Regular Life

Despite Jim Gaither’s disgust with himself, the hooker’s comment and his proclivity toward arousal had him quite at the ready. Nevertheless, he paid her and told her to leave, and then somehow resisted the urge to gratify himself.
Emotionally and sexually spent, he curled up on the bed and lay there repeating, “Frank’s dead,” starting with [...]

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Jim Gaither sat up in bed, wondering. What if I had stood up to the mystery man and immediately called for help? Would Frank Shaeffer have survived? Frank’s kids were grown and out [...]

“Are you still covering for him? I think you got a better look than you’re letting on,” Wilson said.
“No, I swear. I really don’t know who it was.”
——-
Gaither said the killer referred to his “lovely family” when he threatened him. Wall had heard that kind of talk from someone in the plant — Jeff Stivins, [...]

(NOTE: I posted Part 5 on Saturday. If you have not read that yet, then the following will make little sense to you. Of course, if you have read none of it, then start at Part 1. The following is a long post, but I could not resist releasing all of the fruits of my [...]

“Stivins. Jeff Stivins. I’m supervisor for this section.” Then, to his co-worker as they walked toward the door, “Don’t worry, Kay, we’ll get you to a safer, more pleasant place.
That was a weird thing to say, Wall thought.
Now all alone with the dead man hanging slack above him, Wall looked around. In the tank below [...]

Wall knew from his conversation with Max that the 911 call from Timex was wrong. The victim had not been shot. So, why did that little guy Gaither think he heard gunfire?

“Well… I haven’t found anything unusual, as far as murder victims go. White male, approximately 30 years of age, with multiple head contusions and a knife wound in his back leading straight to the heart. Also some contusions on the left shoulder, just below the neckline. Looks like somebody was holding on pretty tight.”
“So was [...]

“It doesn’t have to be you. You know there are lots of people who want your job, and there are other jobs you can get with your skills.”
“You want me to go back to working a beat? Or maybe I could just write parking tickets.”
“Don’t do that, Wall. You’re trying to make me feel bad [...]

“Where the hell is the body?” barked Wallace “Wall” Davies, the detective on the case. He was a tall man, over six feet, with a beer gut nobody could forget. “You folks called and said a man had been shot dead. So where is he?”
“Let’s see. It’s about 12:15. He probably went for lunch,” replied [...]

“The moment you left the back yard, I dashed out the back gate and across the easement. It was swampy back there, and the borrowed boots were quite tight, but I reached her. I told her I saw her from across the way and that she was driving me crazy. I removed my shirt to [...]