I swung my gun hand, making sure to hit Diogenes hard enough to knock him out and it connected with his forehead. It was only fair, considering what he’d done to Charles. Proctor caught him before he could fall onto me and dosed him with god-only-knew what to keep him unconscious until I decided otherwise. I helped Proctor maneuver him to the wall, where I’d installed shackles the day before.

Dear brother was heavier than I’d expected him to be and Proctor had to help me while I shackled his wrists above his head. I gave him enough slack to take most of the weight off his shoulders but not enough for...   read more »

Sir,

If you are arriving home late this evening, please remember to wash out your own snack plate. Do not leave it for me in the morning as Cheez-Whiz is deucedly difficult to remove after having sat all night in front of a warm fireplace.

I am marketing in the morning. We are out of Ho Ho’s, Newman’s Own Industrial Strength Spaghetti Sauce, and bourbon. Is there anything you prefer that I not replace? Please don’t say the bourbon as you know how you are when we run out of necessities.

Shall I walk Miss Constance in the park today? Yesterday, she tried to push a red-haired Homeless Person under a bus. Thankfully, he bounced as he was rather wired. Made the children cry, however.

As I was cleaning out the backseat of the Wraith, I found a pair of turquoise lace panties balled up in...   read more »

I remember waking cold, wet, shaking all over. And pain. Confusion. Something horrible lurked just beneath the surface of my mind, looming toward realization. Something so horrible that I wouldn’t be able to...

It hit me suddenly. Pendergast, intent on freeing me, trying to accomplish that and watch all the doors and corners at the same time. Me, seeing the approaching danger but able to make only unintelligible sounds through the gag. But it was enough to alert him, and I saw him hesitate for a split second, making the choice to cut my last binding before whirling to save himself. A fatal sacrifice. Not at all surprising, given what I had come to know about him.

I saw the gun being raised, saw Pendergast, rushing low in desperation, toward the point-blank powder burn that would surround the wound that would kill him. I do not remember thinking anything at that...   read more »

I was lying in wait in my parlor, like the spider for the fly. It was a hot, sultry day, but the breeze off the river was gently cooling the house as day faded to evening. I had been waiting all day; no, all week for Special Agent Pendergast to wander into my trap. The wait was so exquisitely painful for me, I was beginning to hope he’d never come. But, alas, the hour came when I heard the discreet rumble of his Rolls. Not the flashy one he drove up North, but the nice black one he kept for his infrequent visits home.

Home. Not entirely home, as he came from the city and the house he kept now was out Metarie way. It was the family’s summer home, the one they would retreat to every summer to escape the heat and poor air in New Orleans proper. Granted, it’s...   read more »

Diogenes sings:

I would not be just a killer
Inspiration for a thriller
A forerunner of woe
(Do do, do do do do do)
I would be Mr. Rogers
Maybe playing for the Dodgers
If I didn’t have a bro.

Not so much an evil genius
Just bursting with the meanness
A scoundrel head to toe
(Do do, do do do do do)
I’d be friends with the kiddies
Sing them cutesy little ditties
If I didn’t have a bro.

Picture me
All bloodlust free
A happily married man
A Laz-z-boy and a minivan
Maybe a kid, not a master plan.

I’d be just another guy
Without a dead blue eye
See colors all aglow
(Do do, do do do do do)
Why, I might be presidential
I would have so much potential
If I didn’t have a bro.

***

Aloysius sings:

I would not be quite so scary
I might even remarry
Or get myself a ho
(Do do, do do do do do)
I’d be something of a sprite
And I’d get laid...   read more »

He hurt everywhere. He had been battling against the pain for some time, willing it away, forcing it from his conscious thought, but now he had nothing left to battle with. He recognized this as fact. His wounds hurt, all of them, his face, his hands. He tried very hard not to move at all, not his head, or his arms, not even to shift his weight. For a while the strategy worked,...   read more »

Lucretia Pendergast sipped her tea calmly. Her eldest son stood before her, waiting for her to finish. Next to her, Cornelia set down an empty cup on a saucer.

The urge in young Aloysius’ eyes was persistent. She set her cup down prematurely, leaving the tea leaves drifting gently in her unfinished drink. “You wish to speak to me, Aloysius?”

“Yes, mother. May I leave the house and take a walk in the forest tonight?”

Cornelia Pendergast smiled slowly, “I have heard the sky will be clear tonight, Aloysius.”

“Yes, ma’am, I am looking forward seeing the stars, if my mother will allow me.”

“Have you spoken to your father about this?” Lucretia Pendergast seemed undecided.

“No, mother. I cannot find him.”

“I see. Then I suppose you may, but be back by dawn.”

“Thank you. Good night, mother. Good night, ma’am,” he bowed slightly to his great-aunt and left.

“He is such a good boy, Lucretia. You are...   read more »

“W, we have to meet. —J.”

The message had appeared on the screen of Pendergast’s cell phone that morning, and now, three hours later, was the first time he was able to run it down. She hadn’t given him any kind of meeting time and he assumed it meant he was free to arrive when he could.

Only one person had ever called him anything beginning with W. And only one person would have signed off with the initial J, especially since everyone else knew her by a different name. He had located her very quickly, of course, in a hotel room near the airport under an alias. Oh, what a tangled web, he couldn’t help thinking. He was skirting other thoughts as he took the stairs to the fifth floor and made his way silently down the carpeted hall to her room. It had been a year or more. What...   read more »