The Shape of Water

Michael L. Nicholas

Description

In Raymond Chandler's spirit, an LA Noir detective mystery, about murder, spies and Nazi terrorists in 1930s Los Angeles

Los Angeles 1930s. The victim’s short blonde hair was wet, and she was naked. From the blueish tint to her skin, it appeared she had drowned. At this distance from shore, she should have been under thirty feet of water, but the reservoir was empty, only a shallow pool remaining where she lay.

She looked European, perhaps Germanic, with her prominent nose and high cheekbones. In her early thirties, she was young and fit with an athletic build and piercing blue eyes that now stared vacantly into space. The way the killer had posed her body looked like a ritual, but that was only a guess. But Detective Mathieu had come to trust his instincts. They’d served him well in his previous cases.

The case would plunge Mathieu into a world of unbridled hate, filled with Nazi spies and terrorists in 1930s Los Angeles.

Sujets

• Años 1930
• Detective
• 1930s
• Mystery
• Thriller
• Noir
• Fiction
• Los Angeles

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 18 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781665746502
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE SHAPE OF WATER
 
A DETECTIVE MATHIEU MYSTERY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
MICHAEL L. NICHOLAS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2023 Michael L. Nicholas.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4649-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4651-9 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4650-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023912124
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 7/17/2023
Contents
Acknowledgement
 
1     The Lady in the Lake
2     Juden!
3     The Houses above the Lake
4     Lady Astor’s Mansion
5     Maria
6     The Silver Lake Auto Court
7     The Astors
8     The Abandoned Car
9     The Zanjero
10     Interviews at the Mansion
11     The Mt. Lowe Tavern
12     The Nazis Among Us
13     Thirst
14     The FNG Bookstore
15     The Villa Aurora
16     The Unexpected Translator
17     Sacrificing a Pawn
18     Anita
19     The House above the Harbor
20     Bull’s Rage
21     The Grand Ball
22     The Trip Back Down
23     The Rally at Hindenburg Park
24     The Radio Room
25     The Translated Letters
26     The Raid on Murphy’s Ranch
27     The Captain
28     Hans
29     Even Tough Guys Blink
30     The Flying Man
31     The Call Sign
32     The Late Night Caller
33     The Book Code
34     The Narrows
35     The Hospital
36     Maria’s Secrets
37     The Lord and the Lady
38     The SS Donau
39     The Fellow Worker
40     The Hunt
41     Anne’s Story
42     The Shape of Water
43     The Long Goodbye
 
About the Author
Acknowledgement
To my friend and first reader, Damir, thank you for your encouragement, suggestions, and wise counsel during the writing of this novel. To Katie McCune, my editor, I would like to thank you for your excellent work editing the manuscript, catching my mistakes, and making key suggestions to enhance the story.
Finally, I want to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to everyone who has read and shared their enthusiasm for the previous Detective Mathieu novels. Your support is gratifying and appreciated. I hope you enjoy this novel just as much.
1
The Lady in the Lake
Los Angeles, 1930s
The victim’s short blonde hair was wet, and she was naked. From the blueish tint to her skin, it appeared she had drowned. At this distance from shore, she should have been under thirty feet of water, but the reservoir was empty, only a shallow pool remaining where she lay.
She looked European, perhaps Germanic, with her prominent nose and high cheekbones. In her early thirties, she was young and fit with an athletic build and piercing blue eyes that now stared vacantly into space. The way the killer had posed her body looked like a ritual, but that was only a guess. But Detective Mathieu had come to trust his instincts. They’d served him well in his previous cases.
“Did it rain last night?” Detective Mathieu asked as he stood up. Though he knew it was unlikely this time of year.
“No, sir,” Fred Wilson, the young crime scene technician, said. “But there was a thick marine layer that covered the LA basin all the way to downtown.”
Mathieu scanned the area. The Silver Lake Reservoir sat amongst low green rolling hills that looked like Scotland. Behind the hills, in the distance, he could see the peaks of the San Gabriel mountains on the north side of the valley. The reservoir had two concrete-lined basins: Silver Lake to the south and the much smaller Ivanhoe Reservoir to the north where the victim was discovered. There was a smattering of houses on the nearby hills but few structures near the shore.
“Who called it in?” Mathieu asked.
“That officer over there,” Fred said, motioning toward a patrolman standing on the walkway that bordered the lake to the north.
Mathieu approached the officer and said, “I’m Detective Mathieu. Were you the first on the scene?”
“Yes, sir,” the officer replied as he stood with his legs planted wide, thumbs in his belt loops, showing little respect to the tall, young detective.
“What’s your name?”
“It’s on my name tag, sir.”
“I can see that, Officer Owens,” Mathieu said. “I can also see your badge number.”
Owens was in his early forties, much shorter than Mathieu but stockier, with a hard-set jaw and narrow eyes. Mathieu had encountered officers like him before, ones with chips on their shoulders who resisted being told what to do, especially from a detective decades younger than them. Officers who did as little as possible to get through their shifts without doing any real work.
“Who found the body?” Mathieu asked in a neutral voice.
“That batty old lady over there with the dog,” Owens said, pointing toward a woman on Tesla Avenue wearing a gray coat. “She flagged me down just as I was about to finish my shift. She told me there was a body in the lake. I didn’t believe her at first, but she was insistent. So, I parked my patrol car, got out, and saw the body in the middle of the empty basin.”
“Did you take her statement?”
“Yeah, she said she was walking her dog around the lake when he started barking like crazy and pulling her toward the Ivanhoe Reservoir. That’s when she saw the body.”
“I’d like you to canvas those homes up on the hill,” Mathieu said, pointing to the east, where there was a cluster of three houses. “Ask them if they saw or heard anything.”
“Those houses are too far away to have seen anything,” Owens said. “It’s a waste of time. Besides, my shift is over.”
Mathieu took a moment before responding, then, with no attempt to hide his disdain, said, “Do I need to call your captain to get you to do your job, Officer?”
“No … not at all, sir … that won’t be necessary, sir. I’ll get to it now.”
“Good,” Mathieu said, nodding his head. “When you get up there, describe the victim to them. Ask them if they know her. You might want to start with that beige house up on the knoll. There’s a man standing on his balcony peering through his binoculars at us right now.”
Owens looked up, and his expression turned sheepish when he saw the man staring directly at them.
“Get to it now, Officer,” Mathieu said with an edge to his voice.
“Yes, sir, right away,” Owens said as he turned and walked quickly toward his patrol car.
Mathieu walked back to the crime scene, upset with himself that he’d lost his temper but well aware he had little patience for laziness or incompetence.
When he got there, Stuart Thomas, the crime scene photographer, was just finishing taking photos of the victim.
“We’ll need some good photos of her face to identify her, Stuart. We have nothing else to go on so far,” Mathieu said.
“I thought you would since she doesn’t appear to have her purse with her, sir.”
Mathieu smiled at Stuart’s gallows humor.
“Did you know I was here in 1907 when William Mulholland built this reservoir?” Stuart asked.
“You must have been pretty young, Stuart,” Mathieu said.
“I was. I was your age, in my early twenties, a cub photographer for the Herald -E xaminer . This area was known as Ivanhoe Canyon then. There was nothing here. Mulholland used water cannons to carve out the basins from the canyon floor. He built this basin first, then a year later, he built the Silver Lake basin.”
“You are a fountain of knowledge, Stuart,” Mathieu said good-naturedly.
“At your service, Detective,” Stuart said with a slight bow.
Mathieu turned to Fred and asked, “Has the coroner arrived yet?”
“Yes, sir. It’s the ‘Walrus’—he’s just getting out of his car.”
Mathieu looked toward Tesla Avenue and saw Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Marsh, with his namesake mustache, gather his medical bag and walk toward them.
Doctor Marsh walked up to Mathieu and put the worn leather bag down next to the victim. “It was nice of you to drain the lake for me, Detective.”
“I didn’t want you to mess up your beautiful shoes, Doctor,” Mathieu said with a warm smile.
“What’s your initial assessment, Detective?” Doctor Marsh asked.
“Well, she obviously didn’t drown here,” Mathieu said. “I’ve been told they drained the basin two weeks ago for maintenance. From the bluish tint to her skin, my guess is she drowned somewhere else and was transported here. Whether it was an accident or intentional, I can’t tell.”
Doctor Marsh knelt next to the victim and spent several minutes examining her body. Afterward, he stood, turned to Mathieu, and said, “This was no accident, Detective. There’s bruising on her knees, feet, and elbows, which suggests to me she was kicking and flailing her arms and legs while being held down by the head, probably in a bathtub.”
“Can you give me an estimated time