CHAPTER 1<br >It was raining again. This was going to be a wet winter in south-<br >ern California. Since the official begionlng of the rainy season<br >two months ago in September they had had four heavy storms.<br >In the big， square， communal detective otfice on the second floor<br >of Glendale Police headquarters， the tall windows streamed<br >grayly， and all the strip fluorescent lighting was on.<br > At his desk next to Delia s， :Varallo was reading a report. Leo<br >Boswell was typing one a couple of desks away， cussing now<br >and then at the typewriter. Evoucbody else was out somewhere.<br >Delia was listening to Mrs. Grace Phillips.<br > "I tell you， Miss--what did you say-- Riordan， that poor girl<br >never had a chance. See， she opened up to me， I heard the<br >whole story. She never had a damned chance. Raised on a farm<br >some place in Kansas， for God s sake， and never seen a town<br >bigger than the wide place in the road she went to school runs<br >away to Hollywood on the bus with the idea she d get the swell<br >modeling job next day， people always said she was pretty<br >enough to be a movie starpmy God!" Grace Phillips was a<br >hard-faced blonde by request somewhere in her fifties; she<br >looked as if life had used her hard， but she had her head<br >screwed on the fight way and had kept a sense of humor and a<br >warm heart. "Haven t we all heard the story before!"<br > "Yes，" said Delia. "Did she tell you anything about Jerry<br >Rubio?"<br > "Oh， you know his name. Maybe I m not telling you nothing<br >you don t know? Well， the cops are smart these days." Grace<br >Phillips stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray on Delia s desk.<br >Her expression was brooding. "These poor damned silly kids.<br > Yeah， she told me the whole story， she needed a shoulder to cry<br > on-- I told you she d just got hired at the place I work， Chris s<br > Night Owl Care on San Fernando， and middle of the evening it s<br ><br >