Kara debated with herself over what to wear for breakfast. Since school had ended, she didn't have a real reason to be fully dressed that early in the day. She didn't even need to get out of bed. However, it had been the established custom, even when she was not in school, that Kara and her father would have breakfast together before he left for the office. She had always gotten fully dressed. Kara had turned eighteen in...

Kara's mother had been killed in a car wreck three years earlier. Shortly after, Kara and her father, (she was an only child), had tried to escape the memories of the tragedy by moving across town. Their new house was not much larger than what they had before, but the lots in this part of town were spacious, generally an acre or more. The new house also had a swimming pool and gazebo. Although Kara had left her old friend...

I could hear the click of the keys on Carly's computer in the next room. It was Monday and she was finishing up the payroll. I was at my desk signing checks, paying for the booze I sold in my bar, and paying for a bunch of other things that make it more profitable to work for someone else. I called my place 'Casablanca' and sometimes even thought of myself as 'Rick', the bar owner played by Humphrey Bogart in the classic...

The door bell rang. David had been sitting in an easy chair, reading a mystery novel. It was after ten at night, and he thought that someone being at the door was really unusual. In addition to it being late, he was in a vacation house and normally no one would be there. He got up from his chair and went quietly to the door. He noticed that both the dead-bolt and the chain were locked, just as he had left them when he got...