Cry Me a Murder (Part four) : A Strange Crunching Underfoot
That night I played in the hotel bar. I played the guitar and a local musician by the name of Raymundo joined me on the keys. Going by the impromptu stage name of Sunny Dan and the Rayman, we played a bunch of jazz standards right out of _the Real...
Cry Me a Murder (part five): Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Demon
The circumstances leading to the death of Jack Tell was the subject of excited conversation and idle speculation around the breakfast buffet. I soon got the impression, he was not well-liked among the other hotel guests and staff. Slater described him...
Fallen Angels, Part six - Murder in Mind
Chapter Five Murder in Mind The tiny traveling _Circus Mascot_ was part circus and part freakshow, all mixed up. The performers traveled across the country to entertain towns large and small, with their acrobatic acts, freaks of nature and...
Fallen Angels, Part Nine - Sing me a Song, Dead Girl
CHAPTER EIGHT - SING ME A SONG, DEAD GIRL When Oscar Peterson played The Phantom Cat in 1986, a young Jesse Juliano captured a photo of him. He framed it and hung it on the wall, next to the upright piano. Peterson is all smiles, wiping sweat...
Cry Me a Murder (part seven): Only a Scream Away.
Hotel Kisanti was without electricity. The lights were out, the whooshing of the ceiling fans slowed and rattled like the exhale of a dying man. The industrial freezers thawed, endangering the shelf-lives of a thousand dollars' worth of ice cream. The...
Havana or Hell, part two
III Some times, when I lie awake, I feel like I'm a tiny pinprick, floating in an endless void. It's a physical sensation, but not linked to any of the usual five senses, and the feeling disappears as soon as I open my eyes. It's accompanied by a...
Fallen Angels, Part Four - Can you Pet a Phantom Cat?
Chapter Three Can You Pet a Phantom Cat? The bottle of Bourbon was missing from Dr. Gill's office. When I arrived at the hospital, Quinn was staring intensely at the blank spot on the desk, as if he tried to make the bottle reappear by will...
Fallen Angels, Part ten - Epilogue
Fallen Angels Epilogue The moment Crane fell to the floor, the door lock clicked open, and Quinn and I dashed headlong into the corridor without looking back. "They're trashing the lab," panted Quinn. "They won't stop raging until the ARF wears...
Havana or Hell, part three
V "Tell me, Mr Kent Do you hear voices right now?" I nodded. "They are hiding in the traffic noise." "Can you describe them to me?" "Man and woman, both sound young and old at the same time." The psychiatrist and I were in a small office in the...
Havana or Hell, part six
XI Kendall Duran's company, _EnDurance Games_ was registered to an address in Warrington, fifty miles west of Oakfort. I searched the Internet for the address of anyone named Kendall Duran, and found three by that name. One had a dentistry practice in...
Fallen Angels, Part seven - See Daniel Run. See Daniel Kill
Chapter Six Desmond Crane was an impressive looking man in his late forties. His hair was gray around the temples, same color as his eyes. He wore expensive shoes and a cheap shirt two sizes too small. _He lives alone_, I realized. _Same as...
Fallen Angels, Part five - Night is the time for Killing
Chapter Four Night is the time for Killing Inspector Quinn loves coffee. Cappuchino, espresso, cortado - just give him a decent cup of joe and he'll love it with a passion that makes you suspect him of being secretly French. Only, I don't have hard...