Category: Literary Writings

Chapters 37 through 40 Chapter Thirty-Seven “There is something I don’t understand.” Big Wanda and I were in her brown, unmarked police sedan.  She was driving.  We were headed back to my condo. “Just one thing?”  I didn’t’ reply to that.  Evidently that caused her to decide to drop the sarcasm before she got carried away.   “Okay, what don’t […]

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Chapters 34 through 36 Chapter Thirty-Four The military could be extremely efficient when they had a plan in place.  At least in peacetime.  In war, plans seldom lasted past the first infantry engagement, but that never prevented generals and admirals from laying out several elaborate plans while they waited for the first shot to be fired.  And in […]

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Chapters 31 through 33 Chapter Thirty-One “When I woke up, I was wearing a mask.” “A mask?”   Wanda looked at me impatiently.  I resolved to make a better attempt at fulfilling my promise to hold my lawyerly inquiries until the whole story had been told; all the testimony had been taken as it were.  For me, a […]

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Chapters 28 through 30 Chapter Twenty-Eight Ten minutes later we pulled up and stopped in the abandoned parking lot of the high school.  We were just outside the administration building.  I never liked going back on campus.  It was so much smaller, less impressive than when I roamed these halls twenty-five years earlier.  Then I had all the delusions […]

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Chapters 25 through 27 Chapter Twenty-Five Back in my law office, I searched through the pile of messages I had discarded on my desk looking for the one from Wanda.  I would try calling the number again on the oft chance she would answer.  I listened to the ringing for long minutes before I returned the receiver […]

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Chapters 22 through 24 Chapter Twenty-Two   I sat in a quiet office staring at the file folder in the middle of the desk before me.  It was thick and looked like it would take a few hours to review.  I put off opening it.  Procrastination was not unusual for me.  Especially when faced with a large unpleasant task.  I left […]

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The Alumnus, Chapters 19-21 Chapter Nineteen Like any good lawyer I checked off in my mind an array of threats I might make.  And like any good lawyer I knew that in this, as in most situations, threats of legal action were empty.  Logically I next thought of threatening to call the authorities, but my belief in […]

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The Alumnus, a novel by Phil Cline Chapter Sixteen “I want to talk to you, counselor.”   Maurice’s tone of voice left no room for debate.  Brenda had been returned to her waiting area.  Wanda had lumbered down the hall to use the restroom.  I had just entered from the interview room from where I had been observing on […]

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Chapter Thirteen I drove over to the county administrative complex.  It housed not only the Sheriff’s headquarters but also the main jail and, down in the basement in the far northeast corner of the building, not that far from the cafeteria, the Morgue.  The morgue’s proximity was one reason I never ate in the cafeteria.  Not even on […]

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Alumnus, Chapter 10-12   Chapter Ten I was battered and bruised.   Wanda had encouraged me get drunk and then had her way with me and now, standing at the bathroom sink, I was bemoaning what remained of my abused manhood.  I hurt down low.  Thought maybe I had a cracked rib a little further up.  A large bruise was forming […]

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