William walked home in the dark feeling stupid. In the downtown residential streets of Brenlee, each block had it's own streetlamp. It was usually enough. On most nights like this one - warm and dry, summer or autumn - the sounds of kids playing late into the evening or muscle cars revving filled the air. Tonight, only the buzz of the high metal arc lamps and a slight breeze. Still, ... +more+
"So, you gonna eat tonight or what?" "Just like that, you're talking about dinner?" "Yeah." William finished off his beer and turned around to get another from Hernandez's refrigerator. "Just like that." "You're as bad as my grandmother." "She a big beer drinker?" "Right. Food. Everything is about food. Feel bad? Have some food. Cold outside? Have some food. Bit by a dog? Have some food." William crossed the living room and folded himself back into ... +more+
They said Gabriel is dead, but they're lying. They hadn't shown them any pictures. They just didn't want to tell all the kids they didn't know where he went. He went to Mexico. He always said he would. He's probably not there yet, but that's where he's going. He probably just got to the Aquaduct way over past Livermore. That's a couple hours in a car, but not as far as ... +more+
"How do you know?" "What?" Neither William nor Hernandez had spoken in the last half hour as they sat drinking beer and watching the Giants struggle against an old pitcher from Chicago who had no business doing so well. "How do you know?" Hernandez asked again. William looked at him, but Hernandez's eyes remained directed at the TV. "How do I know what?" "How do you know it's the same guy? How does Oliveri know? ... +more+
By the time Oliveri left Hernandez's apartment the street lights downtown had come on. He walked down 5th street and turned right on Oak Street and stepped into one of those lights. In any other town Oak Street would be called Main Street, but Main Street in Brenlee was residential except for a church or two. In two blocks he would walk past The Brenlee News store front. He would ... +more+
He makes out the grey shapes on this small black and white television only with some difficulty. He tries to think of it as an enhanced radio. When it is off, he hears only the sound of his dripping kitchen sink. He hoped he would die before he had to fix it again as he had hoped to die before repeating many things. Now. This boy. Another boy taken in ... +more+
"This is for you. From my predecessor." Hernandez looked at the old dusty envelope. It was addressed "The Next Investigator." The return address was a slighly off kilter rubber stamp that said "The Brenlee News" and under it, the paper's downtown address. "I don't get it." "Read it." Oliveri wanted to see Hernandez's reaction to the letter. "Have you read it?" "No, I don't need to." "Why not?" "The old man told me what it said." "Why don't ... +more+
He spotted him from a block and a half away. The round-headed man sat in front of the gated entrance to the 80s prefab apartment building on Walnut Street. He smoked his cigarette looking bored but watchful. William planned on walking right past him with a simple "Hello." The man stopped him. "He's not home yet, kid." William had just raised his right foot to the first step. "Huh?" "You're here to see ... +more+
After ten years of trying to get out of the production room and on to the streets reporting, Charlie Oliveri quit his job at the San Jose Mercury. He and his wife sold their house in Redwood City and used the proceeds to buy The Brenlee News and, with it, Phillip Bergoyan's old ramshackle cottage, then on the edge of town. Oliveri grew up in a small town outside of ... +more+
So he tried to kiss her. Carefully. Slowly. Gently brushing aside her hair, his eyes still closed, at first only rubbing his unshaven cheek against the soft downy skin of hers and then allowing his mouth to fall as if by gravity towards her lips. "No, Billy." "What?" Tamra gripped William's shoulders and leaned away from him. "Let's not confuse things. Not today." He looked into her eyes and knew he didn't have a ... +more+