From nowhere, it seemed, Michael Seltzer swore. The green Land Rover bore down upon Michael with a loud rumble. There was no time to understand the events unfolding. Instinct took hold and most likely saved him from an instant, gruesome death. A moment earlier, Michael had stopped within sight of a favored coffee shop. To […]

“Where is Monica?” asked the stern old woman. Elisabeth turned slowly in the direction of the raspy, irritating voice. It was a humid late-summer day in 1978, and Elisabeth wiped the moisture from her brow as she leaned in toward the woman. In a hushed tone, Elisabeth replied, “She is just there, behind her father’s […]

With a pang of regret, Elisabeth walked up the stairs. Through a fog of alcohol, Elisabeth made the way to her room at the Banes-Flatt B and B after fully reading the distressing email she had received as her evening with Michael was winding down. She had been considering making the evening with him last […]

“Mr. Meeks?” Elisabeth asked as she entered the room. Huntington was feeling more than hearing a soft feminine voice. The sound, almost a humming melody, was the low-energy frequency of a familiar voice he could not quite place. He sensed the honeyed tone was not part of the dream he had been experiencing—or its continuation. […]

“You are back early, Michael,” said Mrs. Neil. Michael ducked his head through the low doorway and into the kitchen of the Banes-Flatt, where the stalwart owner of the old B and B sipped her morning tea. She sat on a tall wooden chair beside a well-worn butcher block, teacup in hand. A small pot […]

“Is the charge set, George?” shouted Horace. George ran from the oil derrick, down a slight slope, and toward his friend and business partner, Horace Meeks, a sparkling gleam of hope in his eyes. The sun of that warm spring morning in southwestern Oklahoma was just clearing the distant treetops. The year was 1911. In […]

“Well, get back out there, man,” Breem commanded. Nicolas’s boss, Walter Breem, was still in London, and Nicolas hated it when the old man was in a yelling mood, which was occurring often lately. And he hated England. Nice one day, crappy the next. Even sunny one moment, rainy the next, he thought. He wanted […]

“Disappointed? Hell, I’m disappointed,” said Ned Bolting. It was 1985, and Huntington Meeks and his good friend Ned walked side by side along a dirt track behind the Meekses’ manor house and beyond the well-manicured gardens. “You were the senior US senator from Alabama, Ned. What brought you to San Francisco? Tell me again. I […]

“It has been a long day, Mrs. Neil,” said Michael. After his phone call to the police inspector about any kind of update on Elisabeth, Michael set his cell phone down on the table when Mrs. Neil walked in. He was the last person in the dining room, and he knew Mrs. Neil was hoping […]

“Eric, my friend, how are you?” asked Michael. Michael listened for a few moments to his Belgian friend’s customary monologue of opinions on the state of American politics. Their phone calls, texts, and emails often began this way. Michael was well aware of his friend’s conservative views and would normally and politely let him go […]

“Get the woman up. We’re leaving,” Breem growled. Nicolas heard the connection go dead, held the phone out for inspection, and shook his head. “Yeah, Boss, no problem.” With this sudden order from Breem, he rolled over on his bed, kicked at his partner on the other double-sized bed, and looked across the room to […]