"Teach me more about pitch," Allie said the moment Ben opened the door. "Hello to you too." "Is this a bad time?" "I'm expecting Madonna here any minute." "You wouldn’t be this composed." "...
Then again, she'd felt safe in the library too. She had to put that out of her head. She was glad to know Ben. A retired lawyer, Ben had reinvented himself as an eccentric composer of music, an artist, an outsider with th...
Again, upon my return from lunch, another gift awaited me. This time, a large parcel sat on my desk. A label warned that the contents should remain refrigerated. The return address only showed the name of the company. “It’s a gift basket!” Margaret exclaimed. I was relieve...
It certainly wasn't the first time either woman had seen a dead body. It was, however, the first time Allie ever laid her hands on one. The absence of life was a strange sensation. The body had all the physical feeling of a live body, but it l...
Jimmy Welles's yellow Volkswagen Beetle with the one blue fender was sitting atop the mountainous driveway of his apartment, located in the home of Mrs. Virginia Needleman, age eighty-three. Allie's leg muscles screamed when she got to the top...
The All Seasons Sporting Goods and Bait Shop had a mobile sign in its lot declaring it to be ‘Turkey HQ.’ Harvey Crane had strung up one of those lines of colored, triangular flags – the kind you see at car dealerships – along the front of the hardware store. There were even signs of life at a co...
"No longer like the entire world is trying to escape from my stomach, thank you very much." Allie invited her friend in. Del had lost a few pounds and was still somewhat pale around the gills. "You poor thing. Did they ever find ou...
Cat waved to me before taking off. Molly raced up the front steps of the library. “Nope, not there,” I called out. “When we open the library, we use a secret entrance. Want me to show you?” Molly smiled excitedly and rushed back down the steps. Together, we went around bac...