Las Vegas Noir

228 Pages·2008·1.09 MB·English

by  Jarret Keene

This collection is comprised of works of fiction. All names, characters, places,
and incidents are the product of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to
real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published by Akashic Books
©2008 Akashic Books
Series concept by Tim McLoughlin and Johnny Temple
Las Vegas map by Sohrab Habibion ePub ISBN-13: 978-1-936-07033-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-933354-49-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007939596
All rights reserved Akashic Books
PO Box 1456
New York, NY 10009
[email protected]
www.akashicbooks.com
ALSO IN THE AKASHIC NOIR SERIES: Baltimore Noir, edited by Laura
Lippman
Bronx Noir, edited by S.J. Rozan
Brooklyn Noir, edited by Tim McLoughlin Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics,
edited by Tim McLoughlin Brooklyn Noir 3: Nothing but the Truth
edited by Tim McLoughlin & Thomas Adcock Chicago Noir, edited by Neal
Pollack
D.C. Noir, edited by George Pelecanos
Detroit Noir, edited by E.J. Olsen & John C. Hocking Dublin Noir (Ireland),
edited by Ken Bruen
Havana Noi (Cuba), edited by Achy Obejas
London Noir, edited by Cathi Unsworth
Los Angeles Noir, edited by Denise Hamilton
Manhattan Noir, edited by Lawrence Block
Miami Noir, edited by Les Standiford
New Orleans Noir, edited by Julie Smith
Queens Noir, edited by Robert Knightly
San Francisco Noir, edited by Peter Maravelis Toronto Noir (Canada), edited
by Janine Armin & Nathaniel G. Moore
Twin Cities Noir, edited by Julie Schaper & Steven Horwitz Wall Street Noir,
edited by Peter Spiegelman FORTHCOMING
D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, edited by George Pelecanos
Delhi Noir (India), edited by Hirsh Sawhney Istanbul Noir (Turkey), edited by
Mustafa Ziyalan & Amy Spangler Lagos Noir (Nigeria), edited by Chris Abani
Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Lawrence Block Mexico City
Noir(Mexico), edited by Paco I. Taibo II
Moscow Noir (Russia), edited by Natalia Smirnova & Julia Goumen Paris Noir
(France), edited by Aurélien Masson
Phoenix Noir, edited by Patrick Millikin Phoenix Noir, edited by Patrick
Millikin
Portland Noir, edited by Kevin Sampsell Richmond Noir, edited by Andrew
Blossom,
Brian Castleberry, & Tom De Haven Rome Noir (Italy), edited by Chiara
Stangalino & Maxim Jakubowski
San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Peter Maravelis Seattle Noir,
edited by Curt Colbert
Trinidad Noir, edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini & Jeanne Mason
To John O’Brien and his sister Erin O’Brien
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Title Page
Copyright Page
PART I: SIN CITY
JOHN O’BRIEN Scotch 80s
The Tik
DAVID CORBETT Fremont
Pretty Little Parasite
TOD GOLDBERG Summerlin
Mitzvah
SCOTT PHILLIPS Naked City
Babs
VU TRAN Chinatown
This or Any Desert
PART II: NEON GRIT
PABLO MEDINA West Las Vegas
Benny Rojas and the Rough Riders
CHRISTINE MCKELLAR Green Valley
Bits and Pieces
PRESTON L. ALLEN Nellis
Crip
LORI KOZLOWSKI North Las Vegas
Three Times a Night, Every Other Night
JAQ GREENSPON Sunset Park
Disappear
JOSÉ SKINNER East Las Vegas
All About Balls
PART III: TALES FROM THE OUTSKIRTS
NORA PIERCE Test Site
Atomic City
CELESTE STARR Pahrump
Dirty Blood
BLISS ESPOSITO Centennial Hills
Guns Don’t Kill People
FELICIA CAMPBELL Mount Charleston
Murder Is Academic
JANET BERLINER Area 51
The Road to Rachel
About the Contributors
INTRODUCTION
THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY IN AMERICA
Ooh, Las Vegas,” sang the pioneering country-rocker Gram Parsons. “Every
time I hit your Crystal City, you know you’re gonna make a wreck out of me.” As
Las Vegans, we regularly read about these wrecked lives in newspapers and
magazines. We routinely observe people going about their wildly destructive
antics on mainstream TV. Often we can’t believe these stories are unfolding in
our city. They almost seem like put-ons, elaborate pranks borrowed from
atrocious cut-rate screenplays. But there they are, these inhabitants of our city,
their mug shots staring us down, making us wonder if what Parsons said is really
true—that in Las Vegas your only real friend is the queen of spades.
How crazy does crime get in Las Vegas? Well, consider these tales taken
from local papers:
Husband-and-wife champion bodybuilders strangle their personal assistant,
torching her body in a red Jaguar in the Vegas desert. Eventually police
apprehend the couple in a shopping center, where the killers are drinking root
beer and getting manicures.
Failing in his effort to sexually assault a female parishioner, a Catholic priest
clobbers his intended victim with a wine bottle before going on the lam.
According to a police report, he tells the church worker, her consciousness
fading, “I am over the edge.”
And then there’s this: O.J. Simpson, who years ago was found “not guilty”
of decapitating his wife and her lover, storms into a hotel room with armed
accomplices to “retrieve items that belonged to him,” sports memorabilia like his
Hall of Fame certificate and photos of him standing beside J. Edgar Hoover.
On it goes, a litany of wicked behavior and stupid folly. People come from
all over the world to do dumb, dangerous things in Sin City, whether it’s
someone locking himself in a Fremont Street motel to kick a nasty heroin habit,
hooking up to an oxygen tank in a last-ditch scheme to double his nest egg at the
downtown slots, or shooting a weekend porn flick that goes disastrously wrong
once a rabid pit bull is introduced. In these true-life narratives, no one shows up
in Las Vegas to do anything smart, tactful, or even kind. Instead, they come here