The Real Gone, Horn Gone Blues

The Real Gone, Horn Gone Blues

Skoot Larson

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When alto saxophone legend and San Pedro native Art Pepper was arrested for narcotics possession and sent to San Quentin in 1960, his signature Martin alto saxophone disappeared. Had he pawned it? Was it buried somewhere in the Los Angeles Police Department's vast evidence room?

A seller on present day Internet auction site, Net Bid, claims to have Art's horn, and has put it up for grabs, which draws the attention of one Lucien Bezich, a saxophonist in the band of local jazz man turned reluctant detective Lars Lyndstrom.

"Loose," as he's called, is a musical genius, but rather slow, and easily excitable in his day-to-day life outside jazz. Loose wants Art Pepper's axe badly enough to borrow $3,000 from his mother to place a bid on the horn. For his money, however, all Loose gets is a corpse that's been strangled with the cord that goes around the saxophone players neck to steady the instrument, along with his own arrest for the "sax-strap" murder.

When the Net Bid seller disappears as well, The police discover that this same suspect is also being sought for questioning in the theft of over a million dollars worth of container cargo from the Port of Los Angeles.
Can Lars untangle this web to save his friend and fellow musician? If so, it will require another satori from Lars to solve this Zen-jazz mystery.