Border, KS

The interior was darker than it seemed like it should be from the outside. The hallway was only mildly decorated, as if someone said that it should be decorated for guests but then realized that there weren’t going to be any at the secret government research facility hidden in the woods. So it had been […]

The final phone call of the day had been, unexpectedly, from Ashland. Walter hadn’t actually given her his phone number, so that was definitely a surprise—it had come in as a private number which he had ignored, followed by a text message telling him to stop stealing oxygen from the people around him and pick […]

There was a not insignificant amount of unpacking and moving to do, and as a consequence Walter didn’t have to—or, if he was feeling more generous, had the chance to—speak to his sister for almost an hour and a half. He helped Samuel, Margaret’s husband, move in their piano and position it in their living […]

“In case you ever wondered what hell looks like for me,” Walter offered conversationally, “This would be it.” He gestured to the scene in front of him, which to a lay observer probably didn’t resemble fire and brimstone in any sense. It was a relatively large house, certainly larger than the one that Walter and […]

With a suitable bribe, Siobhan was set up with Walter’s personal firearm and one of the SWAT officers as a guide. Part of the bribe had been that yes, Walter would come out and shoot with some of the SWAT team, and in return they also wouldn’t teach Siobhan stupid gun tricks. The Range Safety […]

The phone call had been from the Marshal, and had been asking if he’d any further information. Walter brought him up to speed about the discussion with Reverend Morrison, and they had agreed to meet to discuss the case further. The Border Police Department maintained a training facility on the edge of town, a building […]

“My father had been in the army,” Naomi explained after a moment’s pause for thought. “Like a lot of people he came back not entirely whole from the experience of fighting a war. I imagine that you can sympathize, Detective,” she offered, with a glance at Walter. Walter didn’t feel appropriate interrupting her, but he […]

The garden at the Gethsemane United Church of Christ was just as pretty in the afternoon light as it was in the evening light, but it was a different kind of pretty. In the night, sparkling with lights and candles, it had an almost etherealness to it; in the afternoon it was a more bucolic, […]

Ice cream, by Walter’s insistence, did wait until after lunch. But after what they almost had to call a unhealthy amount of Pho, the two of them pulled themselves through the door of Cream. “Every time I walk in to this place, I’m tempted to shout ‘Phrasing’,” Siobhan confided in her father as they walked […]

“Change in the car,” Lacey said cheerily, as she grabbed her backpack from the front seat. “God knows I’ve done it enough times.” She looked down at her watch. “And we’re not spoiled for other options, if we want to make practice.” Antigone slid in to Monica’s minivan, and slid down to the floor of […]