“Why are you telling me all this, Ms. Choknok? I had heard–“ He hesitated. She stood up and brushed off the seat of her pants. “You had heard that Kelly McCormick was my blue ticket out of Newenham.” “Well, yes.” She offered him a chilly smile. “He was. My parents are so scared…
“Where was the trial?” Her smile was approving. “Right here in Newenham.” “Acquittal,” he said. “You got it. Just like last six cases where anyone could be bothered to bring charges. Probably one out of every two jurors from a panel generated from this judicial district is thinking to himself, There but for the grace…
Liam went back to watching the sky. Either everyone had slowed down or in the short space granted to him he had adjusted to the pace of the job. He felt like someone had switched him from 45 to 33 1/3. Everything took on a dreamy, slow motion quality. There was plenty of time to…
Read more And then there is the herring spotting. Poor Liam.
“They busted me down to trooper,” he said. “Just before they transferred me here.” She said slowly, “That’s what you meant yesterday, when Corcoran called you sergeant, and you said no, just trooper.” “Yes.” “What happened, Liam?” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Buck stopped on my desk. Barton was right to do it.” He…
Liam rifled through the various statements he’d taken at the airport the day before. Nobody saw nobody doing nothing, he reflected sadly. At a conservative estimate, culled from Gruber’s statement, at the time of Bill DeCreft’s death there had been at least ten small planes in the act of landing or taking off, one…
The Old Fart was a foot shorter than the trooper, which he rectified by hoisting himself up on a stool. He turned to Liam and stuck out a hand. “Moses Alakuyak, shaman.” His beer and Liam’s single malt arrived. Moses held out his bottle of beer and Liam clinked his glass against it. “To women,”…
It hadn’t taken them long, once they got him inside; the man who had been separated from the rifle was seated in a chair and immobilized with enough bright yellow polypropylene line to restrain King Kong. He was maybe thirty years old, five-eight, thickset, with matted brown hair and terrified brown eyes that stared at…
…he went in the door of the bar, from which he promptly came staggering out backward, falling down the stairs and and landing with a thump on the pavement, fanny-first. “What the hell?” He looked up just in time to see a tangle of bodies roll down the steps and right over the top of…
Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. —Robert…
