Harmony Chase

The Maltese Dog, new fiction by Keith Mars, co-author of Big Murder, Small Town.

Publication: November 1st, 2009

It was dark and the streets glistened with the first rain since Reagan was in the White House. I followed her out of the Orient, a flea-pit that survived by putting on old movies and calling it a festival. I glanced down at her body. Her pins had made my blood run hot from that first time I ever saw her, at one of Judge Crawford's excuses for drinking two quarts in public. When she'd walked into my office, it wasn't just my head that throbbed.

She had charm that could talk a gay liberal into putting Rick Santorum back in office. Her laugh flowed over me like a bath of hot fudge before it hits ice cream. I tailed the husband. He was no fool. He wasn't dumb enough to be the one caught cheating. That sucker was me.

I'm not making excuses, but when you spit death in the eye, you look at your priorities, you know, and nailing her shot to the top of the list. I forgot all the other johns I'd bagged, kidding themselves that there was a future in the hotel rooms of other men's wives. I forgot that even lowlife dicks can work a camera when they're getting paid. Four grand to buy Vinnie off was a lot to shell out for one night of bliss.

It was the kid that knocked some sense into me. She wouldn't stick around while her old man played gigolo to a wife who wouldn't walk. A weekend in Palm Springs with a woman who made me feel like a man or a daughter's respect? In the end, it wasn't a tough choice.

I said that it was over and kissed the dame goodbye.