The Edge

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They say true love never comes without tragedy. One or other of you is left behind. The love never dies, but it can't be returned.

So it was with Joe - Joseph - after the murder of his wife Grace. Her murder, according to the LAPD detectives, was a random shooting that tore the life from her with a single shot to the head as she was walking from her car to the shopping mall. They had had no success in tracing her killer, so far. A gangland random shooting they said and at this point standing by his wife's graveside he had no reason to disbelieve them.

The service by the plot was as solemn as the weather, which was gray and overcast. Joe tried to blank out any thoughts, tried to distance himself mentally from what was going on. His grief, he knew, would come out in private and later. That was the way he was. So he held himself erect, seemingly emotionless and lost inside himself. Eventually, after the commiserations and farewells, he found himself alone at the graveside, with the gravediggers standing off a respectful distance.

They had no children and few relatives between them, both being only children. All Joe could think at that point was his love for Grace and how he would never lose that feeling and how it would never be reciprocated.

Back on the pathway away from the graveside and beyond where the grave digging guys were waiting stood a figure, in shadow under the trees that lined the path. He too was waiting for Joe to step away from Grace's grave. Some little time later Joe did walk away and headed toward the pathway and his car. As he did the gravediggers moved forward to complete their task. Joe was around six feet and throughout everything had held himself erect but now as he walked away he hung his head in sorrow and to the casual observer he looked like a stooped man.

He passed the guy in the shadows without even noticing him until the man called out his name. Joe turned and was relieved and in some ways delighted to see Sam, his old buddy from the East Coast. He hadn't seen him for at least a couple of years due to Joe's move to LA. Sam suggested they go get a drink somewhere and so they did.

Out of habit and training Joe chose a seat at the back of the place so that he was facing the whole restaurant. Sam joined him with the drinks. They talked a little of old times and then Sam turned the conversation to Grace's death. 'We don't think it was a random shooting' Sam told Joe. Joe sat for a moment shocked and more than a little surprised. Why and who are 'we' he asked.

Sam said he would deal with the 'we' first. I've gotten a posse together he said and named four other guys who were all buddies of  them both. One who was an ex-MP from the Army, one from the USN, one ex-CIA, one Brit and Sam himself who was ex-Marine Corps. Quite a pool of talent all told.

As to the 'why', well motive and perpetrator were unknown, but Sam went on to explain that by fair means or foul they had obtained a copy of the ballistics report and suspected trajectory. The biggest surprise though was the act that the single round had been fired from over a thousand yards away, from a low rooftop with a ...sniper rifle.  Nothing random about it and which begged the question what were the LAPD covering up...

Jason

LL - here's an excerpt from my sixteenth novel. Jason is just a working title.

Early days and an unpolished product right now. Something of a departure from my usual genre, but you always said I had a vivid imagination!

Enjoy!

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His name was Jason.

He had never thought too much about this name, where it came from, or what it meant, if anything. He had been known by many names in the past.

A rider appeared, down the slight hill from where he had emerged.

Jenny was taking her usual ride in the early Arizona sun and had decided to take a look at the box canyon a few miles from her home. Riding her sturdy Appaloosa, she slowed as she neared the canyon and found the dry stream bed that would lead to the far wall of the canyon. Her horse picked it's way steadily through the sage brush, grasses and  stunted small trees that were growing there.

There had been no rain recently so no fears of a flash flood. Jenny knew there was a small spring at the end of the canyon, which was closed in on three sides, as it's name implied. She relaxed in the saddle and enjoyed the warmth and the sound of the wildlife around her. The sun was already  a good distance above the horizon and she could feel it's rays through her shirt. Her horse jogged forward slowly.

Some short distance from the sheer wall of rock at the end of the canyon she stopped at the spring. Jenny dismounted and tethered her horse. For some reason there was no bird noise and yet all the way up to the spring she had been accompanied by the calls and cries of the birds. She thought nothing of it and just stood there while the horse drank from the spring. This end of the canyon was pretty barren due probably to the fact it received little sun and was beyond the reach of where the spring emerged.

Either side of her and in front of her were walls of solid rock, barely a crevice discernible. Suddenly, her horse raised it head, ears pricked up and it whinnied, pulling slightly on it's tether. Coyote probably, thought Jenny, as she turned to reassure her steed.

When she turned back she saw a man standing in front of the canyon end. Not a coyote then; she figured it must be this guy that had spooked the horse. She walked slowly toward him and he toward her. She stopped close enough to see his features. He had short fair hair and seemed naturally tanned. There was no sign of a weathered face on his even features and few if any wrinkles. The most striking thing about him though were his piercing blue eyes. They held her in his gaze in an almost mesmerizing way.

She snapped away from his gaze, looked around and up. How did the hell he get here she asked herself. No horse, motor cycle - not that you would have gotten one up here anyway - and no rope dangling down the cliff face.

"Where did you come from?", she asked him.

"I am Jason", he said in an unaccented English. Jenny realized it wasn't even an English accent.

"I asked where you appeared from", she said.

He moved forward. "Your horse is sick". Jenny stood her ground between him and her horse.

"The horse is fine. I've just ridden out here and she was absolutely fine!". Jenny backed off toward her mount. This guy was ...odd. There was something about him that didn't add up. She made to put her foot in the stirrup, when the horse buckled and collapsed to the ground. Oh God she thought. What do I do now! No horse, no gun, miles back to the ranch....and here I am with this stranger.

Jason moved forward. Jenny flinched as he approached the horse and her. Now she was more than a little afraid. Her heart was thumping and her hands sweaty. She was beginning to panic

As he came closer she suddenly felt herself enveloped in what seemed like an unseen blanket of calm. Her heart stopped racing, her hands were miraculously dry again and she felt.... What did she feel? When asked afterwards she couldn't really describe it beyond a sort of serene calmness.

Jason stepped up to the horse, ignoring Jenny. She watched him place his hand on the beast's neck.

" She's is better," he said

"What do you mean, better? She's still on the goddam ground". At that point the horse stood and to all intents and purposes was fine.

" Who the hell are you fella, where are you from and how did you get right here?"

" I am Jason." He replied, annoyingly. " I am from another place and have just arrived"

" Now I am really getting  angry", Jenny said. "What's the big mystery? I know you are Jason but where do you come from and how did you just appear like that?"

"Jason ιατρός. I am Jason. Healer and warrior. You will understand in time"

“Go back aways. Was that your last name you just said?"

"No, that was my name, my meaning in the language you call Greek,  but I am not from Greece. If I tell you how I am here and where I am from, I do not think you will comprehend or believe me. The last place I stayed was Thessaly."

Jenny was confused. Where is Thessaly? No town by that name in this State, or those close by. Why can't he tell me where he's from and how he appeared out of...nowhere? What is all this hogwash about warriors, healers and such?

She decided she would ride back home and leave this spooky guy to himself, out here. If it wasn't for his appearance and his clothes she reckoned he would be just another crazy in the desert.

His clothes! They were something else. No jeans - everyone wore jeans around here. No shirt, just a pretty well cut jacket of some sort and equally well cut trousers. Definitely strange, she thought. Then she turned, glanced back at him and mounted her horse.

“Thank you for fixing the horse, whatever you did er...Jason. See you around"

“You will", Jason replied. He said it with a conviction and sincerity that, she felt, meant that he really would. She turned her horse and picked her way back down the dry stream bed.

As she approached the way out the box canyon, she thought to herself that there was no way he would see her again. He had no idea who she was or where the ranch was. Yet, she had found him fascinating in a strange sort of way. She rode back to the ranch at a steady pace letting the wind blow away any crazy thoughts about the guy in the canyon.

With a dust trail stirred up behind she arrived back at the ranch. Joe her foreman came out and took the Appaloosa from her as she removed her riding gloves and hat. " I'm going up to the house for a shower, Joe. See you in a while"

With that she headed the few hundred yards to the house, stepped up onto the veranda and paused. Jenny thought what a fine place this was as she looked out toward the mountains now bathed in full morning sunshine. Then something moved in the foreground, maybe half a mile out. Looked like a figure, but then there were no hands working out there. She looked in the same place again and saw...nothing. Heat haze I guess, she thought.

Just as she was about to turn and go into the house she spotted the figure again. This time much closer, maybe only 500 yards away. He was standing stock still staring toward the house. It was that guy, that Jason! Jenny shivered despite that fact it was well into the upper 80's by now. How, how did he make it here in the same time I did, with no horse...and here, how did he know I was here?

She called out  to Joe, but there was no reply. She figured he must be in the barn sorting the horse out and playing that C & W station on the radio he kept down there. She wasn't one for that old saying - discretion is the better part of valor - so she rushed into the house, grabbed a rifle from the rack in the study and decided to confront this guy. This was creepy and she wanted an end to it.

Rushing back out of the house she stopped in her tracks. He was gone, at least he appeared to have disappeared. She was unnerved by the whole morning but decided a shower was necessary. She swapped the rifle for an automatic and took it with her to the bathroom.

Then she heard Joe call out from downstairs... 

Out of the Shadows

LL

This is short excerpt - it's a tale of triumph over adversity and has a great end...when I get there. A 'dark' start, but apart from some setbacks in this man's journey towards fulfillment, it is a novel which will leave the reader with a great sense of satisfaction and warmth

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It's difficult to know where to begin, but it all started shortly after the untimely natural death of his wife.

He was at an end, at that moment in time. This tale is full of them, but corners are turned and the horizon brightens...

Back to the beginning, some 10 years ago. 

He walked into his garage and locked the doors. Hanging on a hook was a length of orange colored nylon rope. He stood, he thought about everything that had happened, locked in a small world forced upon him by fate. The present didn't seem to be there. He was frozen in his own cocoon of time, and thought.

It seemed everything stood still. The only thoughts that entered his mind were the loss of his wife and subsequent betrayal by another woman. Mindlessly, his hand reached out for the rope. Staring ahead, but seeing nothing, he fashioned a noose. Then he threw the other end of the rope over a beam in the garage roof. Some dust fell from the beam but he didn't notice it, the motes catching a shaft of sunlight that had just shone through the rear window of the garage.

He was distracted from his morbid reverie by the sunlight. He looked down at his hands and the noose he was holding and then dropped it as though it was red hot. He was shaking. Mostly with relief and realization that he had come close to his own death. He spun round faced the doors and unlocked them. Staggering out into that sunlight on weakened legs, he suddenly threw off the black mood that had enveloped him for days and weeks.

He didn't believe in divine intervention, but that was what it seemed like. He went back into the house drank a large mug of coffee, regained some composure, and determined on a plan for his life. But first there was one matter that needed taking care of and she knew nothing of his intentions...

He was a very wealthy man - resources were not a problem - and he was resourceful to a degree that many others were not. He went to his office and with a new found energy and started on his quest..........