CHAPTER 4The prowl car cruised north on the stretch between the breakwater and Martinez Canyon. Tommy Riggs was driving. Earl Bingham sat beside him, a placid mass. Earl did not notice the beautiful blonde girl, but Tommy did. She was standing at the gate beside which he had picked her up the previous night. He almost drove past before deciding to give the kid another break.
“Hi, Thelma. How you feel?” he called.
She shrugged a bare, indifferent shoulder. Earl, leaning forward to get a better look, saw that she had a red dingus on her head and that she was wearing a tight black swimming suit.
“Ain’t that the girl was on the beach yesterday?” he asked.
Tommy said off-handedly, “Correct.”
“You know her?”
“Spoke to her, didn’t I? Name’s Thelma.”
Earl thought about it for a minute. As T
