Single Jeopardy by Gene Grossman Read Free Book Online Page A

State Capitol in Sacramento where all the original corporate records are kept. They must have quoted Melvin a really high fee for the job, because he turned them down and has instructed me to go up there and do it instead.
    I like visiting Northern California, so it’s good news. The expenses Mel offer are quite generous and there’s no specific time deadline mentioned, so I decide to use the airline allowance and rent a new yellow Hummer from the local Budget Rent-a-Car on Lincoln Avenue, and take a leisurely drive up there. This will give me a chance to stop off in San Francisco to visit Fisherman’s Wharf and see that barge they used for filming the old Nash Bridges TV series. The last time I was up there was when I was almost ten years old: it was the seventies, and when my parents took me on the cruise-boat Alcatraz tour, some American Indians who had taken over the abandoned prison for their months-long sit-down demonstrations, were shooting arrows at us… what a day to remember – being seasick and getting shot at.
    Before leaving, I see that retired ophthalmologist on our dock. He’s supervising the Asian crew do some varnish work on his boat. I’m still sure I’ve seen him somewhere before, but just can’t place where… it’ll come to me someday. I sure wish there was some answer as to how that old cocker managed to get a gorgeous girlfriend like the stewardess who visits him each week. I start to perspire every time she walks by and smiles at me.
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    Chapter 4
    IT’S A HOT, sticky day in Memphis, and the small office is buzzing with activity. Though only the middle of June, the August anniversary of Elvis Presley’s 1977 death is rapidly approaching and the office staff wants to do something special in remembrance of that date that so affected their lives. This particular branch of the Elvis A. Presley Fan Club has just received some big time donations from a couple of older broads who really loved the King and want to remember him on that date that will live in infamy. Patty Sue, one of the females (most Elvis Presley fans are middle-aged women with middle names) excitedly jumps up with an announcement: she has found what they were looking for... Elvis’ old yacht!
    In 1967 Elvis appeared in the film “Easy Come, Easy Go, ” in which he played the part of a singing, gyrating scuba diver looking for buried treasure. A portion of the movie centered around some people on a forty-foot Chris Craft cabin cruiser. In real life, Elvis’ company actually owned the boat during that period of time and rented it to the production company for use in the film, giving him that extra few dollars he really needed so badly in those days. Patty Sue’s computer screen shows that the vessel has changed hands quite a few times, but was most recently transferred to the family of Mr. And Mrs. Peter Sharp in Brentwood, California.
    Her inquiry to California’s Department of Motor Vehicles comes back with Peter and Myra Sharp’s address on Waterford Street in Brentwood Glen. In California, if a vessel isn’t documented with the Federal Government, it’s registered with the State’s DMV and gets a pink slip (proof of title), just like all California cars do.
    Patty Sue’s next step is to locate the new owners and offer whatever it takes to buy that boat so it can be trucked to Memphis for the August ceremonies. A local boat surveyor tells them that if it’s running and restored to original condition, it might be worth a quarter of a million dollars... and they believe him, because they want to. People have always believed that those high beehive hairdos had some affect on the female brain, but they never could prove it. If the scientists went to an Elvis Presley fan club office and did some brain scans, they’d probably be able to re-write the medical journals.
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    Deputy District Attorney Myra Scot Sharp has just returned home from a trying day at the office. On her way past the picket fence, she