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Government Assistance by M. A. B. Lee

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Disasters bring out the best in people — but that’s not all they bring.

Scam is such an unpleasant word, all phlegmy and in the throat. I prefer to think of my work as art, performance art, if you will. I have been doing it for many years and have developed a level of skill one can only call expert, if I do say so myself.

My presence in Florida at the time of the hurricane was entirely fortuitous. I came down to these sunny climes on the spur of the moment, to escape the chill of the approaching northern winter, and because a stroke of bad luck had brought me to the attention of the Danbury Police Department.… Read the rest

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Shadows by E. J. Togneri

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Appearances can, and will, be deceiving.

In the year 2012, hiring a PI was a luxury purchase, the kind most people had cut back on, an unintentional deferral for cheating husbands and insurance fraudsters. So on that gloomy November day, I welcomed new client Catherine Sigerman to my dimly lit New Brunswick office. A paying gig would give me a break from my own case and cash to probe the shadows.

As soon as Catherine caught sight of me, her green eyes flickered, her shoulders tensed, the hand on her black shoulder bag tightened. I knew the pattern well. When her gaze dropped to my wheelchair, I used the moment to examine her in turn.… Read the rest

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But Not Forgotten by Martin Roy Hill

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That moment that his face I see,
I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tale I teach.
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I didn’t set out to kill Frank Adams because I wanted his money. There was little enough of that left in the family to bicker over, let alone kill for. Besides, I already had gotten everything I could ever want or need from Frank. My wife. His friendship. His respect. I owed Frank Adams more than I could ever repay. And so I decided to kill him.

That Saturday we set out for the marina as we had done each weekend for more than a year, ever since we had placed Frank in the home.… Read the rest

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The Uninvited Spook by C. D. Reimer

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When you’re in the spy business it pays to remember that you’re never off the job, even at a party.

He adjusted the parabolic microphone to aim at the apartment building across the street. The angle wasn’t perfect for this type of surveillance since he had to hide in the shadows of an air conditioning unit under a clear night sky with a rising full moon. With advanced notice, he could’ve gotten a room a few floors below with a better line of sight than this.

With the small binoculars hanging around his neck, he surveyed the apartment at the southwest corner of the building and thirteen stories above downtown.… Read the rest

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The Woman Who Rowed Away by Tom Swoffer

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A former police officer finds a boatload of trouble while looking for a woman who goes missing after a row around the lake.

I was sitting on the deck of my family-inherited summer cottage, nursing my third seven-seven and watching the late afternoon sun setting like a dark purple bruise over the lake, when I first spotted her. Though nearly a hundred yards away, that lustrous yellow bikini instantly caught my attention. Even from this distance I could tell how spectacularly she filled it out.

I had come up here from the city to forget about signing my final divorce papers this morning.… Read the rest

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