Death, especially murder, was always an abstract when you had no connection with the victim, thought Karen. Now that there was a connection, however tenuous, the Strangler had suddenly become real, a...
Yeah, that’s it! There’s these gorgeous paintings on the arches. Now, they ain’t my cup o’ java, mind ya, but it’s gotta be high class, cause one them women’s topless, and ain’t nobody pays her no att...
When someone dies without ever having experienced the joy of it, never really had someone love them in their heart, it leaves…well an ache, an echo if you will. It's a void of regret and sadness that...
Well! I said huffily, doing my best Jack Benny impression.
Sonny had to get rid of her once he found out, of course, but by then he’d already begun to grow weary of her. She was one of those save-the-trees, stop-global-warming, Che-is-cool-and-so-is-Obama kin...
Something about the bright sun shining down on a palm tree gauchely planted next to a dentist’s office gave the whole place an unreality, as though I was living on some movie studio backlot. Los Angel...
Some places, such as Paris, have a magic best experienced for brief periods so the romantic feeling doesn’t become tainted by a day to day reality. But Mykonos was different in that respect. Mykonos m...
She ran her finger along the smooth book cover affectionately, finding comfort in the beautiful words she knew were within. She was privy to love's secrets, and its depth and breadth in a way so few i...
Probably just someone on their way into Tucson, like us. We’d better check it out, though. The Southerner pulled his Winchester 73 from its sheath and laid it across his waist in the saddle. He’d kill...
Many people nowadays don't believe in things, she said softly. Oh, they think they're all special, playing around with witchery and the dark stuff, but real miracles, things that can't be explained aw...
Manners hadn't been whistling Dixie about the disturbances in the cottage, however. He seemed like a stand-up guy, even good enough to warn me about the house before I'd forked over the cash. He was p...
Lamont Chandler. Her face, especially those lovely eyes, filled with amusement. She whispered, Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? I laughed and she couldn’t help but join me. There was so...
I was empty and lonely, unable to remember the last time I'd felt any real happiness, or if I ever had at all. I knew I had seen it a few times in the eyes of others, and in movies made a lifetime ago...
I took the photos with me and heard Lucija making the call. As I closed the door behind me, I caught the scent of death from the patio, carried on the breeze moving the branches of the olive trees.
I had to drive through a very poor and largely Hispanic section of Miami to get to the apartment complex where Casey Martin had died. There were a lot of beautiful women on the sidewalks and at the ou...
I could not imagine a divine hand was involved, but perhaps Frank Lassiter had done enough evil that I was just the instrument being used to give him a shove off this mortal coil — because he wasn’t s...
I became mad for a time, wanting to dig her up just to be certain she was dead. Once, I even had the shovel in my hand. But then I knew I could not let her suffer the indignity of a man who had lost h...
Hill City and Hayward is as close to that area as I’ve ever been. It was a long time back, when it was pretty dangerous. I was on my way to Cheyenne at the time, and in a hurry to get there. I was non...
For months afterward I was numb, almost paralyzed from the shock. I was some emotionless automaton, speaking and answering questions and working, never feeling. My heart was empty.
Even with all Caroline had lost and forgotten, she knew a lot about archaeology and past civilizations. I often wondered if knowing all those things, only saddened her that she couldn’t remember the r...