Orange County Noir (Akashic Noir) Read Online Free Page A

huh.
    Then I heard, "What the fuck! What the fuck you lookin
at? What's a nigger doin up here in Orange County!"
    I dropped the cans in the sand. I was off-duty. I didn't go
on for two hours.
    I kept walking, up past a flat section of sand near the deep
scour where the rainwater poured down, and then around another boulder.
    A white guy with long brown hair hanging down his bare
back was straddling a girl. He looked up the canyon. He hadn't
seen me. But he stood up.
    She looked dead. Dried blood dark under her nose.
Denim skirt hiked up around her waist, her legs open, black
hair there, her feet black on the bottom. He hunched over
and zipped up, the muscles in his back jerking like snakes, and
then turned and saw me.
    "What the hell?"
    My CHP voice came out before I could think. "Sir, I need
you to tell me what's going on here."
    "You speak English?"

    My face burned. "Sir, is this-"
    "You're not dark enough to be that nigger's brother. He
was right up there. Watching. Freak."
    "What's wrong with the young lady?" I hadn't moved. Felt
like my feet were sinking into the dirt.
    "Young lady? Why you talkin like you're on TV?"
    "I'm law enforcement, sir."
    "No you're not. You're just nosy."
    "Is she okay?"
    He laughed. "She was supposed to do a slow ride. Take
it easy. But the stupid chick OD'd. Couldn't handle the trip.
Couldn't handle the ride, man. Like it's your fuckin business.
Wetback." He pushed his hair behind his ears and started
walking toward me. He must have been about thirty-five,
forty. His skin was lined around his eyes like birds had clawed
him deep.
    Was he another phantom? Shit. Was he the vet who'd
built the bridge?
    The girl hadn't moved. What if she was dead? I made my
voice louder. "I need you to turn around and walk over to that
rock and put your hands on the rock." I didn't have handcuffs.
I might have baling wire in my pocket.
    "You need to go back to Mexico."
    "Sir."
    I didn't move. There was no sound except his feet on the
sand. Soft like ground corn.
    "Sir." He was close enough that I could see his eyes were
green.
    People said the real phantom was a guy who still wanted
to live in the jungle. Maybe if I brought up the war he'd know
I respected him.
    "Are you a veteran, sir?"

    "Fuck Nam. I don't need to be a Vietnam vet to kill
somebody."
    He was about ten feet from me now. Kill her? Kill me?
    Then the girl made a noise. She coughed. Her throat
rasped like it was full of sand. He grinned at me and said,
"Hey, kid, you just get here from Tijuana? You swum all the
way up that river and this is where you made it?"
    I looked past him. The girl raised up on one elbow and
tried to stand. She scrabbled against the boulder and he
turned back fast and covered the ground. He said, "I'm not
done with you."
    He drew back his arm and punched her in the face. Like
she was a man. The sound of her nose breaking. A popping.
Then an animal moan-like a coyote, full in the throat-but
not her. From above its. The phantom. He moaned again, like
he couldn't stand it when the girl fell.
    I pulled my service revolver from the shoulder holster under my vest. It was silent now above its. The girl lay still, but
her breath was in her throat like a saw blade in wood.
    He wouldn't shut up. He just kept talking when he came
back toward me. "What the fuck are you gonna do with that?
You steal that from a cowboy, Frito? From an American? Ay
yi yi yi-you think you're the Frito Bandito?" He was three
feet away and reached out his hand. A turquoise ring on his
finger. "You better give that to somebody who knows how to
use it, chico."
    My mother called me chavalito. When I came in at night
smelling of the river.
    I shot him in the chest like he was the silhouette at the
range. But he didn't move sideways. He fell straight back.
    No sound from above. The girl pushed up again, on all
fours, like a dog. She crouched and swayed and stared at my face, squinting, the blood crusting like dried