Evan ran the four blocks south on Commercial until he reached the front door of The Walnut Grove Apartments. Before opening the door, he stopped and took a breath in the vain hope of composing himself and not raising suspicion. He nodded at the desk clerk as he hit the stairs and climbed up to…
The fog had changed from burned orange to ghostly white by the time Evan made his way back to the Agency. He lumbered past Sophie without so much as a hello and entered his inner office. Evan loosened his tie and rubbed his throbbing eyes and temples. A minute later, Sophie charged in, looking helpless….
Back out on the street, Evan noticed the unrelenting fog swirling around the streetlamps as they popped on one by one. He shook his head at this unexplained phenomenon and closed his eyes as the damage from the night before surged momentarily behind his eyes. Evan found the nearest payphone and called The Webster. He…
Evan entered his apartment and met Mrs. Logan on the steps. “Good morning,” Evan said and tipped his hat. Mrs. Logan stared at Evan’s bruised face with disapproval. “I assume the police were here to visit you the other night? I heard all the screaming and scuffling. It was like you were going to come…
The roaring sound of a trash truck rumbling down the street outside brought Evan Gold back to consciousness. However, he lay on the floor for a few minutes longer trying to believe that he was still alive. His eyes seemed quite content to remain shut, but there was a dull ache across his cheekbone that…
When he entered the living room with the two detectives, the sight Evan saw looked like a scene from a second-rate melodrama, perhaps the one Harold had seen earlier that evening. The table by the window had moved several inches to the interior, and the cheap porcelain vase Gold bought at a different flea market…
The air in the apartment stood still. The only sounds were Evan, Claire, and Harold’s breathing, along with the anxious cicadas chirping in the cottonwoods. For a moment, it seemed time halted its progress. Each person stared at the door. Then, Harold hissed under his breath to Evan, “You careless fool!” He took out a…
The inky-dressed stranger led Evan into the living room of Harold’s suite. Evan looked around for Harold and did not see him, but maybe he’d made himself scarce. There were at least two closed doors he could have been behind. “You wanted to talk about the pearl,” the man in black said, sitting in the…
Evan checked his watch. Four o’clock. He would have just enough time to check in with Sophie at the office before meeting Eye Patch at five o’clock. Sophie looked up from her electric Smith-Corona when Evan walked through the agency door. She looked up without moving her head. Her gray eyes peered at Evan from…
Evan made a beeline for the flea market bazaar where he first encountered the pearl. He grew in confidence that if Katherine possessed the pearl and if he could keep everyone’s eyes off Katherine, there was a chance that everything could work out. One question that he couldn’t get out of his head was if…
