My Dark Places by James Ellroy Read Free Book Online Page B

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    Q    What type clothes, if you recall?
    A    Dark suit. Dark sport shirt, worn open at the throat with the collar out of the suit coat.
    Q    Did you notice anything white or light on this man?
    A    I did not.
    Q    The age?
    A    I would say that he wasn’t, he was around the same age as the women there.
    Q    Approximately forty years of age?
    A    Yes, sir. Between that and forty-five.
    Q    Did you hear any of the conversation when he came to the table?
    A    No, I did not.
    Q    Did you have any impression as to whether this man knew either one of the girls?
    A    It seemed to me that he was a member of the party. It looked that way.
    Q    And you obtained that impression from what?
    A    From the way he approached the redhead. She arose from her chair, she took her coat off, he helped her fold it, lining out, put it across the back of the chair and went to the dance floor.
    Q    At this time it left the other girl with the pony tail sitting alone at the table?
    A    Miss Mawby started then to take their order and came back and stood by my table because she had to wait to see whether they were all old enough before she could serve any drinks to that table. What happened next, shetook their order; one beer, two highballs. I heard her call, “Tall,” then I knew one of them had a tall drink.
    Q    At this time there were three at the table?
    A    Yes.
    Q    What is your next recollection as to the proceedings?
    A    The next recollection was of Mike coming off the dance floor with the blonde.
    Q    You don’t know his name?
    A    No, I didn’t at the time.
    Q    You have since learned his name is Mike?
    A    Yes.
    Q    I wish to go back just a small ways in this statement and ask you if you can recall the approximate time that the two girls arrived at and sat at the table you described?
    A    I would say I had been there at least a half-hour, which would make it about quarter to 11:00.
    Q    Would you describe the person you now know as Mike?
    A    Well, he has light brown hair. I would call him blonde because of his facial features. He strikes me as a blonde. Young fellow, 23, 24 years old. Had a dark shirt with navy blue or black. The thing most noticeable to me was that it was sloppy. It was unbuttoned all the way down the front. Dark trousers and fabric shoes on, kind of light tennis shoes.
    Q    This is the same description you related to us prior to knowing that this person’s name was Mike?
    A    That’s right.
    Q    What did Mike do?
    A    In reference to asking me to dance he walked in the front door, walked to the bar and ordered a beer, then came upto my table and asked me if I would like to dance, and I told him the number was too fast. Then he asked me would I dance a slow one and I told him, “No, thank you.” He became very belligerent and asked me did I even know how to dance at all. He went back to the bar, picked up his beer and walked to the corner table that separates the cocktail lounge from the food side of the place. The waitress—I made the remark to the waitress that he was belligerent and looked rather young to me. She went and came back, gave him a clean ashtray and clean napkin, came back to my table and said, “No, he’s plenty old enough.” A short while later I noticed that he was dancing with the pony-tail blonde that was sitting at the center table, center row with the redhead.
    Q    Did you notice Mike go to the table prior to dancing with the girl with the pony tail?
    A    No, when I saw him sitting at the table with the party at that time that made four of them; the Mexican, the young fellow, and the two girls.
    Q    Do you recall in relation to the location of the bar what the position of the four people were?
    A    The two girls had their backs to me.
    Q    Which would make their backs to which side of the