Overheard

"I passed through L.A. on my way back home and I saw those mountains going all the way up from the sea to the sky ... Damn, I ate dinner at the Derby my first night in town. I was going to blow my whole wallet and you know who saw me there in uniform and picked up the tab? Goddamn Clark Gable. I'm not kidding you. I kickin' fell in love with that place and it took me almost thirty years to see past that."

WHO? Jake McKittrick, retired L.A.P.D. officer, in "The Last Coyote" by Michael Connelly