The Alibi (A John Chance Mystery) – Chapter 43 Section V Mega Chapter 2 (part 1)

You thought Chapter 42 Mega Chapter 1 was long? It was 14k on disk. Chapter 43 Mega Chapter 2 is 41k. I’ll break it up across several posts.

Lucky you, huh?

Chapter 43 Section V Mega Chapter 2 contains what were chapters 44 (remember, renumbering applies), 50 (you never saw it), 45 (renumbered, uh-huh), 48-49, a completely new scene, parts of 51, 47, and 46, none of which you’ve seen.

I think.

The Alibi – Chapter 43 Section V Mega Chapter 2 (part 1)

 
Penny kept her eyes closed and stretched her legs and arms under the covers. She loved her soft mattressed, king-sized bed. She slept naked because the feel of the lightly perfumed midnight blue satin titillated her. Plus, he preferred her in the nude. Sometimes he came in so hungry, so aggressive, so possessive. He didn’t need to be teased. He was always calm. On the outside. But when he was alone with her in the dark? He unleashed something…not quite brutal. Demanding. That was it. Demanding.

She liked him that way.

Her feet bumped something at the foot of her bed.

And her arms, outstretched, hung over the sides of her bed.

And the sheets didn’t feel right.

Whatever stopped her feet at the foot of the bed shifted. “Good morning, Ms. Lane.”

She opened her eyes, inhaled deeply and stopped. Felt like something clogged her lungs and it took three good breaths before she could clear them out.

The speaker was male, white. Late middle age – early senior male. Somewhere near retirement if not slightly past. Clean shaven. Nicely tanned. Dusty brown hair going to gray on the sides. Posh clothes. Silk tie. Great smile under bright gray eyes.

He sat on the foot of her bed facing her.

She catalogued the room. Not hers. Not his. Not one familiar to her. Not quite sterile but common. Like a dorm room. Or a two or three star motel room. She’d been in one once and decided guys who could only afford such rendezvous weren’t worth her time.

A dollar-store vanity over a dollar-store bureau.

Or something like it

A door off to the side and another on the far wall.

Sterile. The walls were a floor-to-ceiling industrial beige. No TV, no radio. A desk but no phone.

Maybe ten-by-twelve feet? No windows. Nowhere near a Brazilian prison cell but what she remembered of one still gave her the chills. This place had the same look if not the feel.

Briggs got her out of Brazil with one phone call. She’d call him now. Put a stop to this.

Where was her phone?

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Previous entries in The Alibi (A John Chance Mystery)

Lighthouse now in Carmina

As always, I’m thrilled my work is honored, appreciated, and published.

My tone poem, Lighthouse, appears in the March 2024 issue of Carmina.

There is a great joy when my poetry is published because I in no way consider myself a poet even though I love the form and have studied it often. My first published poem was back in the mid-late 1980s, an ode to Susan (wife/partner/Princess) when we were having some difficulties.

I’ll have to dig it out and see if anyone’s interested in publishing it.

Regarding Lighthouse, it came to me over several days and I wondered what it was about because I wrote it disjointedly and pretty much line by line; a line here, a line there, and often hours or days between scribblings.

In any case, hope you enjoy.

A Tale of Two Pups

Last week it was Rabbit, this week it’s Coyote.

Probably because it’s that time of year.

The Wild wakes (not that it ever sleeps) and everyone comes out parading their young.

Kind of like an Easter parade, don’t you think?

And Easter…that christian new life/resurrection thing, that coming out of the cave, out of the earth, out of death, the big sleep as it were…

Why do you think the church decided Easter coincides with Spring?

Everybody honors The Wild even when they don’t mean to.

Announcing RoundTable 360°

What makes creative people creative? What goes on in their minds that causes the ideas they put on the screen, in their books, their poems, their music, on a stage, in their songs, in a dance, on a canvas, …? Does the same blood pump through their veins as pumps through ours? What happened in their lives that causes them to express themselves the way they do? What drives their souls to shape worlds with their words, their brushes, their notes, their voices, their bodies, their steps?

Long ago and far away there were two TV shows which captivated me. One was Steve Allen’s Meeting of Minds. The other was Wim Kayzer’s A Glorious Accident. Sitting in the presence of people previously only known to me as names thrilled me. Listening to their discussion — not arguments, discussions! — of matters great and small enthralled me, and I’ve hungered for such a forum ever since.

 
Now that forum has a name and a place – RoundTable 360°. Each month a rotating panel of #actors, #writers, #dancers, #singers, #photographers, #mixed-media artists, … share, question, explore.
Come join us. Come grow with us and help us grow. Listen, learn, and share. We are all a Great Becoming.

Become with us.

That Th!nk You Do is now an audiobook

That Th!nk You Do, my first title with Northern Lights Publishing and published Jan ’23, is now available as an audio book.

Northern Lights’s A-Team had many discussions about going the audio route, and several audio providers (of course) leapt forward explaining how they’d do the best job.

Already having one audio book failure with a previous publisher, I was skeptical.

In the end, Northern Lights went with Amazon’s native ACX system for several reasons (which they’ll explain). The chosen narrator, Nicholas Torres, did an excellent job.

I also have some promo codes available, and the next five people to become members of this blog will get one.

And as always, thanks for your support.