From "Artifacts"

    She was waiting for him to come back, content in the knowledge that he would not. She was waiting because it gave her an excuse to not do anything else, and so that, later, she could say that she'd waited. Watching headlights ... (read more)

The Park Avenue Hovel, page one part 2

This goes, straightforwardly enough, between page 1 and page 2.     The house had been built on cattle speculation money, Horace Aloysius Yarbough's second fortune, after the railway came through in 1886. He'd won and lost his ... (read more)

The Park Avenue Hovel, page six

    Michael had spent half an hour that morning getting the blood stains out of the pillowcase. The nosebleeds worried him, he couldn't deny it, but there were other things that occupied his attention: the question of whether the ... (read more)

The Park Avenue Hovel, page five

    "I seem to recall asking you a question, earlier." Head at the foot of the bed, Gwen wiggled her toes in the pillows and propped herself up on one elbow, casting her eye up toward Adrienne, whose hair was silk against ... (read more)

The Park Avenue Hovel, page four

    In April of 1924, a fire had started upstairs, an accident stemming from an unattended curling iron. It hadn’t done much structural damage, catching mostly on the rugs and wallpaper, but three rooms had been gutted and all ... (read more)

The Park Avenue Hovel, page three

Cont'd from last page He lay alone in it, one stranger to another,and felt himself relax, heart slowing and harsh breathing quieting as he let the nightmare, feeble product of his unaided imagination, out of his system. The air conditioning ... (read more)