Travelling Music
Okay, so doing seventy-five down a narrow two-lane road blasting "Born to Be Wild" from your stereo is a classic cliché. But seriously, can anyone really break the speed limit to Pachabel's "Canon in D?" Besides, it just happened to be on the...
Going Concerns (Chapter 9)
Sinvy had reached the hotel room before they did; as they walked down the hallway toward him, he had his own pocketwatch out. "There you are!" he exclaimed. "You're five minutes late!" "That's it?" Gibson sounded surprised. "We made better time than I...
Going Concerns (Chapter 8)
"I hate funeral homes." Annie trudged behind Gibson up the walk to Barash and Sons Mortuary. In the way of all its kind, the building imposed serenity through artifice. The tastefully understated one-story brick structure _almost_ looked like it could...
Going Concerns (Chapter 7)
"So you're saying _you're_ our original informant." They guided him inside, Annie only letting go of his arm once he'd been guided to the couch and forcibly sat down between them. The Rilima nodded, readjusting his shirt collar and glaring at Annie....
Going Concerns (Chapter 6)
Not having much of a green thumb, Annie had never been to a garden shop, but she imagined them as bright, sunlit spaces full of colorful flowers. Maybe in some room on the inside, the inventively named Charin Street Garden Supply House matched that...
Fixer (Excerpt)
So I'd been thinking of leaving the business. It wasn't that work had dropped off, or gotten much more dangerous. It wasn't that I disliked the area. I was a North Florida native, and I loved all of this crazy state, but the Gulf Coast was my...
Going Concerns (Chapter 5)
"They did a good job cleaning up." Scava had dropped into a crouch to examine the floor right after entering Annie's apartment, just three steps ahead of her. She managed not to trip over him, but made a point of walking around him with exaggerated...
Going Concerns (Chapter 10)
As the three walked in--Annie and Rowell both soaked, the fox bound and bedraggled--Captain Snow dropped the clipboard she held with a clatter. Annie felt a momentary burst of smugness at making the human genuinely surprised, even though she knew it...
Going Concerns (Chapter 4)
Annie couldn't remember when she'd managed to get to sleep. It was before sunrise, at least. Betteridge and Ayalin hadn't asked too many questions of her, and had asked even fewer questions that hadn't already been asked--and answered--with their...
Going Concerns (Chapter 3)
Whatever else she thought of Gibson, Annie couldn't accuse him of coming unprepared. He'd brought a better lockpick set than she owned--well, than the one she _had_ owned, before she'd had to sell it--and had let both of them into Union's office so...
Going Concerns (Chapter 2)
Before last year, Annie had been in Guard stations perhaps once before in her life. After last year, she'd hoped to never be in one again. They'd been unfailingly polite throughout that investigation, which she'd started out appreciating but ended up...
Going Concerns (Chapter 1)
It was at about the halfway point between Islip's Books and her second-story flat in the East Garden district of Raneadhros--as she'd never seen a garden there, she had yet to understand the name--that Annie began to suspect she was being...