Free Hollywood Hills by Joseph Wambaugh

died."
    "Relatives?"
    "Cops."
    "Jewish cops?"
    "No, but I still felt compelled to go and pray for them, even though I know it's all mumbo jumbo."
    She looked up at him and said, "Revealing that personal information to me just made you even more attractive. But I'll bet you're used to compliments from women, aren't you, Nathan ?"
    Nate was relieved when the parking kid arrived, and he drew the Vette up beside a Ferrari 599 that he'd read in Motor Trend was selling for more than $300,000. Another kid delivered an Audi R8 that Nate had read sold for a paltry $150,000.
    The kid held the door open for Leona Brueger, and Nate tipped him $10, the most he had ever tipped for car service.
    After he got behind the wheel, Nate said, "I do apologize for m y c ar."
    She smiled and said, "You really are too cute for words, Nathan." Then she took off her right shoe and said, "These goddamn things're killing me."
    She removed the left shoe and held it in her hand while Nate drove north in heavy traffic. He looked over and touched the shoe, saying, "Is it really snakeskin?"
    "Damned if I know," she said. "I'm not a shoe whore. I'm one of those broads that just buys the brand and hopes for the best." She yawned and leaned back, slurring her words slightly and said, "Go ahead and ask me."
    "Ask you what?"
    "How much I paid for them."
    "I wasn't thinking that," Nate said, but he was.
    "Come on, Nathan," she said. "I've had lots of cops in my extended family. The price of things was always on their minds. I understand you. I grew up poorer than you can imagine. I was a regular little Scarlett O'Hara when I came to this town, vowing never to be poor again. It didn't take me long to learn that everything in Hollywood is for sale if you know how to shop."
    "Okay, how much do those shoes cost?" Nate asked.
    Leona yawned again and said, "I think they were thirteen hundred and change."
    That impressed him for sure. He looked down at the shoes again but didn't touch them this time.
    Trying to make conversation to keep her awake, he said, "It sounds like you and Mr. Ressler have a wonderful vacation coming up. Two months in Tuscany sounds great."
    Her eyes were closed when she spoke. "Tuscany again. A different villa this time. Rudy's never been there. Rudy's never been many places outside of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Malibu, and the San Fernando Valley, where he can run his production company on the cheap."
    "And you're getting married when you get back? Congratulations."
    She opened her eyes and said, "My, my. Rudy shared a lot when I went to the ladies' room. It must be the badge you carry. He's very impressed with authority figures. When he has dinner with the chief of police he almost wets his pants." Then she told him her address in the Hollywood Hills and closed her eyes.
    Nate wondered if a bottle of wine always made her so chatty. And he wondered if an innocent flirtation with Leona Brueger might give him more juice with Rudy Ressler. Then he remembered what an assistant director had said to him on one of the last jobs he'd worked. The AD had observed the producer's wife, a woman twenty years older than Nate, flirting with him. It made him say to Nate, "Officer, if you want to get work in this business, don't pet the cougars. Not when they belong to the boss."
    She actually began dozing by the time they reached the foot of the Hollywood Hills and the Corvette began climbing up Outpost Drive to Mulholland. Nate had always enjoyed driving in the Hills in a black-and-white, admiring the view homes, fantasizing about that one break that could make it all possible for him, too.
    When he got to the address she'd given him, he pulled up to th e g ate and stopped. It was easily the largest residential property in this part of the Hollywood Hills and Nate had to admit he'd love to be shown around.
    He said gently, "Uh, Mrs. Brueger, we're here."
    She opened her eyes and rummaged in her purse until she found a key ring that had a small remote device on it.