Another Friday sunset and Laura, a few minutes out of the shower ahead of Steve, popped a bottle of wine and made her way out on to the patio. She placed the glasses on the coffee table in front of the wicker settee. They didn't set in two chairs anymore. Either she sat in his lap, or she cuddled up next to him on the settee. Filling the glasses, she straigh...
I was riding my push-bike around a usual circuit I had found some months earlier and had been using to keep my cardiac fitness to an effective level and was enjoying different sections of it as I became more familiar with the hills, rises, berms, which are sharp bends with a sloping surface and I had even found a few jumps to launch myself into. There was o...
Rod Butler, Walt Coors, and I, Bart Upton are black police officers for the Memphis, Tennessee Police Department. Been close friends since we attended the police academy together fifteen years ago. Recently became business partners. We purchased the "Lazy River" motel and lounge just across the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Arkansas. Our place is across...
Chapter 1: The First Time I was 18 years young in the summer of 1988. I lived in an average Midwestern town with my father. I had just finished my junior year of high school and was enjoying the freedom that summer brings to a young single male. My father owned a small but lucrative business in town. I worked there part time growing up and usually spent t...
Susy Wendall took the small piece of paper out of her jean pocket. She looked up at the building and saw that the address matched the address on the piece of paper. Big Robbie's Magic Healing. What kind of business was this supposed to be. She felt awkward and silly coming to a place called Big Robbie's Magic Healing. This was the place Charlie Sanders, an...
"Fishback, you're next." Wearily, I stood up and trudged to the door of the chamber. There was no need to rush. My masters never bothered to train me for punctuality, the fans liked a good dramatic pause, and, after all, I was in no hurry to reach my destination. As I trudged to the airtight door, I glanced ruefully up at a poster on the slick, clean white...
Sometime during Barbara Walters' incessant babbling during the episode of 20/20 she was halfheartedly watching and the start of the 11 o'clock news, Tina Ingle had dozed off with a half eaten bowl of popcorn resting periously on her lap. Around 45 minutes into her impromptu nap, Tina was stirred awake by the sounds of voices in the condo's front yard. Openi...
With a fading purple paintjob, barred windows and a rusting steel door serving as its public face, the Silk Room was quite possibly the sleaziest, dodgiest "sex club" in the city. It had originally been a nude cabaret, right up until the point the owner had lost his stage license due to wardrobe malfunctions happening a bit too consistently for the city's...
The Grey Gull Tavern was an old seafaring inn overlooking the decrepit harbor of Tormaz. Like all quayside inns, it had once thrived on the patronage of fishermen, sailmakers and travelers. Those days were now long passed, the old prosperity having been killed off by piracy on the seas and the construction of a large new port ten miles along the coast. For s...
It was his last day out of town. Eric headed for straight for the hotel bar. "Having the usual?" the bartender asked. "Sure thing, Max." Eric chuckled to himself. "I guess coming here for a week every year for the last five years makes you a regular." Eric glanced around as he nursed his beer. "Looks like the same crowd," he thought. But one person was m...