Segment 9.10

The newspaper buried the story but he had seen it anyway. Ronald Pinkham, survived by no one, except the tattooed lady at the laundry and a few semi-stray dogs, was dead of what seemed to be “foul play.” The police had no comment but they were “following leads.”
“Leads,” he mused, tossing the paper down on [...]

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Segment 9.9

Every minute in the cell made it smaller. The man with the Bible seemed to be almost pressed up against him, even though he was on his own bunk, scribbling notes in the margins. Sydney’s skin crawled.
His cellmate grunted. “I told you, brother. No lawyer worth his license will take up a loser like one [...]

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Segment 9.8

A shorter person had driven the little coupe before. Caleb pushed the seat back, wondering first how he should confront Imelda and then whether he should at all. She hadn’t asked to take the car nor had she confessed to using it. He wasn’t sure when she’d had that opportunity but somehow she’d found it. [...]

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Segment 9.7

One phrase stood out from the police report. “The officer wrote that you started to indicate a lady friend was somehow involved and then you closed down,” Peter noted. “What’s the story? You still haven’t told me where you got this stuff, whatever it was. We won’t know for sure until the lab work is [...]

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Segment 9.6

Usually the waves, the sand, and the sun dominated the view. Sometimes they were blocked out by an especially fetching woman in a particularly flattering arrangement of fabric. This morning, the garbage intruded on all that. Rex Magotti groaned and considered the long expanse of wrappers and bottles and cast-off diapers and condoms. He raised [...]

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Segment 9.5

The squeal of brakes and the thump of something being struck, followed by a crumpling sound, drowned out the words that Sam was forming. Emerald leapt up and covered her ears, wailing “No! There they go again!”
Dinah poised her pen over the papers on her lap as Sam stood, offering his hand to Emmy. Dinah [...]

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Segment 9.4

The coffee would have been too weak, the cream too warm, the eggs too runny. Oscar would have thrown the plate against the wall and that would have just been the beginning of his tirade. Sugar cowered, her eyes wide, as the waitress leaned over her to get the empty toast plate.
“Hey,” the waitress said, [...]

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Segment 9.3

All the pill bottles looked alike. The neat little chart was no help. It somehow made no sense at all. Polly curled and uncurled her fingers as she contemplated the fleet of containers on her dresser. The sound of water rushing in the bathroom startled her out of her dazed slump.
“Lyndsey?” she called.
Bobbi drifted into [...]

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Segment 9.2

The fur coat threw off a warm, musty scent from the sunny front window space it occupied, making it seem even more out of place just blocks from the public beach on a day that would easily draw a crowd of people in tiny bathing suits.
“I’d love to move that,” the clerk muttered. She [...]

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Segment 9.1

Warm earth tones ran all across the floors and walls, taking away even the memory of the cool seas that once flowed all through her mind’s eye, wrapped in the gentle rush of the surf, rocking the baby to sleep.
“You don’t like it, Florecita?” PePé sighed.
“Of course not,” Angel huffed. “It’s not what she [...]

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