The Black Dahlia Page #3

Got to show the voters they did the

right thing passing the bond issue.

It's A-plus, Buck.

We don't miss this.

Maybe she wasn't

such a nice girl.

Maybe that old lady that Nash

snuffed was somebody's loving granny.

Maybe we let

the Bureau handle this

and we get back to our job

before Nash snuffs somebody else.

Got any other maybes?

Yeah, maybe we've had

enough headlines.

With or without you, Buck.

With or without you.

Therefore, we have created

a special unit

which will include a number

of highly trained officers

including

Detective Russell Millard,

our very own Mr. Fire

and his partner, Mr. Ice.

Mr. Loew, can you

assure the public that you will find

the murderer

before he strikes again?

I can guarantee you

this killer will be caught.

You got us detached?

Slow and easy, Buck.

I gave Loew a memo saying

Nash blew our jurisdiction.

You did what?

Are you f***ing nuts?

It's all right.

The APB still stands.

He's covered.

This is the main event.

Nash is pure undercard. Just give

me another week with this girl.

What's your problem

with this?

Letting Nash slip.

On gross pathology, we have

a female Caucasian between 16 and 30.

The cadaver

is presented in two halves

with bisection

level with the umbilicus.

Through and through lacerations

of both mouth corners.

No visible bruising

on the neck.

Rectangular abrasions on the

wing tips of the sphenoid bones.

And, oh!

A puncture wound, here,

in the palm.

On the palm of the right hand.

There.

Investigation of upper half abdominal

cavity reveals no free-flowing blood.

Intestines, stomach,

spleen, liver, all removed.

Is it all right to smoke,

Doctor?

She won't mind.

Lower half of cadaver reveals

removal of all reproductive organs.

Both legs broken at the knee.

Questions.

What's your best guess?

Well, here's what she wasn't,

she wasn't raped

and she wasn't pregnant.

In terms of the nitty-gritty,

the cause of death

is either the mouth wound here

or she was beaten to death with

something like a baseball bat.

What about her insides?

They came out posthumously.

I say then he drained

the blood from the body

and washed it clean,

probably in a bathtub.

Have you got a name yet?

"Elizabeth Ann Short.

"Date of birth,

July 29, 1924,

"Medford, Massachusetts."

Cops popped her in '43.

Santa Barbara.

Underage drinking.

Other than that, she's clean.

Four sisters, parents divorced,

her father's here in L.A.

Oh, and I hear he sold some

old photos of her to the Herald.

I got an alibi just in case

you think I did it.

Tighter than a crab's ass,

and that is airtight.

Detective Bleichert,

Mr. Short.

This is Detective Blanchard.

We would like to express our condolences

for the loss of your daughter.

Yeah, I know who you are.

Neither of you'd have lasted

a round against Jim Jeffries.

And as for Betty, she called

the tune, she paid the piper.

You want to hear my alibi?

Yeah, since you're

so anxious to tell it.

Johnny on the spot

here at the diner.

Twenty-seven straight hours

at that grill.

Twenty-seven straight,

last 17 overtime.

You ask anybody here.

They'll alibi me up

tighter than a popcorn fart

and that's

pretty f***ing tight.

When was the last time you

saw your daughter, Mr. Short?

Betty came west in '43,

stars in her eyes.

I promised her three squares and a

five-spot, she kept the house tidy.

She live with you then?

I gave her the boot in July.

Moved to Santa Barbara. Sent me

a postcard a couple weeks later.

Some soldier

beat her up pretty bad.

That's the last

I heard from her.

I need three pigs

in a blanket.

Keep your f***ing panties on.

Was that soldier

her boyfriend, Mr. Short?

Boyfriend?

They were all her boyfriends.

As long as they wore

a uniform.

See, Betty believed in

quantity before quality.

You calling your

own daughter a tramp?

I got five daughters.

One rotten apple ain't so bad.

Well, maybe this time

she had a boyfriend.

Maybe.

Any names, Mr. Short?

Look, Tom, Dick, Harry,

it don't matter.

She said she was looking

for movie work,

but she just paraded

Hollywood Boulevard

in those black get-ups

of hers.

I mean, who wouldn't get

herself killed doing that, huh?

Who wouldn't?

We just got handed the entire

U.S. armed forces as suspects.

Flip to see

who writes it up?

I'm staking

Nash's pad tonight.

See if we get any strange

drive-bys at the murder scene.

Do me a favor. Stop by

and check on Kay, will you?

Yeah, sure.

Hello, Dwight.

How'd you know it was me?

Lee stomps.

Is Lee working late?

Mmm.

What's wrong?

He's all bent out of shape

on this dead girl.

He's going

a little squirrelly.

Benzedrine, I think.

Did you read the papers?

She's being played up as the

hottest number since the atom bomb.

Ellis Loew's looking to make a career

on it. I think Lee's not far behind.

What about you?

What about me?

What's going to happen to us,

Dwight?

The three of us, I don't know.

No, us.

Just the two of us.

Us.

Kay,

there is no two of us.

He's my partner.

And that's everything.

He's done a lot for me.

He's done even more for me.

There's food in the fridge.

Good night.

Thank our friend Bevo Means

at the Examiner.

See, Bevo's painting Betty in

a black dress like some actress

in that Alan Ladd movie,

Blue Dahlia.

Should triple our confessions.

Great.

Hollywood will f*** you

when no one else will.

Hey, Johnson,

go get a smoke.

What do you want to do?

I want to go back to Warrants.

No dice.

You're a bright penny,

Bleichert, and I need you here.

These are Betty's last known

residences and associates.

You go to University Station, pick

up Bill Koenig. Fritzie's sick.

Lieutenant...

No. You call me Russ

and you get out of here.

So, how do you want

to play this, Sarge?

Fritzie usually does

the talking.

Muscle job?

Why don't you let me

try and talk to her?

All right, first question,

does a Lorna Mertz

live here?

She used to.

She skipped town this morning.

But I'm holding this suitcase

till she ponies up the back rent.

Is this it?

Miss Short moved around

quite a bit, too, didn't she?

Was anybody threatening her?

Poor Betty.

Her problem wasn't

too many enemies.

It was too many friends.

I gathered that.

Okay,

let's change the subject.

All right.

How about the world

of high finance?

How about the movies?

You girls are all trying

to break in, right?

Darling, I'm in.

Congratulations.

How about Betty?

Maybe once.

Maybe not at all.

She came around

last Christmas,

bragging about

getting her big break.

Guess after all those screen

tests, she finally got a part.

But,

she had a tendency to...

Stretch the truth?

No.

She f***ing lied.

Do you know the names

of any of her boyfriends?

What is it?

You can tell me.

Well,

I do remember,

before she split,

her and Lorna...

Mertz?

Yeah. Her and Lorna Mertz.

I mean I don't want to

tell any tales out of school

but I do remember them being

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