ABERDENE ASKED. SHE WAS SEATED behind her desk. In her hands was a two-foot-long, six-inch-diameter, clear plastic tube. Inside the tube a hundred mosquitoes clung to its smooth surface. “Absolutely,” Jack said confidently, his eyes nervously fixed on the container. He and Archer were seated on a...
I sat in my comfortable chair, behind my comfortable desk in my comfortable office, feeling like a tomato that had just been dropped in a blender. The blades of shock and fear were still spinning, churning my guts and ripping at the few strands of composure I had left. I felt cold. I felt hot. I ...
It sure looks like our truck,” Bill Hobbs said. He took a sip of 7UP from a can. His stomach was still unsettled from the helicopter flight from Mojave to Ventura. He and Tanner were in the small conference room of the Ventura office of the California Highway Patrol. Hobbs had already checked in ...
The days became cooler and shorter, the nights cooler still and longer. David stood on the small walk that led to his front door, watering a lawn with too many brown spots and a ragged edge. Even before he had left for Africa, the lawn had been a challenge. He spent many hours mowing it, trimming...
I can measure the success of any day by the amount of paper and files that I move across its surface. I had finished massaging my schedule, something that qualified as a complete workout in some books, then digested a report from the planning commission on a requested variance for a new restauran...