“Are you sure you should be making this trip?” Sally asked.
“Nope. But I’m doing it. I saved my frequent flyer points all year to do this.”
…He was determined to fly to Newark, shop at the best Italian deli and stop at Calandra’s Bakery for Italian bread and Italian…
Read MoreLeo sat in the big rig, a blue Peterbilt that had seen better days. The owner-operator was in the line at the Wendy's that was situated at a trucker’s rest stop just off of I-40 about 75 miles from Nashville.
He had been standing near the highway entrance ramp down the road with his thumb out and his expectations…
Spike and Caleb stood on Spike’s tired front porch sharing a cigarette. It was raining, lightly at the moment, but judging by the dark clouds that were heading in their direction, it would soon be raining much harder. He rented two rooms from an elderly couple, who didn’t press him too hard when he was late paying his rent. He hated the place, but it was the best he could do.
"You think he's coming back?" Caleb asked.
"You know what your problem is?" He asked.
"I'm sure you're about to tell me,” she said.
…"You only care about yourself."
…“I knew you’d say that! But I have a different idea. I want to buy a Christmas gift for Grandma.” Ella was especially close to her grandmother. Her grandma always took the time to do things with her; interesting things that made her feel…
Read MoreI was a high school senior, sitting on the couch with my girlfriend Bambi, a name given to her because her mother was at the movies watching Bambi, when her water broke. Bambi hated her name, but…
Read More“Good morning,” he said, a bit louder than normal. He walked up to the solid wooden counter and saw the steam coming from the two coffee pots set on the shop’s back wall. There was no response. He walked through the narrow opening that employees used to get behind the counter and peered at the work space. What he saw sickened him. He’d seen worse in his years working homicides, but still…
Read More“You won’t believe who I ran into the other day, at the airport in Charleston, of all places,” Tom said. He had gone to Charleston to see his daughter.
“We’ve been friends for forty plus years. Why wouldn’t I believe you?” I asked. “You would lie to me?”…
Read MoreSean looked around the condo where he and Jenny Colby were living. His two duffle bags and his huge Samsonite suitcase, all stuffed with his things, sat by the door. Just before dinner, his buddy Josh had helped him…
Read More“This was bound to happen,” Jasper Baker said, as he stood over a dead body, scratching his shaved head. Baker was a police officer who patrolled the streets of Coleman, a tiny town located just 35 miles east of Nashville…
Read MoreArmando Caparelli sat in his spacious home office late one morning in early December, sipping tea laced with anisette. He hated coffee. His consiglieri, Bruno Messina, was sitting in one of the chairs in front of his large, ornate desk going over the previous month’s take. “We broke a record last month,” Bruno said. “We took in more than a million bucks for the first time. Not bad for November, no?”…
Read MoreThe woman was in her late-twenties, but she looked much older. She had the look of someone who had been abusing drugs for a while, most likely methamphetamines. Now she was dead, sprawled out on her filthy couch, dressed only in…
Read More…“We got ourselves a homicide here, first one in almost five years. A 49-year-old woman found dead in her antique shop about 90 minutes ago.”
Conti grabbed his notebook and started writing. He got the woman’s name…
Read MoreThe next day, the Oliveri family got some bad news. The night before, it appeared Jack would make a complete recovery. But by noon the following day, doctors discovered…
Read More“Car 809, there’s been a 319 on Fifth Street and Abington Avenue. Get over there ASAP. An ambulance is on the way.” When Rizzo heard the call, his first thought was Angela. He turned…
Read More…“The houses here are enormous. I don’t think I’d ever be able to give you what you want on a cop’s salary.”
“First, you’d have to know what I want,” she answered. “And, I guess you’d have to…
Read MoreRalph Fortunato was having trouble finding a reliable runner to take Jack Oliveri’s place. The kid was fast, and nobody paid attention to him as he went from the cake factory to the restaurant, to the chicken market, picking up betting slips along the way. Since the kid stopped coming around…
Read MoreAngela and Tony had a great time at dinner. He took her to Nicastro’s, one of the better Italian restaurants in the neighborhood. Tino, the singing waiter, serenaded them. They started seeing each other regularly which gave Tony a chance to spend a little time with Jack. The kid was obviously angry with him...
Read More…Just as the car turned onto Fourth Street, he noticed a kid, maybe 12 years old, racing up the avenue. He was carrying a dingy-gray cloth sack. He stepped in front of the boy to stop him. The kid ducked under his arm and kept running...
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