Inviting
Inviting 2026 At first he spoke so softly I had to lean in close to hear him. His speech was lightly accented and formal, with a faint suggestion of something inviting in an illicit way that intrigued me. There was nothing condescending about his manner and to the...
Cautious
Cautious 2025 Mr. Aziz gave me a practiced nod, cautious and restrained as if attached to well-worn reins. He smiled softly, seemingly in approval of the intentions of this waiting room décor. I invited him into my office where he continued to take stock of things,...
Persian
Persian 2025 One morning shortly after I moved in, Mr. Aziz came to my office and carefully surveyed my efforts at decoration. The Persian rug from my father’s study fit nicely in the waiting room. Four dark leather chairs were grouped on opposite walls with a small...
Khaled
Khaled 2025 I first knew Khaled Abdel Aziz as a landlord, then as a client and finally, after accompanying him through shadows, deceptions and blood, as a friend, the most unlikely of friends. In 1974, wedged between late winter’s rain and late spring’s marine layer,...
Unassuming
Unassuming 2025 In unassuming offices prosperous enterprises may be easily masked. Conversely, in more impressive offices in more fashionable or august neighborhoods, the showmanship required from tenants to display the trappings of success could be difficult to...
Clandestine
Clandestine 2025 My second floor neighbors were an insurance agent, an immigration lawyer, an accountant and my landlord. I had the feeling none were especially skilled or prosperous. Whether their clandestine careers were ascending or descending was difficult to...
Armenians
Armenians 2025 Armenians were starting to move in and forty year old apartment buildings, once home to aspiring screenwriters, and afterward industrious Hispanics, were again in transition. My office was a second floor walkup on the north side of Sunset. The four...
Raffish
Raffish 2025 With a plump out of court financial settlement and a full head of steam I was issued my California private investigator license. I set up shop on the eastern fringe of Hollywood in a two story building on Sunset and Normandie, a neighborhood appreciated...
Riven
Riven 2025 Showgirls and strippers, card sharks and grifters, Hopes shatter like a thousand champagne flutes. Conventioneers cast upon the desert, losers on arrival, exposed, lost and alone. Cockiness collapses on green felt tables. Terrified to make the phone call...
Andante
Andante 2025
Snakebit
Snakebit 2025
Lane Change
Lane Change 2025
Whirling Falsehoods
Whirling Falsehoods 2025
Backroad Redemption
Backroad Redemption 2025
Silk Set Ablaze
Silk Set Ablaze 2025 It was late when we pulled off the highway into the Desert Sands Motor Lodge. The neon vacancy sign warbled in a frenzied staccato rhythm, a welcome promise of imminent rest. In the office, the radio with the Dodgers game was on and it was an...
Solar Storm
Solar Storm 2025
Abundant Angels
Abundant Angels 2025 She told me you don’t have to go to church or believe in God to believe in angels. “They appear in Zoroastrian scriptures from Persia and also in the Hebrew Bible. Hundreds of years before Christianity angels are floating about.” I asked her if...
Empty Air
Empty Air 2025
