Torsade Literary Space 
Story: Sympathy for the Torturer (part four)
Sympathy for the Torturer (part four) “If we were to bring a confederate of hers into custody, if some resister knew where the grenade had come from… You wouldn’t expect us to be nice about letting him conceal that information?” Herward had forced this argument before, on every occasion […]
Story: Sympathy for the Torturer (part three)
Sympathy for the Torturer (part three) The guard had pantomimed at Anton. “That’s right. Take those off…you get me? You can’t hide your face indoors.” He saw his dark glasses crushed in a pocket. Tossed in a bin marked Lost and Found. “Prove those are yours.” He would have […]
Story: Drownings (conclusion)
Drownings (part eleven) “How…? I don’t believe you.” “Our own provincial da Vinci, Stephen…now I recall. Victor Tambinder himself, the ancestor. The magnets in their circles, the great ring of smaller rings, to move perpetually with the rotation of the earth.” Among attractions in this district of the […]
Story: Drownings (part ten)
Drownings (part ten) In the morning… Fog more than fogs of memory, riddled with corpse dust, one could only call it, figures in the dress of ages, with a fish-belly gleam to their skins, pressing into visibility but eased back. As though the heavy mist were a membrane. McAlley […]
Story: Drownings (part nine)
Drownings (part nine) Victor Tambinder, or Dustin Carmadge, or some other, had in his kitchen four kinds of cereal, soured milk in the refrigerator, blackened bananas on the countertop, a bucket of dirty mop water on the floor. Faia in the medicine cabinet found nasal spray, eyedrops, coated aspirin, […]
Story: Drownings (part eight)
Drownings (part eight) The outer door was unlocked, the lobby a commercial corridor of glass doors and display windows. A quartet of businesses and a stairwell. Faia rapped at Joanel Properties, A. Jellison, but McAlley strolled on, noting what else. Fentz Aquarium Supply; Colburn Studio; BCB2. Curious, this last. […]
Story: Drownings (part seven)
Drownings (part seven) For good or ill, at this moment her phone rang. She put it on speaker. “Julia.” “Julia?” the man asked anyway. “Is this Mr. Herberston?” “Are you some sort of reporter?” Her eyes said to McAlley, he’s been checking. “Mr. Herbertson, I’m enquiring after the job. […]
Story: Drownings (part six)
Drownings (part six) His partner freed a chair and began a conversation. “Ma’am, is Dennis available? Ah. I’ve only got a scribble on my paper…Dustin? Oh, likely not. Julia from Bitterroot. Well… Yes, do. Have him ring this number. Terrible.” The word an empathetic echo. Faia lowered her voice. […]
Story: Drownings (part five)
Drownings (part five) Mrs. Blaney, her hair in barrettes, and not one to rise from her chair, gave McAlley the downturned mouth of prior knowledge—the expectation this Mr. Swan would possess his share of it, and that there was little to be done. “There’s just been a call in, […]
Story: Drownings (part four)
Drownings (part four) Faia strode next to him, both aware of the woman’s complaint. “I swear to god! Me! I am not in this,” she was saying, and the tiny dink that followed was the card, binned. They descended to the water, cleared a gap baffled by rolls of […]