Neil Knight Private Dick

Speculation and Conjecture

Vinnie pushed back from the table.

"So Carmine. You're using my hillbilly to handle your finances now?"

"It's a win-win hermano. She takes care of my money and you allow both her and her husband live. What's not to like?"

"Exactly" said Vinnie.

The television set in the background continued to report on the arrest of the Mayor of Santa Ana on bribery charges and what it could mean for Miguel Turedo as well as the city itself.

"Let's turn to our panel of experts for further commentary" said Matt Anderson of KTLA 5, the Los Angeles based commercial TV station that was the first to be licensed west of the Mississippi.

"On board we have Kathy Gerstenmaier, former United States Assistant Attorney General for the State of California, Lawrence P. Cheltingham, President and Founder of the Council for Ethics in Government, and Jasper Washington, Executive Director and practicing staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, Los Angeles Chapter. Thanks for being here today to all of you, and to you at home as well."

"I'd like to start with you Kathy. Break it down for us, can you?"

"I'd be glad to Matt..." she began.

"...I mean, what does it mean for the common person, the resident of Santa Ana" he interrupted. "Please continue..."

"The real problem, as I see it, isn't the valuation of the properties swapped between the Mayor and Mr. LaFrenza, or the sale and profit of the home by Mayor Miguel Turedo, although both are certainly disconcerting, but it's the vote he cast in awarding the no-bid contract to Mr. LaFrenza's auto parts company."

"Bullshit" said Carmine, reacting to the tv spokesperson.

"She can't hear you" said Vinnie.

"It smells. It stinks like Laguna Beach at low tide" cut in Jasper Washington.

"And how is that?" prompted the reporter.

"Carmine LaFrenza is a hoodlum. He's related to a known gang member. He swapped properties with the mayor that were extremely undervalued and then the Mayor made a killing when he turned around three months later and sold the property in Westminster to a still undisclosed buyer. For cash money. The sale was for cash! Cash! What do that tell you?" prompted the attorney.

"He said do, and he calls himself a lawyer" noted Carmine.

"To that end then, let's listen to a clip of Mr. LaFrenza when he was approached for a comment by our own Jackie Chen. Roll the tape" directed Matt. The panel turned to view as the clip filled the screen.

"...and don't nobody know what that particular property means to me. You need to see my operation to truly evaluate the value of that property value," LaFrenza said, pointing toward the parking lot. "I got inventory I gotta park somewhere, and I got lotsa deliveries of auto parts that come in regular."

"Ida paid $500,000 for that lot. You don't even know what you're talking about."

"Plus, I was a finalist in the U.S. Small Business Administration's small-business person of the year award."

The clip ended and the panel returned.

"How'd I look?" as Carmine.

"Como una estrella de rock Carmine. You did good."

"He just made the case against the Mayor" noted Cheltingham. "He admitted to the undervaluation of the property by admitting he would have paid twice the listed value."

"Where does this leave the city Kathy?" prompted the host.

"Can I go out on a limb here Matt?" asked the former USAAG.

"By all means. Speculation and conjecture is what this news show is all about" replied the personality.

"If this is all true, then the worst-case scenario is one where the current Mayor is removed from office, whether that's due to conviction or resignation, and the head of the City Council replaces him for the remainder of his term."

"She means the best case" smirked Vinnie Fuentes.

"And who would replace the Mayor. Who would that person be?" questioned the host.

"That'd be me sweetheart" said Carlos as he lay in bed beneath Kathy Lynn Bakker.

"Oh Konky, you gomma be Ayor?" attempted his early evening partner.

"Don't talk with your mouth full" directed the Mayor Pro Tem.

And with that the larger picture of possibilities that were alluded to during his conversation with Wallace Tobin, the insightful employee of Birnbaum, Cohn & Hirschfeld, were underscored to Neil Knight.

"It's much bigger than an assault" Wallace had said.

Tobin had talked a great deal about motivation and the "human condition". The psychology behind hoarding and the inherent motivation of fear that drives people to get more at all costs rather than appreciate what they have.

Neil had fallen victim to something psychologists refer to as the 'focusing effect', where someone places too much importance on one aspect of an event and fails to consider other factors.

Tobin had recalled a quote from Daniel Kahneman – 'Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it.'

He had been too caught up considering the assault, although Tobin helped him understand that it was natural that he had been. He had, after all, been tasked initially with finding the perpetrator of a crime. But even Maria had emphasized the need to know the 'why'.

The insightful Mr. Tobin had said that in the end the assault was only a ripple. A single note in a melody. It had been the fart in the elevator that had distracted him from paying attention to the floor indicator, and he was in jeopardy of missing his exit.

There was a knock at the door. Lost in recriminations Neil opened the front entrance to his home and was immediately dropped to the ground by the ham-sized fist of Frankie Hopeless. His head bounced off the tile floor with a solid 'thok' and he drifted off to sleep.

"Where the fuck is that debit card asshole" said Frankie as he went through the detective's pockets.

"Bingo" he exhaled, slipping the bank card from the investigator's wallet into his own.

Nextdoor Neil's dogs swam in the neighbor's pool, oblivious to the attack.