The Shame Game (a novel)

In moments of panic, Benny’s trusty mind spat out ornate and archaic bits of wisdom, with questionable provenance, like cards from a Blackjack dealer. (more…)

Thwack!

The racket ball flattened as it hit the wall, it ricocheted off, flying towards the back wall with deadly force. (more…)

“Damn laptop! The battery’s dead. Fuck!”

Pete Adamoski was in his motel room, in Preston, BC, and just starting a sorely needed therapeutic session with his novel - but no joy. (more…)

Alice gingerly descended the front porch stairs, shivering in the early morning air. There were just three steps, but at her age - 82, if she remembered correctly - you had to be careful about such things and carry yourself like a priceless treasure. (more…)

Benny drove the cab in silence for almost 30 minutes, which was a record for him. Even with the cab empty, he would usually be talking and singing to himself. It was a habit he picked up years ago on a salmon trawler, working as a deckhand in the unforgiving Hecate Straits. Often he was down in the hold, icing fish and, surprising to him, it was a perfect place, perhaps the only place onboard the ship, for reading out dialog from a sci-fi screenplay he was writing at the time. (more…)

Perry didn’t go back to work that afternoon. After Tim dropped him off at the elevator and went to park his Beamer, he ran up the three flights of stairs to his cubicle, grabbed his keys and his pack, signed out for the day and went home. He needed to be alone. (more…)

The comments from the man in the back seat irritated Benny; they carried an odour of condescension, like the dude had tasted everything Life had to offer. But what was probably just honest reflection from an older man, translated into criticism in Benny’s mind and put him in a mood. (more…)

Randal spoke up from the back of the cab, “I feel like a kid, whining from the back seat of his parent’s car on the way to the cottage: ‘Are we there yet?”

“Just about,” Benny replied. “Mind if I ask you why you didn’t just catch a flight out to Abbotsford? It would have been a lot cheaper.” (more…)

After a long time, it all came back. Well the prayer part anyway, Benny mused. He was sitting alone in the trusty old Impala and not in a hurry to go up to the house. He never saw Linda again and it was still difficult running into their old friends, but as he wasted away, the fluids draining with no sign of stopping, he began again to pray. There was no big god-like voice that urged him on (more…)

Freezing cold rain was pissing down the neck of Vancouver’s downtown east-side. It’d been raining for days across Metro, so why hadn’t she brought her umbrella and worn a sweater, Zena Marsh asked herself. But then, in the movies, you never saw sexy leading ladies going to clandestine meetings carrying umbrellas and wearing sweaters. (more…)

In most ways, Zena’s business was a labour of love, but she had overhead. Materials for one – her shipment from Spatz was a good example, and there were logistical expenses. Spatz was likely to charge anywhere from three to five thousand USD for the materials. (more…)

For as long as Zena could remember, she had loved puzzles; and like all great loves, it had started with her father. On many mornings, she would come down to the kitchen early and wait while he made his ritual cup of hot-water coffee, which he swore was absolutely the only way to drink coffee. (more…)

Zena’s cellphone jangled in her hand startling her. She gave Spatz a look; he got up and drifted into the warehouse giving her some privacy. It was De Niro. (more…)

“Okay, let me get this straight,” Perry said. “You want me to hack into a politician’s frickin’email?”

Zena had just blown into his apartment and was already blowing his mind. (more…)

“So, what’s your story?” asked Zena. “I read your post today - is something eating you?”

“Why do you ask?” Perry parried the opening and started the car. The radio, whose volume was forgotten at a level capable of ending a hostage-taking, blared out a tune by OMC: …Policeman taps his shades, ‘Is that a Chevy 69?’ How Bizarre! - Perry mashed the knob, shutting it off, and pulled out into the street apologizing under his breath. “Sorry ’bout that.” (more…)

Stepping into Connie’s living room, Randal set Bruce’s laptop down on the couch and took off his jacket. Connie’s house was cool and dimly lit. The last light from the late afternoon sun was filtering through the large window, streaking the walls with lazy orange shadow trees. (more…)

Randal sat slumped in the deep leather sofa with his hands clasped between his knees, looking around the room, searching for a place to begin. Connie sat beside him and rubbed his shoulders. “It’s okay, take your time.” (more…)

With Randal sitting up front, Benny drove the cab into town and they began to talk. It was blue-sky stuff (and this chapter you can safely skip over, dear Reader); something he hadn’t done with another man since his stepfather died. It made him realize how much he missed the gentle giant who was unbeatable at Trivial Pursuit. (more…)

Connie sat at the kitchen table, agitated and struggling to keep her fingers away from her mouth. Benny watched her hands, like birds in constant flight landing on her chin, the fingers pecking at her lips; swooping away to nest in her lap. (more…)

Randal was locking up Connie’s house, to go for a walk, when a black stretch SUV Limo with three assholes in it pulled up at the curb.
(more…)

“You were not supposed to hurt him … just to bring him to a meeting!”

Pop Butcher’s voice rose only slightly, but the venom in his delivery made the men’s skin crawl. They glanced at each other as if it was the other guy’s fault; each one shifting the blame with the force of his eyebrows. (more…)

Wearing a tux, Niro was strapped into the front passenger seat of the speeding Hummer. He was in makeup with some grey in his hair and extra flesh on his cheeks, which made him look distinguished, if jowly. Janey, his wife played by Diamond, was driving the hulk, and wearing diamonds. She was gloriously smashed, her closet alcoholism recently outed to great fanfare, and now she was strutting her stuff down the catwalk of infamy.
(more…)

Grey signalled Pink to walk a little ways with him. When they were out of earshot, he said,

“Much as I hate the expression, something’s rotten in Denmark.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Something stinks,” said Pink.
(more…)

The police went all the way; the whole nine yards. They took Standard Procedure and turned it into an art form. Diamond looked like she was about to pass out, but they spared her no pity; they even cuffed her and Niro. Niro, however, blustered for the cameras; it was his cameo spot, and he played it to the hilt.
(more…)

Someone was talking to her, but all Diamond heard was a vague mumbling buried in the accident noise. The speaker was drowned out by the roar of shattering glass and crushing metal, which her mind played over and over. The sound made her think of adults in Charles Schultz’s televised version of Charlie Brown’s Christmas.
(more…)

The two officers, Pink and Grey, led Diamond and Niro down a long grimy green hallway, littered with the day’s collection of newspapers, Styrofoam cups, and people waiting. They were buzzed through a door with a wire mesh window and another long green corridor. Finally, they walked through a door and the cops didn’t follow. It was shut behind them and locked.
(more…)

Niro was exasperated with Diamond; she had been so eager to put on this scenario, and now she was little more than a rag doll. She sat on the bench in the corner of the cell, limp, with her hands between her legs and her head hanging like a cock-eyed lampshade. She needs a good slap across the face, he thought, getting angrier as the minutes ticked out. (more…)

The old man straightened his back; ducked down the alley behind the police station and jogged up to a waiting car, its engine running. Pink was inside.

“You sure age well, but you stink…. Kinda like cheese.”

“It’s these clothes … I borrowed them from the drunk tank. They’re thin as a soup line on welfare day - how do these guys stay warm?”
(more…)

Inside her Yaletown studio, Zena was watching the news, flipping between CBC and CNN. Their play had made it to the networks. It was credible - even more so, by the tragedy of the boy’s death, which made Zena sick at heart.
(more…)

Benny and Connie returned to the house, but found the door locked and the house empty. Connie was both relieved and frightened. She had a nagging feeling Randal was in some kind of trouble; everything appeared normal, but there was no sign of him.
(more…)

Pink and Grey settled in for a long night. They had decided to nap in shifts and Pink took the first shift. She rolled her jacket up and put it against the door frame, shifted her body so that her legs extended past the accelerator and took a long stretch. In minutes, she was snoring.
(more…)

Pleased with his parting remark, Lutz swept up his briefcase with a flourish and marched importantly toward the elevator; arriving just as the doors slid open and revealed a dark and rotten core. Three bad seeds rolled out.
(more…)

“Oh - but we know who you are,” said Farley, addressing Zena. It was suddenly very quiet; everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breath. She could hear the faint sound of the safe-crossing signal at the intersection below the building. “As a matter of fact, we work for someone you’re closely associated with. Lutz, here, knows him quite well.” Lutz managed to look sheepish and pissed off at the same time; he opened his mouth … closed it.
(more…)

The elevator finally arrived; Grey and Pink walked inside. Grey hunted for the buttons; pushed the one for the fourth floor. “What the hell do they need such a big elevator for?” He looked around the large wooden cage, “It’s drafty too.”
(more…)

The gentle sound of Bong Bong! announced the arrival of the elevator. So welcome was the distraction from the horrible scene in the apartment that everyone turned. The doors slid open and the police stepped professionally into the foyer, but paused there, scanning the crowd and raising the tension in the room another notch.
(more…)

Lutz wasn’t paying attention. He was fiddling with his briefcase and anxious to leave for his early morning meeting with Pop Butcher.

The boss bozo.
(more…)

Lutz noticed blood on the floor where Diamond had landed after hitting her head. It brought him back. “Look,” he said to Grey, “I’ve got to get going. Do you need me for anything or can I leave?”
(more…)

Grey was talking with two detectives who responded to his call for backup; they arrived at the same time as the paramedics and were evaluating whether they were needed. Grey wanted to question the bikers further, particularly without the lawyer around, and he wanted the extra muscle on standby.
(more…)

The paramedics, Mike and Lou, came down in the service elevator with Diamond on the gurney, apparently concussed. She had a hospital blanket covering her; her arms were under the blanket and the whole thing was strapped down. Mike was discussing Lou’s golf swing.
(more…)

After a lingering conversation with Perry, Zena’s mood was greatly improved and she sought out Farley. “Sorry to interrupt, Farley, but we need to talk.”
(more…)

Down a cluttered hallway from Emergency, Diamond scooted across the dirty wet floor of the women’s washroom and ducked into a stall. She pushed the door shut and locked it. How long did she have before they came looking for her?
(more…)

The threat of a manslaughter charge hung in the air; Zena and Niro waited nervously to hear what Pink had whispered in Grey’s ear. When he turned to address the group even the bozos stopped goofing around and paid attention; however, Lutz’s arms were crossed and he kept glancing down and monitoring his watch.
(more…)

Reynold Lutz could see things were not going according to plan: (more…)

Two tethered stainless steel bolts, with barbed tips, flew (more…)

In Noodle’s mind, it was a cold rainy day. (more…)

“There’s no getting through to him,” Danny told Pink, referring to Noodles. “The lights are on, but no one’s home.” Danny’s spirits were in the tank. “What do you want to do, Ruth? It’s your call.”
(more…)

On the street, Pink watched Noodles and Farley climb into the paddy wagon looking unperturbed. (more…)

Clams had all the gear in place within an amazingly short span of time. (more…)

Lutz was trembling with fear; this man was a maniac. (more…)

In his mind, Niro was flying solo. (more…)