The police detective opened the car door and stepped firmly into the puddle. He trotted out of the puddle into a singularly damp snowdrift. Cursing, he slogged onto the path where he waited for the sergeant to walk around. The… Continue Reading
No, I don’t want a cigarette. *** Everything was going according to plan. I met my contact in a dingy bar in the bowels of a low-class brothel. A cesspool of thieves and perverts looking to ply their sick fantasies… Continue Reading
“You know this isn’t a real holiday, right?” Klepto Bayley Klepac asked. “I know it’s not a real holiday,” I said, “But I like to celebrate it, so I do.” Bayley gave me a confused look, paid her breakfast check,… Continue Reading
He doesn’t know his letters. That’s what Ricky thought when he looked down at the refrigerator magnets. “CAT”. Only the A was an upside-down V. Little Ricky sat next to his handiwork grinning broadly. The wife was supposed to be… Continue Reading
“I thought she’d dozed off.” It was the excuse I’d been making all week. Tim was standing next to me, gazing at the body in the coffin. Above the fragrance of hothouse flowers rose a faint scent of mothballs, an… Continue Reading
The Christmas tree lights were twinkling. Just a minute, they’re not supposed to do that. Then the room was plunged into darkness. Somebody screamed. It was my niece, obviously. The phrase “we won’t make a drama out of a crisis”… Continue Reading
Sitting in his kitchen, the home he had managed to cling onto, staring at an envelope, and wondering how accurately he could guess what the letter said without opening it, Dan settled on something close to “I’m not going to… Continue Reading
Henry wished he had remembered to put on his wristwatch that morning. It was hell sitting in the hospital waiting room with no semblance of how much time had passed. A broken clock hung on the wall, ticking, though the… Continue Reading
My opponent had been sitting at the board for a good half hour, and still hadn’t moved. I shifted uneasily in my chair. There were only two or three moves from which he could sensibly choose, so what was he… Continue Reading
‘Bodmin Beast Body Count Reaches Fifty’. Charley had scrawled the potential headline in her notebook. It was a sensational headline, an alliterative headline, and fifty was a solid, attention-grabbing number. It was, in fact, the kind of headline that could… Continue Reading