The Adventures of Philip Marlowe - The Heat Wave

Spring was only three weeks old but the sun bore down on Los Angeles with the middle of the summer vengeance. At noon it was 102 degrees in the shade. Marlowe tried to make sense from the words of a telegram he just received from one Karen Driscoll Jr. no less, of Knob Hill San Francisco. It told him to go to the Palace Theatre, a burlesque house on Main Street, and watch the performance of the featured dancer. Then, get backstage and take a close look at her face. After that, meet the seven o'clock plane from San Francisco and report what I'd seen to Miss Driscoll Jr. It was a strange request coming from Knob Hill but the enclosed $50 money order wasn't kidding, so he perspired his way down to the Palace Theatre. There instead of the usual 30 beautiful girls sign over the marquee was a 50-foot gold banner that screamed "The Heat Wave, Who is She?". The showcase cards that led to the box office were all a circle of question marks that centered a woman wearing a strange gold mask and little else. Marlowe bought a ticket and went inside just in time for the tail end of the matinee, a baggy pants comedian was just winding up a south of the border routine as he sat down. The comedian says "I was kidding, but there was Manuel, my brother, Manuel Labor. He was the laziest man in Mexico. Yeah, I'm telling you he got a job shooting bulls for the government. He shot 800 bulls a day. Yeah that made him the biggest bull shooter in all of Mexico". Next, came a guy in a yellow shirt that stepped into the spotlight with his arms raised. He said "Ladies and gentlemen, you're now privileged to witness one of the most unusual and breathtaking spectacles ever presented on any stage. In a moment you will see her, the woman of mystery, performing exotic rites to the pagan sun god of the Incas. Exactly as they were performed 3,000 years ago in the temples of the Andes, but who is she who is this woman and who knows what secrets lie behind her mask of gold. The Palace Theater presents the most marvelous, the beautiful, but dazzling, the mysterious Heat Wave!"