The 1960’s were a historic era of cultural and political upheaval worldwide, and Los Angeles along with San Francisco were at the west coast epicenters. The 1970s amped the Vibe; from the grit of L.A, and glitz of Hollywood, to the sunny beach-lined communities north and south of the Los Angeles International Airport.
There was a thriving evolution of new ways to live, to expand one’s mind, and new ways to do business. And one of the rising big businesses was within the Drug Culture. The times were ripe for anyone to grab the reins and take hold of whatever they could. All ideas, trends, and concepts if not new, were brought forward from the past to be celebrated. With these near daily new enterprises and concepts came great ideas implemented for the good and some for the bad.
William Trent, a young private investigator, maintains his office and living space above the garages of an adjacent apartment building in the “Ghost Town” area of Venice, California. The rickety, but sturdy stairs to Will’s office were open for anyone who needed his services.
Will was experienced in both deductive reasoning and altered states of consciousness. He had taken nearly every drug, hallucinogen, and psychotropic known, and used those experience’s benefits to become successful enough to hold down his own one man investigation business.
There was much to be said for certain stoners’ abilities to use their clouded stoned appearance to actually gain detailed insight on those who momentarily let their guard down due to thinking that they were dealing with just another stoned Hippie.
Tonight’s 1977 Episode: “Evil Doctors And Mad Scientists”
Will was taking a brief rest from a successfully closed but physically-demanding case when he got an early evening call from an old high school acquaintance.
“Odd Bob” was an outsider – odd to everyone but Will, as Will saw what was underneath. Bob knew of Will’s reputation as the Stoned Private Eye.
Will was suspicious of a call from Bob: “What’s up?”
Bob, in a confidant manner: “There are some people who want to see you.”
Will: “Some people?”
Bob: “Yes, three to be exact.”
Will, always up for a new case: “Look, Bob, if these are possible clients, fine, if not, I’m really not up for a social visit.”
Bob: “No, its a case, I think.”
Will agreed to meet at Bob’s workplace after hours. Despite Bob’s lack of social graces he was able to work himself up to manager of The Aboveground Library, an eclectic bookstore off Melrose Boulevard.
Will parked in the alley behind the store and knocked on the back door, Bob opened the door and let Will in.
They walked to the back of the store where the bookstore held readings and book signings and there in the dimly lit room were three people, a man, a woman, and a boy, their son, or so Will assumed.
Will looked to Bob and whispered: “What do they want?
Bob motions Will toward them and introduces them as the Johnson family, Fred, Louse, and little Oliver.
Will smiles, shakes hands, and suddenly he gets a vibe from them, an unsettling vibe, something strange was happening to him he felt woozy and had to sit down, and when he did it was like he was in a different place, he knew he wasn’t, he knew he was in the book store, but something changed.
Bob, concerned, but relieved: “Will? You all right?”
Will: “Who are they?”
Bob, excited: “Good, so you felt it too?”
Will, looking at the Johnson Family who were smiling at him: “What is this?”
Bob: “They came into the store today and were reading books all day and when I approached them to ask if I could be of assistance I got this weird vibe, but then things got clear and they introduced themselves.”
Will still looking at the smiling Johnson Family.
Bob: “They pulled one of your business cards from the store’s community billboard and asked if I would call you.”
Will, very puzzled: “What do they want?”
Bob: “Go ask them.”
Will turned and walked over to the family: “Do you . . “
and just then Will had an empathetic episode; a deep sharing of one’s feelings – these people were in danger, possibly deadly danger.
Bob, from off to the side: “They need your help.”
Will looks to him then back to the family.
Just then there was a noise, a car door shut, it came from the front.
Bob at the window: “Will, it’s a guy, with a gun!”
Will instinctively moved the Family and Bob out the back and into his car.
As they drove down the alley in his side mirror Will saw the man come around the back of the bookstore into the alley.
Will looked over to Bob riding shotgun, then tilted the rear view mirror to see the Family in his backseat, then as he tilted the mirror back he caught his own image. For a brief moment he saw not the P.I., not the psychedelic stoner, but the real Will. He tilted the mirror back on the Family who sat quiet and smiling. then positioned the mirror back to view the rear traffic and continued the short drive up and over to Laurel Canyon to his friend Mike’s rural place.
They weren’t followed, but just in case Will parked down the street a couple houses to be safe.
Will knocked on Mike’s front door, Mike answered and Will told him the situation, Mike was cool as Will knew he would be, and Will returned with the Family and Bob.
Mike was introduced to the Family, and Bob, whom he casually knew from high school.
Mike to Will: “So, what have you got yourself into now?”
Will: “I don’t know really, just this Family is in danger and they somehow chose me, to, a, …” Will trails off as he remembers: “Can they stay in your bunker? Just for tonight, and maybe tomorrow?”
Mike: “I don’t know, that’s my secret place, we don’t even know these people, but they can stay in the guest room.”
Will: “That’d be great, I just need to get some specifics from them.”
Mike: “In the meantime I’ll order a couple pizzas.”
Will: “Thanks, Man.”
Will sits down with the Family:.
Will to Fred Johnson: “Mr. Johnson what do you want me to do?”
Fred: “I know things.”
Will: “What things?”
Fred: “Things that you know.”
Will, surprised at the answer, focuses: “Fred I need to know specifics. Why are people after you?”
Louise steps in for Fred: “Mr. Trent, my husband and son were involved with what were called clinical trials at the University of California Los Angeles that were really experiments, they used them as lab rats.”
Will looks to Fred and Oliver – they both smile at him.
Will: “So what happened, why are you in danger?”
Louise: “Their experiments involved strange drugs, drugs that, well, they both took and it changed them.”
Will again looks to Will and Oliver and smiles – they smile back.
Will, with too many questions: “Did they pay you, and who were they”
Louise: “Fred saw an opportunity for some extra money that involved a father and son, so he applied. We all thought that it would be about relationships and such, but then drugs were administered to “focus” their thoughts.”
Will: And?”
Louise: “Their thoughts are focused all right, and I know you experienced it.”
Will got a bit woozy just recalling the incident.
Louise continues: “They knew that the bookstore had a way to contact you.”
Will was not surprised by any of this, he knew through the underground and his conspiracy intelligentsia friends and associates that there was always talk of the next wonder drug that could do wonders. Telepathy, mind-reading, all of the fringe science and paranormal concepts and theories were being tested, experimented, and possibly implemented by professionally licensed and unlicensed “people” every single day in labs and back rooms of universities, medical facilities, governments, and private entrepreneurs. The Johnson Family were proof.
What the Johnson’s were experiencing was an elevation of perception that only people like Will, and to a lesser extent, Bob, could recognize; like attracts like.
Will: “Alright, no more need to explain, what can I do for you, or better yet, what do you expect me to do?”
Will again looks to the smiling Fred and Oliver.
Will, before Louise can answer: “Have they always been so, happy?”
Louise: “That’s just one part of what the drugs have done.”
Will asks Fred: “Do you know why people are after you?”
Fred: “We know too much, saw too much, and remember too much. They found out that we were anomalies, we weren’t supposed to react this way, and they want us back for tests.”
Will stopped and thought; if Fred and Oliver were anomalies, then what was the initial intent?
And before asking what Fred wanted him to do, he knew, and Will’s heart sank, this is a family who will be on the run until they are caught and there will be no one to stop it from happening. And then all three will disappear into a wing of a mental hospital for “observation”.
Will, to himself, but in a loud whisper: “SHIT!”
Just then Bob came into the guest room with a couple pizzas and drinks.
Will, with a raised voice to Mike in the kitchen: “Thanks, Mike!”
As they all ate, Will’s mind reeled with the possibilities to help them move on without fear.
He needed to know who was behind this. It was Bob’s day off so he stayed with the Family at Mike’s.
Fred gave Will the names of Dr. Lipscomb, and a scientist named Marks, Fred never heard or saw Marks’ first name.
Will took off to UCLA.
The UCLA campus was a hip place in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. Sitting above Westwood Village and framed by the 405 freeway on the west, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, and Sunset Boulevard on the north, made it convenient access to freeways (the 10 freeway into L.A. was just down the road a piece) and major boulevard arteries.
Plus Westwood Village was a happening place with restaurants, shops, Tower Records, ten theaters, several were landmarks where many classic movies like Easy Rider and The Exorcist premiered. There were always dorm parties, and since the surrounding apartments were nearly all rented by students, there were parties every night on campus and off, Will had been to a few in his late teens, but they lost their appeal once he had his own place at eighteen.
Will knew his way around the UCLA campus through friends who went there. Since there would be no directory for mad doctors or evil scientists, he figured Dr. Lipscomb would maybe be part of a department that would have less interest and thus less attention paid to it. And that would be the sexy subject of digging around in the dirt; Archeology, and its relevance as it pertains to Socio-Economics. Bingo! No one would enroll in that department’s classes. And how convenient that it was a building in the far corner of the campus isolated among semi-neglected vegetation.
Under the cover of darkness Will approached the building and tested the closed and locked front doors. As he walked around the building he saw a small ground-level window emit a glow, he kneeled down but couldn’t see as the window was dirty, from the inside and out, but he could see some shadowy movement. He got back up from kneeling and moved to the back of the building and just as he was about to turn the corner he heard voices and stopped.
A hospital stepvan was parked with its doors open and two men were getting instructions by a third man in a lab coat who was at the back door as to where to put what looked like two drugged people. The men literally carried the two over their shoulders and into the building.
Well, Will had seen enough, there was nasty business going on and these two captives might as well have been Fred and Oliver.
The long route would be to get the authorities on this, but Will needed to know the true nature of what was going on for himself; better to be loaded with incriminating evidence than to wait for the police to move on it, or after it’s too late.
Will waited until the two men went inside and stealthily slipped in behind them.
Just then a hallway door opened and light shone across the floor and onto the wall revealing the shadow silhouette of a man in a lab coat giving orders to the two men. They left, Will hung back, and the shadowed silhouette of the man in the lab coat disappeared when the door shut behind them.
Will crept down the hall to the door and listened.
There were two men talking –
It was difficult to hear clearly as the thick wood door muffled the voices, but he heard one thing and it was about the Johnson Family, then it all went black.
Will awoke tied to a chair guarded by a muscular hospital intern.
The Man in the Lab Coat approached Will then mockingly to the Intern: “This is indeed a fortunate surprise, do you know who this is?”
The Intern barely nods his head, “No.”
The Man in the Lab Coat: “This is the perfect subject for further human testing, William Trent.”
Will: And you must be the mad scientist Marks, where’s the evil Dr. Lipscomb?”
Marks: “Oh, he had to leave, he had an appointment.”
Will: “That’s too bad, I wanted to get a good look at him, you know, to identify in the line up.”
Marks just smiles: “You know, our advancements, once perfected, will be worth millions, but it’s just not there yet, almost, but it still needs a few kinks ironed out.”
Will, as he uses dynamic tension to ever so lightly loosen his bonds: “So what’s the plan, shoot me up with drugs, to do what?”
Marks: “Oh, we’ll see soon enough, as we already “shot you up” while you were out.”
Will knew drugs, he knew the different degrees of the come on, he could anticipate the ingestion of a psychedelic and feel the effects merely from the psychological imprint of what was to come.
But the feelings he was beginning to have surpassed those now seemingly trite experiences. There before him was a vast landscape filled with knowledge, if he had to describe it he couldn’t it was beyond a hallucination it was awe inspiring. The strange part was that it was like a three-dimensional veil over reality.
But no matter how high Will got he had his Psychedelic Buddy there with him to keep him focused and to remind him that it was just the drug.
Will’s focus allowed him to imagine his bonds and which way to untie, all the while everywhere he looked there was an overlay of knowledge, Will could get lost in it if he didn’t stay focused. Will wanted to absorb this knowledge but he also needed to get free – freedom won out.
Marks to Will: “You ever see that 1968 movie, “Charly?”
Will had, and he knew what the mad scientist was getting at – and he didn’t like it.
Will: “Yes, Cliff Robertson got a Best Actor Oscar for that role.”
Marks: “Ah, so I take it you’re familiar with the movie’s premise, of taking a retarded man and through science raise his IQ to genius levels.”
Will was beginning to lose it, he couldn’t let on any of what he was going through; his mind was being split in too many directions, it was getting harder to focus. He was losing grasp of his objective, to get free.
Marks notices Will going through changes and gets inquisitive:“William Trent, what do you know, what do you see, tell me.”
Will was at the top of the roller coaster at the edge of a waterfall at the edge of the world, he was about to go over into an unending sea of knowledge, and at that moment he had absorbed enough knowledge to know once over the edge he’d never come back.
And just then way off in the distance a friendly but demanding voice could be heard.
It was like a rumble way off in the distance, like states away. And as the sound became clearer words began to form coming with a massive rumbling like a mountain range on wheels coming closer and closer, faster and faster, until the full volume and clarity of the sound formed words, words fifty feet high, words that said, “FOCUS! IT’S JUST THE DRUG!”
It was his Psychedelic Buddy coming through via his higher self.
Will immediately left the edge and focused. He moved his wrists in a way that would have made Houdini proud, and then, untied behind his back, he waited for the right moment.
Marks repeated his question: “What do you know, what do you see, tell me.”
Will, in a low whispering voice: “I see the future.”
Marks, excited: “The future? How far in the future?’
Will, still in a low whispering voice: “Soon.”
Marks, getting frustrated: “How soon?”
Will, in a normal tone: “In years? Probably twenty-five to life.”
At that moment the evil scientist realized that it was all over as Will stood up and knocked him out with one precise knowledge-backed upper-cut to the jaw.
Will gathered his wits and searched the rooms down the hall for the other victims. He found the two still drugged-out on examining tables and was about to call the police on the phone back in the “questioning” room when he heard two men talking and coming down the hall, it was the hospital interns back for some more moonlighting opportunities.
Will had to think fast and he did, the drug, whatever it was, entered a new phase, whereby Will’s normal detective abilities were heightened, sped up. Once the men saw Marks unconscious they would quickly search the place. Will had to prevent that.
Will saw what he needed right on the wall next to him, he walked out into the hallway in full view of the Interns: “Excuse me, but I’m trying to enroll into the classes held by Dr. Lipscomb, Can you direct me to his office?”
The one Intern recognized him as the “stoner guy”.
Intern to the other Intern: “Get him.”
They both ran toward Will.
Will just stood there, waiting, with his hands behind his back.
And when they were close enough Will whipped a fire extinguisher around and blasted them both full face, and kept it on them until they were blinded by the foam. Then swung the fire extinguisher canister upside the head of one IIntern and then with a three hundred sixty degree back swing allowed the extinguisher to do the same to the upside of the other’s head.
They didn’t see it coming, and that was fine with Will as he saw them both crumble to the floor.
Now it was time to call the police.
On his way back to Mike’s he was still feeling the effects of the strange drug, or drugs, but they were waning. Still he wondered if once the drugs potency was expired would it bring him back to his normal level of intelligence? Or if the “Charly” aspects of the drug were true, would he digress into a less than normal state?
Or there was a third possibility; he may retain some of what he saw, absorbed, and understood.
Only time will tell.
Copyright 2019 00individual TLL
Written spontaneously over a few hours during July 10, 11, 12, 2019 with only The Stoned Private Eye, the 1970s,
a telephone call, and a Noir Vibe as inspiration.
THE STONED PRIVATE EYE 