Nice Things by Conrad Person
Daddy don’t smoke, but he don’t fuss about it. Live and let live, he says. But Daddy don’t like the man chain-smoking at the Steelworker’s Labor Day Fireworks. He says it’s inconsiderate with kids around. Smokers should go to the third base line where a dozen men stand smoking, spitting and telling bad stories. The […]
Witness by Conrad Person
Usually it’s the fiery women who drag you into trouble, but this one was round faced and small breasted and of that age where a woman must choose between a nice face and a nice ass. She had a nice ass. The face was overfull and heart-shaped like a February candy box, only it was […]
The Thief at Christmas by Conrad Person
Every Thanksgiving the Star-Ledger runs a calendar of community theater holiday shows. There must be a dozen Handel’s Messiah sing-a-longs, just as many versions of The Nutcracker, plus the undisputed champ of holiday tearjerkers, A Christmas Carol. These are the kind of shows that the whole family attends and in my line of work this […]
Suspicion by Conrad Person
Before I agreed to tail his wayward wife, I wanted to know Erroll Cunningham wasn’t the killing type. Actually, he was more the corporate type, smallish, forty-ish, and polite. He suspected his wife was cheating and he looked like the kind of guy you’d expect to be cheated on. If you’re a private detective in […]
Young Jessup by Conrad Person
Old Jessup was lying in a well, if hurriedly finished casket made of yellow pine cut from his own property, and sawn at his own mill. However, the whiskey that his heir poured for his neighbors was store bought and expensive. Young Jessup and his lady were used to Philadelphia society, and wanted to bring […]