The Last Crooked Paths: A 5 Story Collection: Crooked Paths, #3

By Dale T. Phillips

Here are five more tales of crime and mystery, telling of those who walk crooked paths and pay the price for it. Here are crooks and cops, killers and victims, and those who walk the line between good and evil. Take a few short trips down the darker side of life, where crime can be a casual or planned event. This set of stories shows people on the run, and police and ordinary citizens solving crimes. Sometimes the perpetrator gets away, but so often people pay for their deeds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Genretarium Publishing
• Release date: Nov 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386172710

Dale T. Phillips

A lifelong student of mysteries, Maine, and the martial arts, Dale T. Phillips has combined all of these into the Zack Taylor series. His travels and background allow him to paint a compelling picture of a man with a mission, but one at odds with himself and his new environment. A longtime follower of mystery fiction, the author has crafted a hero in the mold of Travis McGee, Doc Ford, and John Cain, a moral man at heart who finds himself faced with difficult choices in a dangerous world. But Maine is different from the mean, big-city streets of New York, Boston, or L.A., and Zack must learn quickly if he is to survive. Dale studied writing with Stephen King, and has published over 70 short stories, non-fiction, and more. He has appeared on stage, television (including Jeopardy), and in an independent feature film. He co-wrote and acted in a short political satire film. He has traveled to all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, and through Europe. He can be found at www.daletphillips.com

Book preview

The Last Crooked Paths

A Five Story Collection

Dale T. Phillips

Copyright © 2017 Genretarium Publishing

Cover Design copyright 2017 Melinda Phillips

http://www.snapichic.com

All rights reserved.

Automat was originally published in Level Best Books’ Best New England Crime Stories 2015: Rogue Wave, Nov. 2014

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is coincidental.

Try these other works by Dale T. Phillips

Shadow of the Wendigo (Supernatural Thriller)

The Zack Taylor Mystery Series

A Memory of Grief

A Fall From Grace

A Shadow on the Wall

A Certain Slant of Light

A Sharp Medicine

Story Collections

Fables and Fantasies (Fantasy)

More Fables and Fantasies (Fantasy)

Crooked Paths (Mystery/Crime)

More Crooked Paths (Mystery/Crime)

The Last Crooked Paths (Mystery/Crime)

More Crooked Paths (Mystery/Crime)

Strange Tales (Magic Realism, Paranormal)

Apocalypse Tango (Science Fiction)

Halls of Horror (Horror)

Jumble Sale (Different Genres)

The Big Book of Genre Stories (Different Genres)

Non-fiction Career Help

How to Improve Your Interviewing Skills

With Other Authors

Rogue Wave: Best New England Crime Stories 2015

Red Dawn: Best New England Crime Stories 2016

Windward: Best New England Crime Stories 2017

Insanity Tales

Insanity Tales II: The Sense of Fear

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http://www.daletphillips.com

For more information about the author and his works, go to: http://www.daletphillips.com

DEDICATION

To those who fight crime and evildoers. The path for all can be a crooked one

CONTENTS

Foreword

Each edition of a Crooked Paths collection of five mystery and crime stories has been well-received, but here are the last in that vein, further chronicles of those who walk a crooked path, and so very often pay a terrible price for what they do.

Many thanks go out to the editors at Level Best Books for spurring me to write more short crime and mystery fiction, and for publishing Automat, another in my story series inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper.

More thanks go out to my editors, who helped shape these stories into better things.

If you like the writing or tone of these stories and would like to tackle something longer, I’ve written the Zack Taylor mystery series, starting with A Memory of Grief and continuing on to A Sharp Medicine.

If you like these tales, please check out other titles. And thanks for reading.

http://www.daletphillips.com  

No Sign of Forcible Entry

NO SIGN OF FORCIBLE entry, said the uniformed officer, looking at the intact doorjamb once more.

Detective Sergeant Dan Caldwell nodded, and glanced back at the living room, where the murdered man lay sprawled in a fan of blood. The Crime Scene people were bustling about, measuring, dusting, photographing.

Caldwell’s partner, Kowalski, came back out from the bedroom, ferociously chewing a wad of gum. Must have known the shooter, he said. Opened the door for him and let him inside.

So why does it look like a sloppy robbery attempt? Caldwell rubbed his finger under his nose. And where’s the wife?

Ten minutes later, they got the answer to that one when the uniform brought a woman to the door. She says she’s Mrs. Harrington, and she lives here. Caldwell opened his mouth, but the uniform had worked with him before. I checked her ID. Caldwell nodded his approval.

The woman looked at the two detectives. What happened? Where’s my husband?

Caldwell put on his Notification Face as he moved to block her from entering. I’m afraid I have bad news, Mrs. Harrington. Your husband was shot. He’s dead.

What? That’s impossible.

It’s why we’re here.

I want to see him, she moved to edge by, but Caldwell stopped her.

No. We’ll have you identify him a bit later, but not here.

The woman burst into tears, which seemed real, but