Blood Stained Lips//Cortez Hotel//Jame Patrick March

Chapter Six: James Patrick March

Liz poured two drinks to the two ladies sitting at the bar Eleanor downed hers with hesitation "Look, before you have to explain to somebody what you think you saw I'll tell you what you want to know. There's just one thing you got to do." "What?" Iris batted her eyes "Ask nice." Eleanor gave her a sarcastic smile "ask me what you really want to know." Iris said sipping her drink "I want to know what's going on in this place."

"Well, if you want to know what this place is about, you have to know about the man who built it-- James Patrick March." Eleanor's eyes grew wide "built" she thought this place is so old.

"He put every atom of evil in his being into building this hotel. March was a self-made man-- oil, coal. But he was new money, shunned by the elites of East Coast society. So he came west, to a land where pedigree meant little if you had a lot of dough. Here he would build a monument to excess and opulence, where he could satisfy his own peculiar appetites.

"Uh, Mr. March? Mr. March?! Uh, th-there's a problem. I'll be right down!" 

IRIS: He was a design freak-- art decor, self-taught. He tried to get Julia Morgan to come out and build a place for him, but she demanded that he pay his workers fair wages, so he told her to stuff it.

"There's a part of these plans that make no sense. I mean, entire hallways with no rooms off of them. It looks like you want us to build, uh, some sort of secret passage system." James smiled to the man pushing the print off the table "Well, of course these make no sense. These aren't the right ones. You're working off an old draft. Come up to my office with me. I'll get you the new set."  the man sighed with relief "Okay, good."  March laughed as they rode up in the elevator "I envy you. My curse was making my fortune too early. My point being that the appetites of the filthy rich are specific. Altered from that of the common man. Do you mind? I feed some of that hunger with this building." The sound of his safe in his office clicked as he followed the can into a completely tiled room "My art. But sometimes, if I really want that good, full feeling." he said as he stabbed the men in the neck.

 IRIS: He wasn't just building the finest hotel. Los Angeles had ever seen. It was a perfectly designed torture chamber. An engineered alibi. Secret chutes and rooms to hide and dispose of the bodies. Hallways with no exits. Walls were lined with asbestos so they could mute the screams. People walked in, just vanished. "No body, no crime," he would say.

James whistled as he was bricking a wall inside one of the hotel rooms with a women tied up inside "No, no." The girl cried "I don't like small spaces. Please." "Help! Somebody help! Help! Help! Help! No. Please, no."

IRIS: He had a wife. They say he forced her to watch the torture. No one knows how many died. Rumor has it he averaged three a week. A lot more if he went on a bender.

"Help!" A women screamed as James thrusted into her slicing her on both side with every thrust groans and scream filled the room then silence James collapsed tiredly beside her dead body "Miss Evers!" he called in a pant "Yes, Mr. March? Do you require fresh linens?"  "Yes. But more importantly, remind me to switch out this God-awful Secessionist light fixture. He said looking at the ceiling "Makes this place look like a damn zoo!" He yelled making Miss Evers jump  "Excuse my language." He apologized which made her chuckle with delight

 IRIS: His loyal minion. Miss Evers, the laundress. She said she could get a stain out of anything for Mr. March using a secret ingredient-- love.

 *Crack* the sound of a hammer hitting a bound man in the head knocking him down a laundry shoot, James pushed the second bound man to his knees, The man prayed softly James knelled beside the man  "My father was a true believer. Ate the little cracker and drank the wine every Sunday. He inhaled sharply " And he was the meanest son of a bitch you've ever seen. Kill a cat for purring too loud." clicking his tongue "You want me to tell you the worst thing in this world? Religion." He stood up "That and regulations." The man looked up at march "God is in my heart so I know there is always hope." "You think there is hope now?" he said lifting his hammer "You think God is going to protect you from the head of this hammer? Or the six floors you're about to fall?" the man Challenged James "As long as there is a God, men like you can kill thousands, millions, but you will never find peace." James inhaled deeply The laughed "Well then, I guess I'm just going to have to kill God. That is my message to the world." The man whisper his final prayers until James hit him over the head and sent him down the shoot "Fly!" "I'll fetch you a clean shirt." Miss Evers said walking away. "And I want every Bible from every bed stand in this entire hotel!" He shouted with rage  

Insects buzzed around the piles of bodies around them piled in a ditch DETECTIVE: What in the Hell is this mess? No I. D. 's. The detective sighed "Not right for someone to pull this shit on a Sunday. he looked closer to see a handkerchief with the monogram JPM on the corner

IRIS: He was sloppy with his wet work out in the world.They say somebody turned him in.No one knows who, but I'm betting on the wife. With him gone, she got everything. All those millions.

      Miss Evers knocked on the door to see March with his latest victim  "I'm sorry to disturb you, sir. I have some very bad news. The police are here." James sighed heavily as he took off his mask and gloves "Oh, Miss Evers. You have always been the only one I can count on. You are a pillar. And so I give you the honors. He held out a Knife and Gun "What order shall we die in? "Oh, Mr. March." She sighed in surprise "Oh, I really don't know. I mean, part of me wishes you would go first so I could launder the sheets. There's no time for that, is there?" She turned behind her to look at the door. "No. It seems not." "I will go first." She counted back and forth between the two items  "Gun, please." She gasps with a smile "Would you do me the honor of making me your last one? Your last meal?" The bangs got louder and more aggressive "Miss Evers." he said touched he took the gun and took her life the door busted open and he gave one maniacal laugh before cutting his throat.

Eleanor shook her head smiling "You're in the wrong profession. You should be writing for the movies."

Iris face grew irritated "Ain't a movie. This place is the real deal. If you want to know what's really going on here, you're gonna have to expand your thinking a bit. Put it on her tab." Iris said finishing her drink and walking away. 

   Eleanor rubbed her face tiredly "I can't believe it Liz, Its too crazy." Liz sighed setting down the glass she was cleaning "Crazier then all the things you've seen?" Liz had gotten her there she didn't know how to explain what was happening "Maybe I'm crazy" "Honey we all are a little crazy." She grabbed Eleanor's hands "Its real Just open your mind." "James wants to me Kill people Liz I cant do that." Liz eyes widened "You have seen Mr. March" "Yeah he literally locked me in his room talking to me about me being his protégé. Its strange I want to listen to him but, you now hear him out. Cause when I'm with him I feel more at place then I've ever been, he knows me like he is me." "Well what's stopping you from doing it." Liz shrugged her shoulders. "Uh, the murdering part." "So a couple transits or junkies die." "They matter" "Well what made you want to kill your husband?" "That was different he was a basterd who was abusive and vile. The world would be better without him." Liz began cleaning her glass again "Then kill those men." Eleanor ran her finger through her hair. "I can't believe I am entertaining this idea." "Well sweetie you are."