Episode 8 of 10 Lowlifes: Deception, Passion and Revelation in Union Square

San Francisco's cable cars run on a continuous wire loop that circles the inner city. The cars grab the cable to go forward and drop it to stop. It's one of the city's big deceptions because to the unwise you'd assume that the cars powered themselves. Untrue. The power comes from a massive engine room at Mason and Washington. The cable cars are impotent.

This clever deception was what the city was famous for. It was the same sleight of hand that kept the bankrupt State of California running - continually robbing Peter to pay Paul and never 'fessing up to where the money actually came from. The free-wheeling permissive artsy beautiful city of San Francisco was made possible by the grubby engine of free market capitalism but none of the Lefties would ever like to admit it. It was a clever sleight of hand.

The ying and yang of art and commerce made the city what it was and it was ever present in Union Square - the tourist mecca that told visitors as much about the city as Buckingham Palace told London tourists about EastEnders. Absolutely nothing.

But it was Union Square that Victoria had told me she wanted to meet. She'd skipped school and called me from a cab. She told me not call Jennifer because it was mom she wanted to tell me about.

That bothered me. Poor Victoria was already in the middle of this pathetic tug-of-war and it started to feel like she was siding with her drug-addled dad.
I wondered what her mom - my client - could have possibly done. She'd probably told her she couldn't wear a short skirt or get her ear pieced. I guessed that the other parent - the one who's not responsible for discipline or getting her up and dressed for school every day - he could kick back and look cool. It was another sleight of hand. The visiting parent got to stuff the kid with cola and candy because the live-in parent fed her with fruit and greens and put her to bed at 8 o'clock every night.

I found her sitting on a step across from Macy's. Her eyes were rimmed red and tears stained her face. I hugged her.
And then I told her that she's not responsible for her dad. He could carry himself.

I saw the pain in her face and I felt her retreat into herself.

"Something happened last night" She told me.
"I could hear them fighting and I thought that dad had come home"
But it wasn't dad. It was another man.
Victoria should have gone back to her room but she listened at the door. They were talking about Hayes - her dad.

She heard the man threaten her mom - not with violence but with blackmail. If he, the man, went down then Jennifer was going down.
The man told her to keep her mouth shut.

"Mom said she never meant for it to go this far."
So then what did the man say to that?

Victoria had hesitated. And then she tells me what mom said.

"Well then you shouldn't have given me the gun."

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• crime noir
• hard-boiled
• murder mystery
• lowlifes
• transmedia
• san
• francisco