Broad Beach Road

By Alex Wilson

It was supposed to be a vacation, house sitting a gorgeous estate in Malibu. And, it was until Josh spotted some almost-hidden classified communications gear on a beach house. This led to the unraveling of a plot with national security ramifications.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alex Wilson
• Release date: May 30, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452343587

Alex Wilson

At 72, Alex's wife said 'Why not try writing?' Within 4 months he had six novellas on Smashwords and now, a couple of years later, 18. Obviously there was stuff lurking in there waiting to be said. Alex's wife is also his muse and editor, and a good one. They live in St. Petersburg, FL where there is a surprising amount of writerly activity.

Book preview

Broad Beach Road

a novella by Alex Wilson

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Alex Wilson

Other works by Alex Wilson can be found at www.wilsonwritings.com.

Broad Beach Road a novella by Alex Wilson

Fed up with the dreary early Maine winter, Josh and Dana jumped at the invitation to house sit for one of Josh’s more affluent contacts from his days as a reporter for the LA Times. Not least of the attractions of the gig was that the home, a signature piece of architecture spectacularly was set on an ocean bluff in Malibu. And, it was on Broad Beach Road, the toniest part of this mega-tony community, with every other beach house owned by an A-list celebrity or captain of industry.

‘Lordy, Joshua. You told me this place was nice but that’s like saying Versailles is ‘nice’. It’s just gorgeous. We’re right above the surf. The pelicans cruise by at eye level. The porpoises patrol the ocean in droves, er, pods. Soft ocean breezes. When I die, will I go here?’

‘Don’t get too used to it, m’lady. It’s only for a month, then back to realityville.’

There are any number of misconceptions about Los Angeles mainly heard from those who had either never been there or had visited briefly a decade or two ago. ‘I bet you hate the smog’ is a deathless anachronism. Fact: The better parts of LA – Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Brentwood – are on the coast with clean westerly breezes pressing in from the Pacific Ocean. Also, LA has worked hard to rid the basin of polluting industries and the emission controls on cars has contributed to the virtual elimination of what used to be a fact back in the 60s; thick, choking, toxic smog. It’s not your father’s Los Angeles.

Another misunderstood feature of Los Angeles is the weather. Some of its coolest weather is in early summer with ‘June gloom’, a persistent fog condition near the coast. And, contra intuitively, some of the hottest weather can be in January when the Santa Ana winds blow hot, arid desert air through the city bringing dust, itchy heat and causing LAX to reverse the landing pattern of the airport.

But, in November, when the rest of the country – and particularly Maine – is beginning to batten down the winter hatches, it can be glorious on the beach in Malibu. Sure enough, Josh and Dana had landed in Paradise.

After a distinguished career in the USMC, Josh had become an award-winning investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times during that newspaper’s halcyon days under Otis Chandler. During that time, he had made contacts with people at all levels of the enormously variegated city; industry and finance CEOs, gang bangers, civic and governmental leaders, homeless, law enforcement and, in what is known locally as ‘The Biz’; the entertainment industry. Not to be slighted in the deep and lively network from which Josh has to draw are the diaspora of former Marines. We all know by now that there are no ex-Marines. Once a Marine, always a Marine. It is an unending fraternity. They can hook up and take off at a high port without too much circling or vetting. Honorable tours in The Corps are qualification enough. And, most of