Outside Copeland, Idaho
Outside Copeland, Idaho, he walked into a funeral parlor where the air was so dead a dry sadness scraped his skin. He felt the kind of grief that was inescapable. This surprised him. He was rarely overcome by gloom. This time it was tough to shake off. Outside...
Where The Night Scorches The Day
Where the night scorches the day and burns it away, the big signs blaze. Huge videos sputter and flash, beckoning like carnival barkers. Jackpots, jumbo shrimp cocktails and 3:2 blackjack, all ripe for the plucking, packing all the big signs with unimaginable...
Too Fast
Too fast for others on the freeway to approach, let alone pass, she soared as long as possible before traffic boxed her in coming up on the 405. “The woman who came to the party at your neighbor’s birthday that night, the one who arrived late.” asked Nick. “Who is...
When She Awoke
When she awoke, gauzy and warm, she tried not to disengage from her dreams. It would hurt to leave behind the place she had been. The people there had once meant so much to her. She may even have been in love with one of them. So Sarah rolled over, hoping to glide...
Only The Grifters Knew
First came the Mormons, then the railroad and then the grifters. Because they saw what others couldn’t, the grifters were both the most cursed and blessed. What the grifters saw and quickly built were stair steps, never leading up but always leading down. They were...
Trouble On The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
There’s trouble on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Thousands of steelhead trout are suddenly dying. It’s no mystery. The culprit is clear. Like salmon, steelhead trout travel from fresh water to the sea. In this part of California, they migrate down the...
Ivanpah Lake
Ivanpah Lake sparkled like the basepaths of a freshly tended infield. Their BMW X5 floated across the dry lakebed and sliced through an unattended gate at the California inspection station. They raced past Baker and its foul collection of disgusting bathrooms, made...
The Late Checkout
The late checkout was bestowed only after prolonged debate, granted by a disdainful desk clerk who took undisguised delight in exercising his benevolence. In another age, before Pope Pius V shut the racket down, the clerk would have made a fine archbishop selling...
Across The Freeway
Across the freeway they watched the long slopes of Mount Potosi catch the morning’s first sun. Thin ribbons of light fell through the window onto the floor of their hotel room. They each felt as worn as the room’s thinning carpet. “You said his daughter’s apartment...
They Both Lost Interest
They both lost interest at about the same time. Nick couldn’t crack into the Cypriot detective’s laptop. Even when he walked away from the problem, went downstairs to play a few hands of blackjack and returned with a freshened perspective, he couldn’t get in. He...
Requiem For Radio
I found her in Paris I lost her in Rome She always knew best How to light the way home. She always gave back Much more promise than fear Then the tubes all burnt out And there was nothing to hear. You think of her fondly All the lessons she taught All the truths she...
South Of Primm, Nevada
South of Primm, Nevada, soaring across the dry lakebed, they sipped the last of the lukewarm coffee. Nick and Caroline listened to Slaid Cleaves. They raced across the Nevada state line and half an hour later, checked into a hotel just beyond the border of the...
The Highway Call
The highway call swirled up again, droning like a Peterbilt groaning up the slow lane of a long grade. What he heard was unmistakable. The echoes of deeper yearnings bounced off his inner walls. The highway call rarely came from the road itself. Its origins were...
In The Parking Lot At Ralph’s
In the parking lot at Ralph’s on Weyburn Avenue, Caroline tried to get into one of the Cypriot detective’s cellphones. Nick worked on opening the purloined laptop. Neither made progress. Shortly after midnight, they decided to take a break and resume with the...
Outside Monticello, Utah
Outside Monticello, Utah the front right tire blew out. Then the van taking the oil and gas industry lobbyists to their conference at the lodge sailed off the road. At the San Juan Hospital, the sole survivor briefly regained consciousness. He described the van’s...
Farther Down Kingsley Drive
Farther down Kingsley Drive a massive orange fireball suddenly lit the sky. Nick and Caroline heard the first narrow crack of the explosion, then the broader dull echoes of the blast which bounced between buildings on the narrow street. Farther down Kingsley Drive, a...
Shakey’s Pizza On Sunset
Shakey’s Pizza on Sunset was short on critical acclaim but you couldn’t help but admire its longevity. Fifty years and counting. Nick and Caroline were in Shakey’s parking lot. “He’ll have another phone with him to track his devices,” said Nick. “I don’t think we...
Never On Kingsley Drive
Never on Kingsley Drive had such intrigue unfurled so quietly. It was as if a trance had captured the street. Caroline left the apartment building pulling what Nick recognized as the Cypriot detective’s luggage. A backpack was slung over her left shoulder. She...
