed suit. I tore out of the Port of Los Angeles and headed for Beverly Hills. I filled Mason in on the way.

We pulled up to the wrought iron gates of Sperry's mansion but they were open and the guard wasn't there.

I raced up the driveway and practically jumped out of the car before it even stopped rolling. Mason was trailing right behind me.

The front doors were both open...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 276

The Eternal Night #276

"I hated this racket," he said, "but I couldn't get out of it. So you did me a favor. When my time is served I'm going straight. I wasn't cut out for that life."

They started to put him in the car and he looked back at me.

"Did Gertie really have Sandra killed?"

"I don't know for sure. Seems that way," I said.

"I knew when she got that part in the Hollywood movie that she was heading for trouble."

The trip to Hollywood.

"C'mon, Mason," I said.

"Where we going?"

"I think I know who killed Sandy Snow."

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 275

The Eternal Night #275

"Now, come on," I said, "we've got to get you home so you can get some rest. You missed a whole night of shooting last night, so the Derek Slade movie is already behind schedule."

"Was Mr. Sperry mad?" he asked.

"He was more concerned than anything. I think he'll understand why you were absent."

We walked back over to the front of the remnants of the Nexus Novelty Company's warehouse.

They were putting a handcuffed Jack Salem into the back of a squad car. I walked over to him.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

He nodded and smiled slightly...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 274

The Eternal Night #274

Mason came up behind me and I said, "So much for the eternal night."

"Huh?" Mason said.

"It's something that Roxie said, about wishing the night would last forever. But I like it when the sun comes up. It means I lived to see another day."

He sat down beside me.

"I wanna thank you, Jake. Not just for saving my life last night, but for opening my eyes."

I looked confused, "How?"

"I didn't know a world like this really existed. I thought it was only in the movies."

I nodded, "Where d'you think the moviemakers get those ideas?"

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 273

The Eternal Night #273

The rest of the night was spent at the warehouse. The firefighters fought to get the blaze under control as the ambulance came and got Gertie to take her to the hospital. If she lived through it when she came to she'd probably wish she hadn't.

The L.A.P.D. was sorting through the charred bodies that Harrigan and I left in our wake.

I was sitting on a dock at the adjacent warehouse when the sun started lighting up the Pacific Ocean. The sky was just beginning to show how blue it was at having to start the day so early...

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Jake Randolph in "The Eternal Night" Pt. 272

The Eternal Night #272

I asked Harrigan if the bartender was still alive. He just shook his head.

We rounded up Nigel Buckingham, who hadn't gotten far after he ran out of the warehouse.

"Look, lads. I don't know anyfing about any of this! I readily admit I make a few movies that might be considered blue, but I ain't into all this killing and torturing."

Harrigan shook his head and said, "I better get back to my car and call the station and get an ambulance and firetruck here."

I handed him my keys and he said, "I'll be back in a minute."