Bonnie sat at her dressing table staring into the mirror as she tried to insert an earring into her pierced lobe. It was a silver drop earring with round, rich purple, amethyst stones. Her favorite color. Bill gave the pair to her as a “just because” present.
“I don’t go out nights no more,” Ernie insisted.
“Come on,” Charlie said. “It’s a sure thing. If anyone sees us outside the place it won’t be a problem. It’s Halloween night and I got spooky costumes for us to wear. We’ll blend in with all the freaks.”
Dare he go on alone? His friend Jamie was heading on home, and that meant Roger either had to call it a night or continue trick-or-treating all alone. In the dark. Past the old Jackson place.
Sam Winston glared at Sheriff Dave Dark from his perch on the examination table in Dr. Amy Rivera's office. "Sunday morning stick-ups aren't supposed to happen in Pinedale, Sheriff."
"Now don't pop a corpuscle, Sam. Amy's already got enough patching to do on your head. And you’ve still got to give me the robber's description."
Patty stepped off the curb at Second Ave and Fourteenth Street. A bike headed the wrong way crashed into her left thigh. She keeled over. As the biker sped down Second, Patty lay on the street circled by concerned citizens taking iPhone shots and mouthing platitudes. She kept her mouth shut. Did he hit her on purpose? Who cares? He hit her. Two buxom traffic cops took their time disengaging from their cells before strolling over.
My partner Detective Danny Dayton and I stared across the table at Larry Walton in his murdered sister’s kitchen. Apparently, Walton had discovered his sister shot to death in her living room and had then called 911.
“Have you seen my reading glasses, Barb?” inquired Bernie Silver.
“Which of your twelve pairs?” asked Barb Silver with a sigh. Bernie’s wife of thirty years and his business partner in Silver Investigations since the company’s founding five years ago, Barb had fielded this inquiry from Bernie many times. They had met when both were investigators for Alpha Insurance Company.
“You did well in your previous life, my friend.”
Magawa looked up into the smiling face of the King of Rats, who sat in an ancient rocking chair made of teeth-hewn cypress. As he rocked, the Rat King looked at those assembled around, he and Magawa, who thought there must have been hundreds of other rats staring at him.
"I wish you could have met my son," Jessica said. She took a bite of her sandwich. "But he's dead."
I swallowed my own bite of sandwich with difficulty. "I'm sorry to hear that. You only had the one child?"
"Yes. No daughters, either. I always wanted a daughter."
“All we need now is a way to ditch the body,” Phil Lawton said. He was tilting so far back in his chair that he seemed to be addressing the ceiling.
“What body?” Ray Hargraves asked out of pure reflex. He was leaning against the edge of the window, looking out at the street.
