Grave on Grand Avenue By Naomi Hirahara

by Cynthia Chow


Ellie Rush recently finished her first year of probation with the Los Angeles Police Department, but her latest assignment on the Bicycle Coordination Unit has her serving as a crossing guard in front of Grand Avenue’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. On the way to the restroom, Ellie exchanges a few friendly words with the hall’s charming gardener, Eduardo Fuentes. Just a few moments later, she discovers that he’s been pushed down the stairs and critically injured. The culprit is still on the scene, loudly declaring that it was an act of self-defense. Fang Xu, the father of a world-famous visiting Chinese violist, is claiming that Fuentes was attempting to steal his son's cello, a Stradivarius worth five million dollars.