Nighthawks

By Joseph D'Agnese

(Note: "Nighthawks" is a short story that is also available in the larger collection, Daggyland #1, by the same author.)

*

Two men, a woman, and young soda jerk find themselves alone in a New York City diner in the wee hours of the night.

Why are they there? What are they saying? What are they doing?

The artist Edward Hopper first imagined this scene in 1941. Now comes a story that imagines what really happened on that fateful night.

This short story first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

*

“D’Agnese writes the most unusual and interesting books.”—Bookviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph D'Agnese
• Release date: Mar 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781941410165

Joseph D'Agnese

Joseph D’Agnese is a journalist and author who has written for children and adults alike. He’s been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Discover, and other national publications. In a career spanning more than twenty years, his work has been honored with awards in three vastly different areas—science journalism, children’s literature, and mystery fiction. His science articles have twice appeared in the anthology Best American Science Writing. His children’s book, Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci, was an honoree for the Mathical Book Prize—the first-ever prize for math-themed children’s books. One of his crime stories won the 2015 Derringer Award for short mystery fiction. Another of his stories was selected by mega-bestselling author James Patterson for inclusion in the prestigious annual anthology, Best American Mystery Stories 2015. D’Agnese’s crime fiction has appeared in Shotgun Honey, Plots with Guns, Beat to a Pulp, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. D’Agnese lives in North Carolina with his wife, the New York Times bestselling author Denise Kiernan (The Girls of Atomic City).

Book preview

Nighthawks

Nighthawks

A Short Story

Joseph D’Agnese

Nutgraf Productions LLC

NIGHTHAWKS

Published by Joseph D’Agnese at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014 Joseph D’Agnese

NutGraf Productions LLC

First digital edition: March 2014

Cover design by GoOnWrite.com

---

Nighthawks first appeared in the April 2014 issue

of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

---

This e-book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced in whole or in part, scanned, photocopied, recorded, distributed in any printed or electronic form, or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without express written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

josephdagnese.com

In this e-book

Nighthawks: A Short Story by Joseph D’Agnese

Two men, a woman, and young soda jerk find themselves alone in a New York City diner in the wee hours of the night.

---

Why are they there? What are they saying? What are they doing?

---

The artist Edward Hopper first imagined this scene in 1941. Now comes a story that imagines what really happened on that fateful light.

---

This unsettling short story first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

To learn about special offers and events, and to claim your free e-book, sign up for the author’s newsletter

.

Nighthawks

Her I. Millers clopped along the sidewalk. She’d paid a mint for them—a whole twenty-five dollars. They were snazzy stompers with heels and straps, and when she’d bought them she imagined herself sitting in nice restaurants drinking shimmering cocktails, not hidden in the closet of such places, checking coats all night.

She slowed when she reached the diner at the corner of Greenwich Avenue. The place was almost entirely sheathed in glass. A cool, fluorescent triangle jutting onto the sidewalk. Two men sat in inside: a customer and a soda jerk dressed in white. Pale yellow light spilled