Teaser

 We interrupt this exciting narrative  with a commercial anouncement.

There is much that I might publish, did the extant works but sell.  All on this site, you read for free.    Now here is a taste of a story aimed at those familiar with the apostolic faith.    You can buy the whole thing for less than the price of a beer.  All proceeds go to the Old Detectives Home.  (Myself being the Old Detective.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Murphy Calls-in a Specialist

            Crux sancta sit mihi lux / Non draco sit mihi dux

             Vade retro satana / Numquam suade mihi vana

            Sunt mala quae libas / Ipse venena bibas

                          -- old folksong

It was one of the strangest cases of their entire career.

The client arrived unheralded;  hesitated at the doorway, hand raised to knock upon the open door, but let it fall.  At a nod from Murphy, the elder of the two detectives, she entered,  and found the chair without being shown;  but then paused, as though waiting her turn to speak.

Murphy murmured something, encouraging her to go on.

She looked at him pleadingly;  trying, but not managing  quite to meet his gaze;  and from time to time, for an instant, her sight would be jerked off  to one side, as though briefly engaged in some other room.

One had the sense that she would have spoken softly, slowly, but for some lower-lying source and force of air.  Her speech came in bursts; and at times did crack, and then  for an instant  there issued, like the wolf-sound through the cracked reed of an organ pipe, something that was not her voice.

Finally, she was able to speak.  “I am under attack.”

Murphy flinched, said nothing.  He had never had a case as serious as this.

But Joey plunged in.  “What -- by criminals?”

She half-nodded, shrugged.  Yes, she guessed you could call it that.

“Can you tell us who they are?”

Violently she shook her head.

Joey leaned over and whispered hotly in Murphy’s ear.  “Only one outfit can scare a dame like that: The Mob!”    

The lines tightened around Murphy’s mouth.   They took her name and address, and a smattering of particulars such as marital status (single) and age (41).

There seemed to be nothing more that anyone could say.  The Murphys agreed to take the case.

[To read more, click here.]