Songbirds: A Langston Pierpont Mystery

By C.B. Calsing

In this short story, Langston Pierpont finds himself on another...odd...case. This time, a seductress needs him to bring her sister home, and Langston has no power to refuse her. What the sister is up to, though, proves to be as big a shock as who the sisters are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CCE Publishing
• Release date: Nov 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311747853

C.B. Calsing

C.B. Calsing was born and grew up in the small Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo, California. As a child, she spent long hours composing stories and plays. Half-way through her junior year in high school, she left to attend Cuesta Community College, where, after a few years of study, she received her associate of arts degree with honors. Following that, she transferred to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. There, she completed her bachelor of arts in English. She took a year off, traveled to Indonesia and Ireland, and then decided to return to school to become a certified English teacher.In 2002, fresh out of her studies, Mrs. Calsing and her future husband moved to New Orleans. Mrs. Calsing has worked in the field of education throughout the Greater New Orleans Area for the last eight years. In 2004, she married. Following her evacuation from Hurricane Katrina, Mrs. Calsing returned to New Orleans and began her master of fine arts degree in creative writing, fiction, at the University of New Orleans. She completed that in 2009. Now, she teaches gifted students and writes when there is time.“To Wade Alone,” a story from her collection All Along the Pacific, took second place in the On the Premises “First” contest in June 2009. Her work has appeared in college literary journals, guerrilla zines, and on Web sites. Her work also appeared in anthologies such as An Honest Lie Volume One and Things We Are Not, a collection of queer science fiction.Her two favorite genres to write are historic and science fiction, probably because both allow her to visit worlds different from her own.

Book preview

Songbirds

A Langston Pierpont Mystery

Published by C.B. Calsing at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 C.B. Calsing

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* * *

Langston stared up at his window, the aching in his shoulder momentarily forgotten. Why the hell was a light on in his office? He pursed his lips. No doorman to keep people out of the rundown, cold-water walkup, so it couldn’t be entirely unexpected, but still…

From somewhere above, among the new electrical lines that crisscrossed the street, he heard a song bird. Odd. Night time, and too early in the season.

Langston glanced up and down the street, not quite sure what he looked for, but still feeling the need to get an impression of the situation, make sure he wasn’t walking in on something bigger than he expected. He’d been pretty good keeping out of trouble lately, so he didn’t think anyone would be out to get him, but still… He saw no signs of anybody waiting or casing the building, so he took the last few steps to the front door. Langston pushed inside and headed up the flight of stairs to his rooms. The hallway lay in darkness, but he knew it well enough to walk confidently. He stopped a few feet from his own door.

Opened just a crack, it allowed a sliver of yellow light into the dingy hallway. Langston thought about the old, rusty revolver in the top drawer of his desk. He wished he had it on him. At least he could have thrown it in self-defense.

He crept toward the door, trying to avoid the squeaky boards in the floor. Generally, he liked those because they warned of anyone approaching from the outside, but right now he wanted to avoid that. Better to get the first glimpse of the invader rather than the invader getting the first glimpse of him.

He stopped and peered through the crack between the door and the jam. He saw no indication of a visitor. Should he risk pushing the door further open or…? He listened as best he could. Breathing? Pacing? Anything?

Nothing.

Then his desk