She didn’t realize that she was inadvertently incriminating Jonah by dumping the ash. The ashtray containing cigar ash that Jonah had smoked earlier in the day was similarly dumped on the body - why? Because Suade smoked cigarettes and Susan did not want any evidence in her car linking herself to the victim. Later that evening when the killing occurred, you will recall that the evidence indicated that Suade had similarly sat in the passenger seat of the killer’s car - Susan’s car, that she was shot in the vehicle and her body dumped in the parking lot behind her office. Trace evidence such as fish scales, and even traces of dried or drying blood would easily be transferred to the upholstery of Susan’s car as Jonah sat in the passenger seat. The evidentiary doctrine involved here is called “Transference”. At the end of this meeting, who does Jonah leave with? He leaves with Susan in her county car to go to Susan’s office in order to prepare documents to compel Suade to disclose the location of the child.

He is also smoking a cigar and offers them all around, including one to Susan. In Chapter Six he has not had time to change, but is in Paul’s office in his fishing togs. Paul has just picked Jonah up at the docks and Jonah is covered in fish blood from his catch of the marlin that he leaves hanging on the docks. This is immediately after Paul has had his confrontational meeting with Zolanda Suade at her office. “The answer is found in Chapter Six, where you will recall that Susan, Paul, Harry, Jonah and Susan’s investigator meet at Paul’s office.

Q: Any advice on getting an agent? Or how to get manuscripts in front of publishers? In the end it is much better both for your ego and for your prospects of being published, if you yourself reject the imperfections of that manuscript and rework them than to have the script rejected by an editor.” It will also help perfect an ear for what is good and what is not.

What you will gain if you are good are glimmers of technique. Also read well-crafted screenplays, “Chinatown” and anything by Quinton Tarantino.

If you’re trying to craft hard-edged on the sidewalk crime, read Elmore Leonard for his dialogue. Read others who are published, particularly for their strengths. Do not try to sell material until in your honest opinion it looks and sounds as good as what is at the upper end of the marketplace already on sale in bookstores. The real answer is to rewrite until you have honed your work to a fine edge. You have to be persistent in your self-criticism, develop an ear for dialogue and narrative and be willing to toss material that doesn’t work and start again. “As to advice to others wishing to become writers, the answer is simple write.

The Simeon Chamber by Steve Martini