0:00

Hey, all. It's Jeffrey Krayner with some

0:02

very huge, very exciting news

0:04

today, November tenth, we're proud

0:06

to announce the first fiction podcast

0:09

created by me and Joseph

0:11

Fink since the launch of Welcome

0:13

to Night Vale all the way back in twenty twelve.

0:15

This new show is called unlicensed, and

0:17

we're about to play you the first episode. It's a project

0:20

we loved making, and we had some incredible talents

0:22

working with us on this too. So

0:24

Unlicensed is an LA detective story

0:27

about two unlicensed private investigators,

0:29

Lou and Mollie, who operate on the fringes

0:31

of the system, scraping by with cases

0:33

too small or weird for big firms. Until

0:36

one day, they stumble on a case that leads

0:38

them to a ransom and a murder and

0:40

a strange new wellness center hidden deep

0:42

in the hills. It starts Molly Quinn, Luscious

0:45

Strauss, and Teal Thompson, all of whom have

0:47

had feature roles on Welcome to Night fail.

0:49

There are also so many great cameo voices.

0:51

On this first episode, you might recognize the

0:53

voice of Jason Segal. There's even

0:55

a pretty amazing guest appearance by my

0:57

within the collaborator, Janina

0:59

Matheusen. So all twelve episodes

1:01

of the first season are available right now

1:04

only on Audible. There is a thirty

1:06

day free trial so feel free to get

1:08

all those episodes binged in one month,

1:10

but also I should tell you I have

1:12

been an audible member since two thousand

1:14

five. These are not talking points here. Like,

1:16

this is how I feel. There are so many incredible

1:18

books and podcasts to choose from there.

1:20

Like, already this month, I've listened to the original

1:23

fiction podcast, Hot White High by

1:25

Adam Goldman. I will never lie to you

1:27

by James Urbanyak and Brie Williams. Listen

1:29

to two horror novels, Hawk Mountain

1:31

by Connor Habib and Mary by

1:33

Nat cassidy and I loved all of them.

1:35

I can't tell you everything I have loved on

1:37

Audible because you would be here all day.

1:39

So go get your free trial of Audible

1:42

and listen to the entire first season of

1:44

unlicensed right now at audible

1:46

dot com slash unlicensed. That's

1:48

audible dot com slash unlicensed.

1:51

to listen to all twelve episodes of

1:53

this show right now. And now,

1:55

listen to the first episode of Unlicensed. Right

1:58

here by me, Jeffrey Kramer,

1:59

and Joseph Fink. Gosh, I'm really excited.

2:02

Thank you for listening. Okay.

2:06

Okay. Let's try to make this

2:08

quick. I'm supposed to be serving the people

2:10

of California, not answering questions

2:12

about gossip and innuendo.

2:13

Governor, how do you respond

2:16

to the allegations brought forth by

2:18

miss Rosen and miss Hatch.

2:20

Everyone knows their names all of a sudden. Lou

2:22

Rosen and Molly Hatch, where they

2:24

must love being famous now. Well,

2:26

I can only tell you what I would tell any

2:28

citizen of this great state who asked.

2:31

We take all major allegations

2:33

seriously. even if it weren't a

2:35

month before the election. What

2:38

these two claim to have found is dead

2:40

serious if, and I say

2:42

if, even half what they claim is

2:44

true, then Lou Rosen and Molly

2:46

Hatch have stumbled into one of the

2:48

most outrageous crimes in the

2:50

state's history.

2:52

if you believe them.

3:05

Unlicensed. Episode

3:07

one. the

3:08

detective of Citrus Avenue.

3:14

Five weeks before the governor's press

3:16

conference. A

3:18

passenger jet on its way to Tokyo

3:21

or Sydney or Oklahoma

3:23

City rolls up from

3:26

the LAX TARMA And

3:28

within seconds, it's hundreds

3:30

of feet above the Pacific ocean.

3:32

From

3:34

the window of the jet, passengers

3:36

can see the plastic harbor of Marina

3:39

del Rey. As the

3:41

jet turns and the full stretch

3:43

of the city swings interview that

3:45

can see farther east to

3:47

the winding streets of Laguera Heights.

3:50

One of the few affluent neighborhoods

3:52

where Black Peak who could live in relative safety

3:54

for a lot of the last century. Beyond

3:58

that, England and East

4:00

past chain link fences and billboards

4:03

for weed delivery, past

4:05

shops that fix auto glass and stores

4:08

that sprawl half their inventory

4:10

out along the sidewalk still

4:13

further, all the way to

4:15

vertical. a city of one

4:17

hundred and thirteen people just

4:19

south of downtown Los Angeles

4:23

full of warehouses and factories

4:26

and not a single public party.

4:28

From Vernon,

4:31

through the railroad exchanges of commerce,

4:33

through the sunny shopping streets of Pasadena

4:35

and then a little farther east

4:38

still until the last bit

4:40

of LA excitement has drained away.

4:42

and all that's left is the desert

4:44

and the coldestacks. All

4:48

the way to a zooza,

4:50

a to z,

4:51

in the USA. Gateway

4:54

to the inland empire.

4:58

Here we find in a narrow

5:00

parking spot In the cracked

5:02

lot of a half vacant strip mall

5:04

on Citrus Avenue, a

5:06

two thousand eleven, Toyota

5:08

Corolla. Stepping

5:10

out of the teal green sedan is

5:12

a woman who keeps her hand on

5:14

the car door for thirty long

5:17

seconds. debating whether

5:19

she should move forward or

5:21

get back inside and

5:22

start to long drive west again.

5:29

I

5:30

breathe slowly as my

5:32

hand lingers on the car

5:34

I'm scared to move forward, but

5:36

I don't leave because I don't want

5:38

to get

5:38

back on the five at rush hour.

5:41

I finally let my hand fall

5:43

and I take a good look around me.

5:46

There's a Mexican restaurant, and

5:48

an accountant, three empty

5:50

storefronts, and then

5:52

another that looks empty except

5:54

the paper that has been taped on the inside

5:56

of the glass door. The paper

5:58

says, private investigator, affordable

6:01

rates I count to

6:03

311

6:04

thousand, two

6:07

one thousand, three

6:09

one thousand. I

6:11

step up, knock

6:13

on the door, and a flurry

6:15

of a woman answers. I

6:18

say, I'm here about the ad

6:21

assistant to a PI. She

6:23

has no idea what

6:24

I'm talking about. And she's leaning against

6:26

the door like all she wants to do is close

6:28

it. I wish she would.

6:31

Instead, she invites me in with a shrug.

6:33

The office is a

6:35

narrow room packed with

6:37

papers and binders. Her

6:39

desk is a slight mount in the

6:41

unbroken clutter. It looks

6:43

like the contents of an entire office building

6:45

fell on her desk all at once. The

6:48

woman

6:48

waves at everything around her and

6:50

says, Rosa, whatever

6:53

explanation she was trying to offer

6:55

for this disaster I do

6:57

not understand it. She repeats.

7:00

Rosen. She asks if

7:02

I'm confused because I

7:04

look confused. And then I

7:06

see a nameplate on the corner of the

7:08

desk sitting a skew, half

7:10

hanging off the edge. It reads,

7:12

detective Lou Rosen. Detective

7:16

Rosen. I say, I'm

7:18

Molly Hatch. And we

7:20

shake hands. Her skin

7:22

is softer than I expected.

7:26

I vaguely remember putting up the

7:28

ad. I vaguely remember

7:31

everything.

7:32

That's my problem. When it's

7:34

right in front of me, I can see it

7:36

so clearly. I see the shape

7:38

of it. turn it around in my

7:40

head, even complicated cases

7:43

fall easily into place when I'm

7:45

looking at them. but I

7:47

can't remember what I

7:49

already know. I figured

7:51

it all out and then lose track

7:53

of the answer. My head

7:55

is as cluttered as this office, and

7:57

that's pretty fucking cluttered. I know.

7:59

I do know that.

7:59

I can see it as well as anyone.

8:02

I just can't seem to do anything

8:04

about it. I tell

8:06

this new girl, I forget her name. I'm

8:08

in the middle of a case right now. You can

8:10

assist me with that. She says

8:12

something about expecting an interview,

8:15

but I tell her no, or yeah,

8:17

but later, she looks disappointed

8:20

or relieved. I can't tell.

8:22

Right now, we have a case. An

8:25

insurance company hired an

8:27

investigative firm called McGovern

8:29

security and research. They're

8:31

based downtown, and then make government

8:34

security or more specifically

8:36

an agent of theirs named

8:38

Gravy Lamb, subcontracted to

8:40

me. McGovern Security

8:42

is too busy gathering evidence on

8:44

unfaithful millionaires and protecting

8:47

celebrities to deal with peddling

8:49

life insurance case like this.

8:51

Plus, Grady is an old friend.

8:53

He likes me and he knows I need

8:55

the work. The

8:56

girl interrupts to ask why

8:58

the insurance companies don't hire

9:00

me directly. It's

9:02

complicated, I tell her,

9:04

although it isn't. She nods

9:06

as though she knows it isn't. Then

9:09

she asks how far along I

9:11

am into the case.

9:13

Well, that's the thing, I

9:16

say. I already figured it

9:18

out. I'm pretty sure.

9:20

But I kind of lost track of

9:22

the evidence It's here

9:24

somewhere, a gesture to the cosmos

9:26

of paper around us.

9:28

We'll just have to find out

9:30

what I already found

9:32

out.

9:34

Gary Ross,

9:36

aged forty one, was

9:38

fishing with his wife, Amy

9:41

Ross

9:41

thirty five, at the Azusa

9:44

River Wilderness Park. It

9:46

was a weekend of heavy rains, and

9:48

the San Gabriel River flowed

9:50

hard. It was

9:52

perhaps, inadvisable to

9:54

fish in such fast moving water,

9:57

but Gary was a stubborn

9:59

man, and Amy had

10:01

learned the hard way not to argue with

10:03

him. Gary's

10:06

drowned body was

10:08

found a mile downstream, half

10:10

submerged and ensnared

10:12

in thick

10:13

wild grass. According

10:16

to Amy, he waited too far into

10:18

the river and lost his footing. She

10:21

said the rain swollen

10:23

current took him away so fast

10:25

that feel real until she ran

10:27

after him and that same current tugged

10:30

greedily at her ankles. She

10:32

said that it was a miracle. She didn't

10:34

end up floating down after it.

10:37

The police dropped the case.

10:40

For lack of evidence pointing

10:42

to murder, These kinds of tragedies

10:44

happen more often than folks like to think.

10:47

But Gary had a life

10:49

insurance policy and the insurance

10:51

company is always motivated to

10:53

wriggle out of their obligations. And

10:56

so they hired the govern

10:57

security and research. the

11:00

slickest

11:00

and most expensive of the

11:03

downtown PI agencies. Of

11:05

course, the dirty secret

11:07

of McGovern's security is

11:09

they take on far more cases than they

11:11

have personnel to handle. And

11:14

when that happens, they subcontract. Lou

11:17

Rosen is not high on their list

11:19

of subcontractors, but

11:21

sometimes their overflow reaches

11:23

the point where they will give her a nothing

11:25

case like this. and pay her

11:27

cash under the table as long

11:29

as no one finds out that their

11:31

work is being done by someone who

11:33

doesn't even have. Okay.

11:35

So, yes, I don't technically

11:38

have a private investigator license.

11:41

It's just you know how these

11:43

things go in California. They

11:45

have all of these requirements one

11:48

after another. this, this,

11:50

this, and you have to

11:52

apprentice with another p i, which just

11:55

You

11:55

know? So,

11:58

no, I haven't yet. I'll get around

12:00

to it, I will. You don't have a

12:02

license. Thistorp says in a judgey

12:04

voice, and I hate that judgey voice

12:06

because I agree with it completely.

12:08

is that

12:09

even legal. Listen. Listen.

12:13

Listen.

12:16

never meant. We have a case

12:18

to self, or I stopped

12:20

it already. I spent hours

12:22

following Amy Ross, the bereaved

12:24

widow around digging into a

12:26

personal life, all of that

12:28

evidence is in here

12:30

somewhere.

12:32

Probably not a murder, I

12:34

say. the new

12:34

kid.

12:36

Margaret.

12:38

Melissa, squinted

12:40

me like I'm an advanced calculus problem.

12:44

Almost definitely not,

12:46

I say, eighty percent

12:48

sure. And I start flinging

12:50

around papers. she

12:52

gathers up the papers and puts

12:54

them into neat stacks.

12:56

That's not helping me find what

12:58

I need, but I don't stop her because

13:00

she's eager to do something. The

13:03

river conditions, I say,

13:05

I got the river conditions

13:07

from this eight. They were

13:09

just here. They were somewhere

13:12

around. She puts her hand

13:14

on my hands. It

13:16

feels like the pause on the video I'm

13:18

always so frantic. She reached

13:21

out and she stopped me.

13:23

That was good.

13:24

Sometimes I need to be stopped.

13:28

let me look, she says, and

13:30

she takes her neatly stacked

13:33

piles and begins

13:35

snapping them this way and

13:37

that. squirting them by

13:39

related topics. It's

13:41

only thirty seconds before she

13:43

places a printout from the

13:45

state database in my hand.

13:47

I don't think her.

13:49

It seems wrong to thank her. This

13:51

is a job interview, isn't it?

13:53

She's the one trying to impress me.

13:55

Isn't she? As usual, the

13:57

situation is slipping out of my control.

13:59

Look at this, I say,

14:01

to regain my authority, fast

14:04

currents, There had been hard rains

14:06

for two days beforehand, and

14:08

the river had grown swollen. Might

14:10

not have looked like much from the shore,

14:13

but conditions like this can

14:15

pull in an adult man when he's

14:17

standing hardly above his ankles.

14:19

There's Gary. Both arms of

14:22

equipment, catering, overloaded

14:24

and poorly balanced, excited

14:26

to get on with its fishing vacation,

14:28

and not two seconds later, swept

14:31

up and drowning. The body was

14:33

found a mile downstream, which

14:35

fits.

14:36

It happens. the

14:38

eager looking woman in my

14:40

office, not solemnly, befitting

14:42

the tragic loss of life, and

14:44

then she says,

14:45

that's it then.

14:47

No. I say. No.

14:50

There was something. I wanted

14:52

to find this paper for a

14:54

reason. God, what was the

14:56

reason though? Everything I

14:58

need is in my head

15:01

somewhere, but hell if I can find

15:03

it. I stare and

15:05

stare at the report about

15:07

the River, and then

15:09

there it is. East,

15:11

I say. She

15:12

looks at the report and says nothing.

15:16

Easter, I repeat, like

15:18

words or chisels to jar

15:20

ideas loose. That's

15:22

why I wanted this. Why was

15:24

I thinking east?

15:26

According to this, the river was

15:28

flowing east. She says,

15:31

Yes. Okay. Yes. But it

15:34

doesn't usually, I say.

15:36

It usually flows west.

15:38

The rains had been so heavy.

15:40

that the river had temporarily

15:42

reversed course, happened

15:45

sometimes,

15:45

but the body wasn't

15:47

found a mile east It

15:49

was found a mile west where

15:51

downstream usually is.

15:52

But a mile west that day

15:55

was upstream so the body

15:57

couldn't have floated there. I

15:58

flipped the paper like

15:59

a frisbee at the floor because I

16:02

am done with it and so it no

16:04

longer exists for me. The

16:06

young woman,

16:07

Melly, scoops

16:09

it out of the air and uses

16:11

some unfathomable filing system

16:13

she had just developed. to organize

16:16

the stack she had made on the corner

16:18

of my desk. So

16:20

she says, not

16:22

an accident. Probably a

16:24

murder. And I begin to see the

16:26

shape of it. I begin to

16:28

remember what I had already

16:30

found out.

16:31

My every

16:36

instinct is to leave. The

16:38

woman is a fluster, a

16:41

sprawl,

16:41

and I had been searching for

16:43

the clean and the simple

16:46

I've had enough mess for one life,

16:48

a family I hardly talk to

16:50

in small town Nevada, a

16:52

man in that same small town who is justifiably

16:55

angry at me and still living in

16:57

a half empty apartment that we

16:59

once shared. A drinking

17:01

problem I'd failed to shake

17:03

three times before I shook it for good,

17:05

except

17:05

you never shake it

17:07

for good. Now I want

17:10

to

17:10

start my life over need

17:12

to start over, have bills to pay

17:14

for

17:14

instance. I'm spending the

17:16

last of my savings on a furnished rental

17:18

in Northridge where none

17:21

of the neighbors will make

17:21

eye contact. And the only

17:24

businesses in walking distance is a

17:26

chain office supply store that is

17:28

days from going under. in a

17:30

liquor store that makes

17:32

I must admit a delicious

17:34

mimosa out of a little counter in

17:36

the back. And

17:36

does this even seem like the kind of

17:38

employer that would pay me on time? But

17:42

still, I

17:43

do not leave. Instead,

17:45

I say, do

17:47

we have any idea why

17:49

Amy would want to kill her husband?

17:52

Lu says, brother.

17:54

And I

17:54

don't know whose brother, Amy

17:56

Ross' brother, Lou

17:59

Rosen's brother, My

17:59

brother, what brother?

18:01

Her husband's brother, Gary's

18:04

brother, Leonard Ross.

18:06

Leonard was close with his sister-in-law.

18:09

very close. I talked to

18:11

Leonard's neighbor earlier this

18:13

week. Amy Ross visited Leonard

18:15

Ross multiple times over the last

18:17

couple years. often spent the

18:19

night. An

18:20

affair, I say, even the

18:22

word is difficult for me

18:25

to form The word smells like sour

18:27

sheets and tastes like

18:29

alcohol left forgotten from the night

18:31

before, then ishamidly drunk in the

18:33

blurry morning. morning

18:34

know that tastes well. It

18:37

seems obvious. Kill your

18:39

husband, collect the life insurance, run

18:41

away with his brother, your lover,

18:43

wouldn't be the first time in human history.

18:46

Lou pulls out a notepad full

18:48

of scrawled bullet points. I

18:50

ask, Do we know where Leonard was

18:52

when his brother, Amy's husband

18:55

died? She madly scans the list of

18:57

notes, repeating, do

18:59

we? Do

19:00

we? Do we? She

19:03

seems

19:03

to be caught in another loop.

19:05

And this one since

19:05

her hurtling across to a

19:08

different pile, papers flying high into the air as she

19:10

claws through them. She discards her

19:12

previous notes, and I see that they

19:14

are just a grocery list dated

19:16

three months ago. I

19:18

look behind me, the door only a

19:20

few feet away. I can see

19:22

my car, the late afternoon

19:25

sun, winking at me

19:26

off the windshield,

19:28

I decide

19:29

to leave. This isn't

19:31

the right fit. I

19:33

will leave. I am going. But

19:37

As a goodbye starts to form on my

19:39

mouth and my shoulders start to turn

19:41

toward the door, I glance back at

19:43

this Lou Rosen. And

19:46

instead of the disheveled mind

19:48

of an unlicensed PI, I

19:50

see a woman

19:51

drowning up to her chest

19:54

scatter of evidence from this and that

19:57

case. I can't do

19:59

it. Some part of

20:01

me needs to help loo

20:03

up. to save her from what she has done to herself.

20:06

So I pivot reluctantly back

20:08

into the room and gently

20:10

take her frantic hands from

20:12

the papers. I flipped through

20:14

the pile until I find a document that

20:16

says Ross on it, Lou Gapes at

20:19

me like a child watching a

20:21

magician produce a dove from her

20:23

sleeve. I examined

20:25

the paper, It's the data from

20:27

Leonard's fitness tracker. I tell

20:29

her.

20:29

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm not

20:32

supposed to have that. Output from those

20:34

is private. but I can be convincing.

20:36

And when I'm not convincing, I can

20:38

be sneaky. I look

20:40

over

20:40

the report. It had

20:42

a complete location history for Leonard Ross in the seventy

20:44

two hours around his brother's death.

20:46

I remind myself never to wear

20:48

one of those

20:49

things. he

20:51

was there, I say, realizing

20:53

what I'm seeing, he was at

20:55

the river when Gary died. Lu

20:59

says she knows that already.

21:01

And so I ask, have you

21:03

solved this case or not then? She

21:06

says yes and

21:07

then no. And

21:08

then yes. She's collected

21:11

all of this information and she knows

21:13

she has everything she needs and that

21:15

the case is solved, but

21:17

she can't piece it together. She literally

21:19

cannot put all of the pieces of evidence and

21:21

information into one single

21:22

place. She looks

21:25

miserable. I think this is because

21:27

she's frustrated, but then I think

21:29

it's because she's embarrassed.

21:31

Maybe it's both.

21:34

Okay, I see. Okay.

21:37

So,

21:37

Gary, the husband,

21:40

his brother Leonard, was there at

21:42

the river when Gary died.

21:44

This supports the theory of Leonard and Amy

21:46

running away together with the insurance money.

21:50

But Lou's

21:50

not looking at me.

21:52

She's digging in another pile. Right.

21:56

Yes. Right. Except

21:59

right.

21:59

the

21:59

This She scrambles through her notes again, sending my

22:02

neatly sorted stacks into wild showers

22:04

of paper. I say, Lou,

22:07

detective Rosen, I'm

22:09

trying to ask you a

22:11

question. She

22:11

doesn't respond, not right

22:14

away. Finally,

22:15

though, she

22:17

stops. up a stack of pages

22:19

with tiny tiny print.

22:20

Except they didn't file for the

22:23

insurance, it triggered automatically

22:25

when the death certificate was

22:27

issued. neither of them has

22:29

so much as checked in on the claim.

22:32

Money doesn't seem to be the motive,

22:34

Maggie. It's Molly. Molly.

22:36

That's it. Amy's arm,

22:37

I say, her

22:40

arm, she echoes, somewhere

22:43

in here, I

22:45

point. and soon enough mollie

22:47

dying and rifling through the papers

22:49

with an efficiency that feels

22:51

like a personal attack. Mali

22:53

finds a medical record that mentions

22:56

Amy's collarbone, not the arm.

22:58

She looks again, dental

23:00

records, a broken tooth. No.

23:02

That was years ago. She looks again

23:04

the most recent. Found

23:06

it. Yeah. Her arm

23:08

There were a lot of

23:10

injuries in the last two years. These

23:13

are oh, my

23:15

god.

23:15

They look like

23:18

He

23:18

was a real piece of

23:21

shit. Right? I say about

23:23

Gary Ross, age forty one

23:25

possible victim of a murder, definite

23:27

abuser of wife Amy Ross

23:29

beating her to an inch of her life on a

23:31

regular basis.

23:32

Molly looks about ready to

23:34

cry I did too when I first read

23:36

those medical records. Well,

23:38

there's also this, I

23:41

say, holding up my notes from talking to

23:43

Leonard's neighbor I had lucked into

23:45

finding those notes because I remembered

23:47

they were on the back of a note grocery

23:49

list. These are

23:51

the date she stayed with her

23:53

husband's brother. And

23:54

over here, I say,

23:57

indicating the general vicinity of my

23:59

desk where I believe

23:59

additional medical records to

24:02

be. Molly quickly puts

24:04

the records in chronological order

24:06

and compares their dates to the dates

24:08

of her visits to the brother. Safe

24:11

Harbor. Leonard

24:13

Ross took in his sister-in-law

24:15

Amy every time his brother

24:17

attacked her, gave her a place to stay.

24:19

They both felt despair at what your

24:21

own husband or your own

24:24

brother can be capable of. Dispare

24:26

so deep that could

24:29

lead into fast moving

24:31

water. He beat

24:33

her one last time Mollie

24:35

tells us both the story we now

24:37

know. broker arm. So

24:40

on a fishing trip a couple

24:42

weeks later, I say, on

24:45

a when the river was swollen with

24:47

rain, Leonard Ross

24:49

came. And together with

24:51

Amy Ross, they killed

24:53

Gary Ross. the monster in

24:55

both of their lives. They

24:57

didn't file the life insurance

24:59

because they didn't do it for money.

25:02

They didn't for

25:03

survival. I can't

25:05

prove it, but I have enough

25:08

circumstantial evidence for the insurance people.

25:10

They would take an excuse I gave

25:13

them.

25:15

And

25:15

I guess that is that.

25:18

Lou will call McGovern Security and

25:20

Research in some lazy

25:22

suit will call the insurance company who

25:24

maybe then notifies the police.

25:27

It's not right that Amy

25:29

should be considered a murderer, but

25:32

It's the way the world works. Law

25:34

and justice are the solid

25:37

shores, but this case is in the middle

25:39

of the wide turbulent river.

25:41

can only hope Amy and Leonard can afford a

25:43

good lawyer, but

25:46

I'm proud of myself for helping

25:48

Lou get her case together. My

25:50

life has been a lot of taking things apart

25:53

lately. It's nice to put something

25:55

together at last, but

25:57

I

25:57

feel less proud by the

25:59

second as Liu pulls out her

26:02

phone, scrolls through contacts,

26:04

and hits call. I don't

26:06

want this woman to go to jail.

26:08

I don't want her to have to recount her

26:10

traumas in a court just to justify her

26:12

own safety. The world is better

26:14

without Gary Ross. As

26:17

Lou puts the phone to her ear,

26:19

I count to myself.

26:23

one one thousand, two

26:25

one thousand, three

26:27

hey, Grady, it's

26:30

Lou. She says, There's nothing here. She

26:32

says, yeah, just like you

26:34

thought, everything points to an

26:36

accident. She says, Liu

26:38

puts her phone away and looks at me.

26:40

I don't know

26:41

if her look

26:42

is a question or statement.

26:46

I say it was

26:48

the right thing, what you just

26:50

did. She nods,

26:52

but she didn't need me to tell her

26:55

that. In the mess of piecing together the evidence,

26:57

I hadn't stopped to notice

26:59

how well she had put together that

27:02

evidence. How easily she had made

27:04

the connections There was

27:06

a fierce mind there, disorganized,

27:10

but astonishing a

27:12

wide and turbulent river. So

27:16

I say after several

27:18

silent seconds, I'm

27:21

sorry I came at a bad time, but

27:24

the interview I have my

27:26

resume. I hold it up, a

27:28

mostly empty sheet of

27:30

paper, a fair record of my life to

27:32

that point. Lou waved it

27:34

away. Come back

27:36

tomorrow, nine AM. Nope. Ten.

27:38

Nope. Eleven. I wanna sleep in.

27:41

says. And I'd

27:43

read another drive back and forth

27:45

down the five just to reschedule

27:47

an interview. Loop points

27:49

to a waist high pile of papers

27:51

and says, that can be your desk. As

27:53

I stare at the amount

27:56

of documents, I realized for the first

27:58

time that there's some kind of office

27:59

furniture beneath that Lou

28:02

says, you'll have to clear it off

28:04

first. Maybe come in at nine.

28:06

here's

28:06

a key. I

28:08

guess I should just take the yes,

28:11

but I have so many questions

28:13

about pay, about

28:15

benefits, hours, a job

28:17

description. Generally, there are

28:19

details that need to be talked through. I'm

28:21

not good with details. She says,

28:23

tell you what.

28:24

You can figure those out for yourself tomorrow.

28:27

Don't be greedy and I'll probably sign

28:29

off on it. I'm

28:30

not very good with business either.

28:33

She holds her hand. I

28:35

shake it. Her skin

28:37

was not as soft as I had

28:38

first thought. Thank

28:41

you. I say.

28:44

Don't thank me until you've tried the

28:46

job. She

28:47

says,

28:53

Outside, the sky goes

28:55

dark over the mountains. The

28:58

lights in the strip mall on Citrus

29:00

Avenue flick on one

29:02

by one. a red sign

29:04

with an accountant's name

29:06

and white letter. The

29:09

restaurant that's just called tamale's

29:11

number twenty one. Across the

29:14

street, the headlights of the cars lining

29:16

up

29:16

at the gas station send glints

29:19

dancing

29:19

across Lou's window. But

29:23

us were moving west with

29:25

the sun. Over

29:27

Arcadia where the McManions and

29:29

the nineteen forties bungalows jostle

29:31

for space as parakeet swooped from tree

29:34

to tree the descendants of

29:37

escaped pets. Over

29:40

at Water Village, where

29:42

gentrified condos wedged themselves

29:44

between apartments full of locals who

29:46

have lived there for decades. Over

29:48

the unhouse, lining up

29:51

along the LA River trying to

29:53

survive.

29:54

Over the long extinct town

29:57

of Edenown, where the first big studios of Hollywood

29:59

built their

29:59

empires, now swallowed by Silver

30:02

Lake and all but

30:04

forgotten. Continuing

30:06

west along Beverly Boulevard

30:08

past the cluster of synagogues

30:10

and bagel stores. Men in

30:12

Yamikas and women in ankle length

30:15

dresses getting on with the business of

30:17

a three thousand year old tradition.

30:19

as the cars maneuver around them to get

30:21

to the grove or to the Largo theater

30:23

in West Hollywood. and

30:27

finally to the coast. A

30:29

quiet beach off the Pacific

30:31

coast highway. Rock

30:33

climbers easing their way off

30:35

point McGoo rock, and

30:37

the waves hissing over the ankles of a

30:39

teenage couple who drove

30:41

down from the suburbs looking for some

30:43

space away from their parents. and now

30:45

stand here, so completely

30:47

enough, watching the last

30:49

of the sunset model away

30:52

to black.

30:54

A few miles out from these young lovers,

30:57

the waves sweep

30:59

against the struts of an oil platform.

31:02

here Here,

31:03

an oil worker pauses to take

31:05

in the city along the shore. She

31:08

looks for some familiar landmark

31:10

some sign of all the

31:12

millions of people she is looking at from

31:15

her perch above the dark churning

31:17

sea. But from where

31:19

she stands, the whole city is just

31:21

an inscrutable scattering of

31:24

light. She looks at it

31:25

for only a moment, and

31:27

then she turns away and

31:30

gets back to the business at

31:32

hand.

31:44

This episode of Unlicensed was written by Joseph

31:46

Fink and Jeffrey Kramer.

31:48

It stars Molly Quinn as Molly,

31:50

Luscious Strauss, as Lou,

31:53

and TL Thompson

31:54

as our narrator with Jason

31:56

Siegel as the governor and

31:58

Robin Virginiai as

31:59

the journalist.

32:04

Thank you for

32:04

listening to the first episode of

32:07

Unlicensed by Joseph and

32:09

me, Jeffrey Krayner. If you wanna hear the

32:11

rest of the series, all of it is

32:13

available right now at audible dot

32:15

com slash unlicensed. You

32:17

can join or you can simply do

32:19

a thirty day free trial, but every single

32:21

episode of the first season is available

32:23

there for you right now. Again, thank

32:25

you so much for listening that's audible dot

32:27

com slash unlicensed.