Angler: Boardpres

Submission to a Iced

Detective Cody Dulles arrived at Schmidt’s office with an entourage of lab types eager to uncover that special clue that would nail Schmidt. Finger print gear, blood detection lights and liquids, HD cameras, bags, bottles, tweezers, tongs, and of course, the body bag. The swarm buzzed about the office like an overly efficient hive.
               “Mr. Schmidt, please step outside with me,” murmured Dulles.
               Schmidt rose slowly from his desk chair as he quietly slid...

Submission to a Iced

“Ice – uh – Mr. Schmidt,” Detective Fry approached. “Sorry for your loss.”

“yeah, thanks. But you know I hadn’t seen Lilli in about six months. I don’t know how she got here.”

“Six months?” scribble. “How would you describe your relationship with your ex wife?” casual peer with chin slightly lowered – Fry’s usual attempt at friendly conversation. Try as he might, a move that always made the perp squirm. But then, he liked to see ‘em squirm.

“hey, she’s my ex. ...

Submission to a Iced

“Crap,” thought Icepick. This was getting way too complicated for him. Dead ex-wife, exotic birds,  smuggling partner, demanding girlfriend, now the police. His mind shot into stone skips across a lake:   “Time to disappear again. Create another new life. Damn, the road narrows. How did I get to another dead end? Literally dead. Dead bodies, again. Am I the reaper’s magnet, or what? Oh get over yourself asshole. With Lilli gone, this life just got better. Now, how am I going to explain her...

Submission to a Iced

Icepick thought, “If the plan had one (yeah right, ONE) weakness it would be Ramona.” He would have to cover the alibi issue first to give himself time to solve the murder. L.A.P.D. Detective Harrison was getting pushy about coming down to the station to answer some questions. Icepick’s a real estate attorney, not a criminal lawyer, so he didn’t have much first-hand knowledge about dealing with the police, but he’d watched enough episodes of crime dramas on TV to know what “come down to th...

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

Matt plopped down in the back seat. "Destiny's Annex," he told the cabdriver.
"Got the address?" barked the driver.
"No. I thought you'd know it."
"Sure, I know all about destiny. I'm driving a cab. My lifelong dream, pal."
"I see you've got an onboard computer and gps up there. Can't you find it that way?"

Submission to a Allie's Choice

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

Matt studied RinBin for clues about the mysterious Nibelanjer, but RinBin turned slightly to evade Matt’s gaze. His nervous excitement resumed and Matt jumped out of line again to take another look for any new activity.

Submission to a Becca's Roots

“Oh, you’re Josh. I thought you’d be, uh” Becca stammered.

Kendra bounced toward them. “Josh, I see you’ve met Becca. Good. But, time to spin some down-home magic sweetie. Mrs. Atkins is oogling your form over here.” Kendra ushered Josh to the patron’s side. “Here he is Mrs. Atkins. Ready to tell you all about the delightful backstory for this piece. Isn’t is fabulous?”

She placed Phyllis Atkins’ hand in Josh’s and left abruptly to return to Becca.

“Steer clear ...

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

Matt hopped out of line again. “Hey Rin, someone’s looking out the entrance. And I think he’s looking this way. What do you think?”
Rinbin slowly peered past Matt. “I think I have made a mistake. I should not be here.” He crept back into line, scrunching his frame into a size as small and compact as he could make his lanky limbs.
“What’s up? What are you doing?”
Rinbin backed up, letting newer arrivals in the cue move ahead of him.
“Rinbin?” Matt paused. This was intere...

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

Dap nodded.

Submission to a Becca's Roots

“Hold your horses, cowboy,” Becca twanged. “If I wanted you out of your clothes, it wouldn’t be in this storage room. That hay-in-the-barn shit doesn’t work for me. You got ideas, you plan a real date. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am,“ Josh hung his head.

Becca wondered if his response was more of the good-ole-boy hogwash, or honest regret. She stepped to the door, opened it, and ushered him back into the main gallery. Champagne flutes clinked nearby. Conversations buzzed. Cleavage ...

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

Rinbin looked up in time to see the transports leaving the site, four of them. Which one held Matt, he wondered. He activated the transceiver again. “Four transports,” he reported. Can you get a fix on Matt. I placed the tracker on him about 20 minutes ago. Is it working?”

Rinbin’s contact replied, “It only worked at the gate. We think he’s in the last transport, but there’s no signal now.”

“I have an idea who took him. One of the captors looked familiar. Send my taxi.” ...

Submission to a Iced

Dirk’s eyes wandered from the monitor to his desk. Photos of Lilli’s corpse and pages of the ME’s report were strewn across the workspace. He picked up the close up shot of Lilli’s forehead. Something didn’t look right. He’d seen enough gunshot wounds to know something was wrong with the blood and bruise. Dropping the photo, Dirk’s hand reached for the ME’s report again. COD gunshot to the head. Easy. Too damn easy.

“Hey Carlisle, did you find anything at that mortuary when you...

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

"Where the hell am I now?" asked Matt. "What happened to the crowd from Destiny's Annex? Where's Rinbin?"

"You gotta a lot of questions, huMAN," the Diberian said."Now give me that decoder ring."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Hand it over."

"It's a piece of crap sales gimick. Everyone in line had one. What the hell?"

"Your decoder ring." The Diberian held out a three-fingered hand. "Yours is the one I want."

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

“I’ll be responsible for what happens here,” Rinbin replied. “Now expose Schuster.”

Web Mother paused. “You’ll be responsible if anything happens here too. Ten minutes. I’ll uncloak his transponder.”

“Make it 30 minutes. I need to be in place.” Rinbin closed the communications link.

Web Mother rose from his seat and looked through a window into a holding room adjoining the com command office. Schuster was still motionless on a gurney, face covered with a breathi...

Submission to a Becca's Roots

When the two arrived at the restaurant for dinner, Fizelmade a grand announcement to the crowd that the guest of honor had arrived.Josh tried to commune with the potted palm, avoiding eye contact with all thegrey-suited, wine-sipping, businessmen and their little-black-dress-cladcompanions whose boney shoulders reminded him of death.

“Smile, Josh.” Becca nudged him.

Josh forced a ridiculous grin. “You’ll pay for this.” 

Submission to a Vampires' Buffet

Candice loved the power she felt in her animal state. She chased down a raccoon just for fun, to smell the fear. She toyed with it for a few minutes, and then let it go. She turned toward Sundown Supper & Sleep. Snack time. Dante had the right idea. With so many homeless humans loitering near the shelter, the dinner opportunities for feasting were mouth-watering. As she approached she saw John, Julie, and Dante talking near the entrance of the shelter. She waited in the dark. Julie and...

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

“I have a contact on Z-251. He retired a few years ago, bu tit wasn’t by choice. He will be glad to participate in this concealment.”Rinbin smiled.

“Why Rin baby, you look like a Nibelanjer. But you don’t actlike one. Where’d you learn about friends and concealment?” Matt slapped Rinbin’s back.

“Z-251. His name is Orville. He never trusted Web Mother. He will like you.”

“Hey, if he can pass that singing trick of yours, he’s in with me.”

Rinbin began singing.

“...

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

"No, darling, it wasn't R.B., you were targeted by these lobe inducers we found.  Schuster had many enemies, including me.  I don't know what he stole from your files, but we think it was destroyed, leaving you the only one with the information and they want it."
"So this lobe inducer scans my brain and tells them what I know?"
"No, the lobe inducer plants false memories into your brain to break the trust between you and R.B.  Their hope is to catch you alone.  Their extraction m...

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

"She is an extraordinary thief, and she has many renowned thieves in her employ."
Matt followed Rinbin to the den where they had his files laid out for him.  They were sorted chronologically which made it easy for Matt to run through matching up with the way he remembered the cases.  He ran through the files then shrugged his shoulders, "They're all here.  Whatever they are after, must be in those other files when I was loaned out to military intelligence."
Everyone at the table ...

Submission to a Destiny's Annex

Matt and Rinbin were given a new craft, but it had a tracer on it just like his original craft had.  As soon as they had breached the outer rings, Matt turned on the communicator and dialed in an older encryption code.
"Matt," Rinbin said, "do you not think they know that code already?"
"I hope so."  He picked up the mic and said, "Jimmy?  Jimmy?  You don't have to answer, just listen.  I need you to go get the file from grandpa's cabin on Lake Finch.  Be careful little brother, ...

Submission to a Allie's Choice

            “Are you sure you want to do thisAnton?  You‘re not having a very goodday.  Sounds to me like you lost thelittle boy, and you already misplaced your daughter.  Maybe you should just call it quits while youcan.“

            “Where are the ledgers?“

            “I don‘t know,  Anton, where is your daughter?“

            “You don‘t need to worry about mydaughter.  You just need to te...