L A Woman

“Very funny, ha-ha. Did you read for the comedy part, because you are a funny, funny man.”

We reached our vehicles and I said, “I’m going to check something out before I come to the office. It shouldn’t take long.”

Hondo said, “Should I give you a…callback if you’re running late?” He laughed and drove off. My friends, they can be so cruel.

**

I took a slow drive in heavy traffic to the car lot where our mystery girl stole the Firebird.

It was early and only a couple of salesmen were there. The lot was a moderate sized one with a good number of neat and clean cars and pickups. There were little colored banners flying from lines running overhead and their flapping noises were constant but not irritating.

One salesman was talking with three of the employees as they washed and wiped down a row of sport cars, including several Firebirds, so I walked over to them. The salesman was Hispanic, as were the washers. He turned to me and smiled, “Morning, I’m Mike Fernandez. You’re our first customer today. Is there anything in particular I can show you?”

He was a little shorter than me, but had good shoulders and wore his brown summer weight suit so that it hung just right. I said, “Were you working here five days ago?”

He looked at me a moment, then said, “Yes, was I supposed to show you a car then? If so, I’m sorry-“

“No, I was just wondering how that girl drove off with one of your Firebirds without someone noticing.”

“You a cop?”

“Private. My name’s Ronny Baca.”

One of the car wash guys said, “Baca? Man, you don’t look Latino, ese.”

“Parents were from Bolognia. Its west of Spain.”

One of them got it, but one of the others said, “I heard of it, yeah. It was on the Discovery channel a couple weeks back.”

I showed the salesman my license, “I’m trying to get an angle on her and this seemed like a good place to start.”

“Well, if you find her let me know. She totaled that car, and it was the best one on the lot.”

“That’s sure what I’d tell the insurance company if I were you.”

“We told them t

hat because it was the best car. Low miles, had the big engine, ran like a bat out of hell.”

“Any idea when she stole it?”

“It must have been around one, one-thirty. Half the people go to lunch between one and two and the others cover for them. Same from twelve to one.”

“You fellows see anything?” I asked the washers.

“Just soap and water, man. It’s our life, you know?”

There are always jokers around. I asked Miguel, “Which lunch shift do you take?”

“Twelve to one.”

“And you didn’t notice her on the lot?”

“Nope. I was talking to a husband and wife about one-fifteen over by the pickups, but I never saw anybody around the Birds here.”

“And nobody here noticed it was missing until after it was wrecked, is that right?”

“Yeah, the cops called us around two-thirty or so about it.”