Place Your Bets

Hey there, crime kids. Happy Wednesday. It's time once again to take a trip to the dark side, where your most violent fantasies become sins of the flesh, right here, where the hardboiled action is non-stop, at the coolest crime joint in cyberspace ... at That Killing Feeling.

In Chapter 23 of WILSHIRE BOULEVARD, homicide detective Bernie Keko and his partner Aya Meir scope out the hotel room crime scene where TV movie producer Roland Yavo bit the dust, and get into a bit of dust-up themselves ...


INT. HOTEL CALIFORNIA - ROOM - NIGHT
A swarm of CRIME SCENE TECHNICIANS
swarm around the room.

Taking pictures.
Dusting for prints.
Gathering evidence.

Bernie inspects Yavo’s body
lying on a gurney.

BERNIE
No way this was self-inflicted.
Not a suicide.

AYA
(points at chalk outline)
Look at the way he fell.
Body position is relaxed.
There was no struggle.
He knew the shooter.

An ANGRY CORONER'S OFFICE TECH
starts to zip up the body bag.

ANGRY CORONER TECH
Enough show and tell.
We gotta get him downtown.
The DA is on fire
about this one.

BERNIE
What kind of prints
you get, Muller?

MULLER
(looks up from his work)
Oh, only a couple hundred.
Love these hotel room jobs.
Major overtime.

BERNIE
Let me know if you find
any belonging to Carrie Love.

AYA
Carrie Love?
Wasn’t she that homicide dick
that was thrown off the force --

BERNIE
ZIP it, she was my PARTNER.

AYA
At work or at home?

BERNIE
Uh -- both.

AYA
Well, that sure as hell
explains a lot.

BERNIE
And what the fuck
is THAT supposed to mean?

AYA
You not only
shit where you eat,
you roll around in it.

Bernie GRABS her shoulders.
SHAKES her.

BERNIE
Shut UP!

AYA
(SLAPS his hands away)
Get your HANDS OFF ME.

Aya GRABS him.
SPINS him around.
CRACKS him in a CHOKE-HOLD.

AYA
If you ever
lay your hands on me again,
It’s the end of your
family name, GOT IT?

She GRABS his crotch.
SQUEEZES, HARD --

BERNIE
OW!

And releases him
with a flourish.

BERNIE
Bitch.

AYA
Asshole.

She STORMS OUT.
Door SLAMS.

The room breaks into APPLAUSE.

MULLER
Nice one, Keko.
(to the room)
Gentlemen, place your bets.
Methinks they’ll be screwing in --

ANGRY CORONER TECH
I give it two weeks.

EAGER EVIDENCE DETECTIVE
One week. If that.

PUSH IN ON Muller.
Holding up a bill.

MULLER
Twenty bucks says tonight.