Harbour Nocturne by Joseph Wambaugh



Harbour Nocturne - book cover

A simple tale of everyday police work in Los Angeles: death, sex, drugs, girls and a lizard.

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Don Quixote and Sancho

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Hector Cozzo was a self-made success – the flashy red Merc, a condo, women all around him and money. It started when he saw a simple job through – a delivery, a drop. Then it was a job offer… Now, he’s in it right up to his neck…part of the recruitment team, looking after the girls who dance, taking his cut. Only just now he somehow needs to be cut some slack. He has a deal to make but his latest girl, Lita, nubile, nineteen and Mexican, has to be escorted to another club. So, when Dinko Babrick walks in looking to score he’s just the man to help an old schoolmate. Besides, from the way Dinko’s watching Lita dance, he obviously can’t get enough of her.

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Down at the Port, Dinko Babich is a longshoreman. It runs in the family, that’s the way the Port used to be run. Crane driver, moving containers, was his job until he got suspended for using ‘weed’. This night Lita Medina Flores got to him. She could do much better for herself he reckoned, besides which she couldn’t actually dance. He gave her his number, with a plea to call if she ever needed anything. He had no idea what he was getting himself into.