Chapters 31-35 Summary

Back in LA, Henry finds a cheap motel to drink and sleep for three to four days. One night he walks uptown and drops into an inviting bar, where he sits beside a blonde, once a beauty, who retains long, lovely legs and a firm body, but is clearly an alcoholic. When Henry goes broke, she takes him in tow to a liquor store and charges the purchases to Wilbur Oxnard's account. They drive Henry's $35 car to his apartment and enjoy the purchases. Listening to Debussy, they get into bed, and Henry is inside her before he learns that her name is Laura.

Henry packs and follows Laura to a peeling, two-story, white house on Alvarado St. He hides until she is buzzed in. "Willie" Oxnard is gray-haired and one-armed. Coins are strewn on the floor and an electric organ dominates...