The flight from Birmingham to Vienna wasn't full—at least business class wasn't. Trent had been told to avoid any of the London airports in proceeding to his next assignment and that had paid off in terms of how crowded the flight was. This had at least one other benefit as well. A cute little flight attendant, looking much the same as Trent—passing at firs...
Alfons delivered another tankard of beer to the well-dressed gentleman seated at the best table, near the fireplace. It still ranked as the best, with the most substantial chair, even though the table was functionally only the best in the winter, when a fire was going, not now, in high summer. When he set the beer down, the man grabbed Alfons's hand and didn...
"Are you sure this is the address?" Lars Krieger asked, as the hotel car stopped in front of a massive, carved-wood, two-panel door in an otherwise blank concrete wall on Bangkok's Soi 51 Sukhumvit. The road was narrow, almost an alley, it seemed, to the young German engineer, with one, long stuccoed wall running down its full length on each side with doors...
I picked my way through piles of corrugated tin, broken toilets, and lawnmower parts and came to a halt when I saw the blue uniforms and the wheel-less old Lincoln Town Car, with the smashed-in engine compartment, sitting on concrete blocks. Mullins had said it was an Inevitable Case when he'd called me, but I'd never get used to seeing the various ways that...
After practice for that night's performance and a shower, with Trent walking somewhat gingerly after his fantasy night at the Brazilian's command—the walk a bit wavering even though the ship was now steadily docked at the Nassau cruise line pier—Trent found himself gravitating back to the Schooner Bar for the prenoon jazz set of Dean and Buzz. By all rights...
I think it was the rumble of the engines of the Air France S.O.30 Bretagne commercial airliner flying into African airspace, reaching out for a landing in Bamako, Mali, that brought up the memory as I dozed. Or maybe it was my returning to Africa for the first time since departing from Morocco for the Anzio Invasion eight years previously. Or the images surf...
Jacket Lost It was the first time I'd worn the jacket and I'd lost it. I had other jackets, but when I'd gone out the day before, I'd decided this one would be best to wear, and I was right. The temperature in Paris was changing, and there was a great variation between late morning and mid afternoon. It was too nice out to want to go to indoor cafés. The Pa...
[This is a completed four-chapter story that will post within ten days] ***** He should have known. He should have known that Hal Etheridge wouldn't have had him brought to a fleabag hotel like the Downtowner on 14th Street. Etheridge wouldn't be in a place like this. Chaz and Fred, two of Etheridge's minions—goons, really—had met Jason at the elevators on...
[This is a completed three-chapter story and will finish posting by the end of June.] Avery and Dominick Avery moved faster than he normally would have from the jewelry store toward the men's department of Dillards, in Richmond's Regency Square mall. It had taken longer to buy the Gucci watch Dominick had been bugging him for months. Not just any watch wou...
The dimly lit room showed every sign of transition toward desertion. The closet door was open, the closet empty, other than two sad-looking wire hangers. Two drawers of the bureau were pulled out. Both were empty. Clothes once tucked away in these recesses were strewn on the two chairs in the room and hanging on hangers from the top of the closet drawer. One...