The House Of Girth

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In Chapter 24 of THE INVISIBLE GIRL, after discovering he's missing teen Bettie Bee's best friend, homicide detective Hart Klavan and Lane Diamond stake out Lonny Schmerlzer's house ...


EXT. LONNY’S HOUSE - DAY
All is quiet at Lonny’s
airbrushed suburban dream home.

The white picket fence
gleams in the bright sunlight.

ACROSS THE STREET
Lane Diamond and Hart Klavan
sit in his undercover vehicle,
staking out The House of Girth.
Sipping coffees.

LANE
The neighbors say his
father’s out of town.
And he hasn’t been in school
the last couple of days.
I came by yesterday
a couple of times,
but no one was home.

HART
Perhaps young Mr. Schmerzler
is aiding and abetting
our corpulent killer.
(off her look)
I’m an amateur writer.
Hardboiled crime stories.
Flash fiction. I’ve been
published online in Spinetingler,
Gun Muzzle Flash, A Taste Of Noir --

LANE
The layers of the onion
just keep getting peeled away, huh?

HART
Some people have many facets,
officer Diamond.
(announcer’s voice)
There are eight million
stories in the Naked City.
This has been one of them.

They sip their coffee.

LANE
Do you think we have enough
to get a search warrant?

HART
Probably. But if we go get one,
we might miss something.

LANE
So we’re stuck here for awhile.

HART
Got a problem with that?

LANE
No. I’m fine.

She stares out the window. Thinking.

HART
You really care about
finding this girl, huh?

LANE
I was a fat kid.
The other kids at school
made my life a living hell --
(looks at him)
I know how she feels. Powerless.

HART
Well, something tells me
she’s gotten over THAT.

PUSH IN ON Lane’s face. Worried.

LANE
Yeah. No shit.