I inhale it every night before 6 – Courage (my dead lover’s not mine)
I looked at my watch.”5 pm time for the cops to crawl into hiding.” I chuckle. ” I don’t have the luxury of steel bars.”
A long banshee like scream bites into the last flicker of day and the night begins.
Decency’s doors are closed and it’s just me and the bad guys.
I threw the paper down. “Ramping up early?”
“I’ll try to stay decent baby.”
“I know you will Sam.” I heard her voice echo in my head as I inhaled her lily.
***
Another long night banging around in the trashcans of Newcago, I needed a drink.
“A tall soda and a cheese steak at Tony’s sounds like the way to end a night.” I was the only company I kept these days.
I noticed the dame – she was a looker. I couldn’t get a read on the guy beneath the brim.
“Yeah, the regular,” I nodded. Sally and I go back to days when drinks came from the hose in the horse’s mouth.
I couldn’t help but hear dollface coughing then breathing hard. Her face turned blue in the matter of a minute.
Too late to call 911; her beautiful lips were pinched and her brown eyes glazed over.
“The disease squad will be here soon,” I said under my breath.
When I looked back over, I noticed something was missing. The lout she was with had sprinted off. The sparkler around her wrist was no longer sparkling.
“Baby, Newcago is not like life on the farm…” I said to no one. “Playing is for keeps.”
***
I pulled this series up from my 2013 archives. If you enjoy noir (more sepia) crime stories you might enjoy these as I breathe a bit of life through my Covid-19 protection gear into them.