"Tony Garner, I'm starting to think that you're more trouble than help these days," Jerome accused slyly as the pair seated themselves at the small table in Marcel's bar. Stunned, Tony looked up from the tablecloth and into the face of his friend. "What are you talking about?" stammered the younger man, confused as to what would have incurred such an accusation. At the look on Tony's face, Jerome let out a boisterous laugh and patted Tony on the shoulder. "Haven't we agreed t

Marissa Erinson grew up in rural South Carolina in the era before Prohibition. In her world, people of every variety interacted and enjoyed a relatively peaceful society. Sure, she had heard of the racial strains that had existed in her parents' generation - and still existed outside her insular community - but she had never really encountered them. Until at 18 years old, Marissa - the shyest of shy girls - took a risk and moved to big-city St. Louis to work in the bookstore

As Marissa approached the bookstore, she squinted against the dark. The gas lanterns never provided enough illumination to make out the faces of strangers, and she seemed to have more problem than most in discerning sights from a distance. The fact shocked her, then, that as she slid off of her bike and began to walk it toward its home, she easily recognized the tall, broad-shouldered form of Tony Garner, silhouetted against the path light. Though she tried to be beyond obse

Seating herself in the comfortable chair, Barbara adjusted her trousers to remove the inconvenient twist that always seemed to restrain her movements. Wearing pants added a lot of ease to her life, but sometimes she recognized the benefits of wearing woman's garb. Skirts felt cooler and didn't constrict, but pants made moving around so much easier. Barbara pulled open the file drawer and retrieved her work for the day, then grabbed her to-do list from the shelf where she alwa

She had expected so much that the scene before her was a disappointment. Most of the people in Calloway's appeared to be normal, unimpressive people. Sure, Marissa had never seen a woman wear a dress that dipped quite so low in both the front and the back, but she recognized the flapper style from dresses she had seen on the streets. The men wore very sharp suits, nicer than those she usually encountered near the university, and almost everyone smoked long cigarettes which th

From several yards away, Tony watched the unfolding events with a mix of annoyance and concern. He had left the stupid girl at the edge of the park, but as he turned to make his way home, the new voice had arrested his movement – the voice of trouble. "Marissa?" Tony heard Sam Lincoln call, and the sound sent a chill down Tony's spine. How had the girl, in town only a few days, found so much access to danger? Tony wanted to grab her and shake some sense into her. Innocent wit

As he peered at the young woman weaving her way past the gas lanterns that lit the plaza, Alistair Galloway marveled at how easily he, if he had already received the go ahead, could have taken her out at that very moment. She hurried, head down, across the deepening Missouri twilight, heedless of the shadows that swallowed her where she passed between the streetlamps. Alistair felt a strange relief that Angus had chosen him to kill the girl. Too many of Alistair's coworkers

A brisk wind had whipped up dancing, swirling, through the courtyard. It grabbed the young woman's scarf and twisted it toward the sky. With a quick hand, she grasped it just as it came loose from her neck. From under a nearby lamppost, a shadow detached from the pole and began to stroll toward her. The young woman shivered. Though she didn't notice any specific dangers, she had never ventured into that particular area of town after dark. Sure, some of the speakeasies in the