CHAPTER 1IT WAS late spring. The Southern California season had ended only the week before but the afternoon was hot. The prowl car from the sheriff’s sub-station drove slowly down the beach road. It passed Point of Rocks, and a few miles farther south pulled off the road at the foot of Martinez Canyon. It parked there, facing the highway and partly hidden by a concrete bridge, in a position to observe traffic approaching from three directions. Cars came south from the sub-station and Point of Rocks, north from Palisades City, and from straight ahead down the winding canyon road. The location was a good one, from the point of view of the two deputies in the car. The shopping center on the far side of the road was a traffic focal point.
The parking spot had further advantages for one of th
