The woman screamed again and again, short, shrill screams, as if someone was poking her with a stick. She was a stocky, middle aged woman in hunting camouflage, her face free of make up but her fluffy blonde hair incongruously well-coiffed. Breaking away from the medics who’d been evaluating her, she now stood there right in the middle of the crime scene, her boots planted in a puddle of blood, letting out staccato shrieks and jabbing her finger at the corpse, pulling her hand almost back to her ear and thrusting it forward with each scream. The EMTs hovered outside the perimeter wearing helpless expressions, clearly not wanting to trample potential evidence by fetching her...   read more »

“What I would like, Wish, is to tie you down to the bed and hold a contest with you.”

He looked at her, the candles on the table catching the momentary glitter in his pale eyes. “And what kind of contest would that be if I am tied down to the bed, Agent Cady? I imagine that would put me at quite a disadvantage.”

She grinned at him, fork poised in mid-air. “But that’s the beauty of it. This has nothing to do with strength or physical prowess. It has everything to do with self-discipline and control.”

He dabbed his lips with the dark blue linen napkin. “Self-discipline and control? That would be out of my hands, so to speak, in such a position.”

“Not at all. It’s a game I read about that French working girls would play with their clientele.”

His lips twitched momentarily. “Do warn me, Agent Cady, if you are...   read more »

“Aloysius, I cannot move a muscle like this. I am completely at your mercy. Please be gentle.”

The fine, pale eyebrows go up slightly in surprise. “Gentle? My dear woman, you have my word I will cause you no pain. However, I do believe the goal here is to make you scream.” The soft buttermilk drawl ended in just a warm breath, a whisper in my ear....   read more »

-October 15, 2006-


Heavy velvet drapes covered the windows, blocking the hazy autumn sky of the New York skyline. The forest green lounge seat covered in files and paperwork was empty. A soft indention in the only section free of paper disclosed of a recent occupant. The missing occupant stood in front of the fireplace, with his hands spread delicately across ornate mantle moldings.

Pale milky blonde hair perfectly combed back from his face, only slightly showed the signs of a restless man in need of sleep. Pale blue marred the delicate skin around his eyes. The jacket normally closed at the waist was unbuttoned, hanging around his trim frame like limp wings. His expression betrayed no emotion but pain revealed itself in the depth of his gazing eyes.

Aloysius quietly let out a sigh as he looked into the depth of flickering orange flames. The past few days had felt like...   read more »

Dearest Digi,

You are a very hard man to track down, you naughty scamp! If I didn’t know better I would think you were trying to avoid me!

You can’t imagine how distraught I was when you left our love nest so hastily. I must have cried for nearly two minutes straight! Shame on you for making my eyes puffy, Digi. However I understand how your career requires you to travel at a moments notice, and I know how much your work means to you. Still, a note would have been nice as I have quite a collection of farewell notes from men, and would like for it to be as complete as possible.

I have just gotten back from being an Egyptologist in Egypt. Technically I am there for the ancient manuscripts but it’s always nice when one finds a bone on the side....   read more »

You'll never make stay
So get keep your hands off of me
I know your every move
You can hide nothing, you see
You've tried this shit before
But never so brazenly
You think you're God's gift to man
But you're less than nothing to me

You say that it's ok
As drop down to your knees
You know that you're what I want
You've got the thing that I need
You look up into my eyes
Oh so hungrily
The sight of you makes me ill
Why won't you just let me be

Dirty Viola, Oh
Dirty Viola, Oh
Dirty Viola, Oh
Dirty Viola

Oh, ho

I've met the boys from Man U
They love when you come to town
Some of your biggest fans
They say you like to go down
You wait outside locker room doors
Anxious to get inside
Looks like I'm the only man left
Who hasn't taken a ride

You say that it's ok
I can have you however I want
You'll be my night lovin' thing
You'll be...   read more »

Vincent D’Agosta took another sip of his Bud and let his eyes wonder around the bar he’d ducked into on his way home. It was a cop hangout, decorated primarily with bullet-riddled silhouettes from various firing ranges. He wondered why they didn’t just hang bloody corpses on the walls. The bar also boasted framed (and only complimentary) NYPD headlines from the Times and the Post, some with pictures of bloody corpses. There were also photos of the city’s top cops, past and present, a motley collection of mostly balding, paunchy clones whose faces all seemed to resemble the one D’Agosta shaved every morning. He saw several uniformed cops and several more detectives, and a few women who may have been police groupies. The women sat in pairs, sipping drinks and eyeing the men in uniform like starving cannibals.

One particularly striking woman sat alone, two empty booths from his, sipping...   read more »

The make-shift cell had all the illusions of luxury. It was a spacious room, and if Pendergast had not been shackled at his wrists and ankles, it would have seemed a lovely place.

He was chained to a handsome mahogany bed, wearing a black silk dressing robe. His body was clean, but he had no recollection of how it had gotten that way.

The last thing he remembered was finally losing consciousness after a long struggle in Fosco’s make-shift grave. Someone had saved him, only to imprison him again. It was all very perplexing.

Pendergast tested the strength of his shackles. All of his lock-picking instruments had been unsurprisingly removed from his person, and even his thin wrists were tightly bound by this pair.

On further inspection of his surroundings, the only thing he noticed about the room was how conspicuously bare it was. There were two doors, one presumably leading to a...   read more »