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