On the anniversary of Nanda’s disappearance, Father Leo called Big Boy into his office.
“Stop moping around about that girl,” he said nonchalantly. “I know you’re trying to figure out where she is. If I were you, I’d drop it. Clean heart, remember? I think you need another confession, you’re way overdue. Confession on Saturday, at 2 p.m. Be there.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Oh, by the way, Franco says you’re almost ready to be released from probation, and I told him you were totally repented—no more shoplifting at Woolworth’s. Right, Big Boy?”
“Right.”
“You don’t want to follow in the footsteps of Chano—you know, the guy who visits Nanda’s family sometimes.”
Big Boy looked up at Father Leo, surprised that he knew anything about Chano. Maybe he had visited him in prison, or heard his confession. Then he saw Father Leo smile broadly, as if he had just caught Big Boy sneaking a sip of wine from the chalice. He pulled open the drawer on his desk and reached in, taking out a silver chain with a small cross. He watched Big Boy closely, saw the fear in his eyes as the boy glimpsed the chain he had given Nanda in Father Leo’s hand.
“I want you to give this to Ernestina,” Father Leo said quietly, leaning close to Big Boy. “You understand, don’t you?” He waited, dangling the chain in midair between them.
Then he sat back as Big Boy took the silver chain from his hand and dropped it in his pocket.
“Confession on Saturday, don’t forget,” Father Leo said.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
MEGAN ABBOTT is the Edgar Award–winning author of Queenpin, The Song Is You, and Die a Little, as well as the non-fiction study, The Street Was Mine: White Masculinity in Hard-boiled Fiction and Film Noir. She is the editor of the collection A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir. Her fourth novel, Bury Me Deep, is loosely based on the Winnie Ruth Judd “Trunk Murderess” case from 1930s Phoenix.
ROBERT ANGLEN is an investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic who has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize; in 2005, the Arizona Press Club named him journalist of the year. Born in Los Angeles, he has worked as a skip tracer, bill collector, cab driver, and process server. His stories have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and several anthologies, including Night Terrors and Diablo. He and his wife are parents of triplets.
LEE CHILD, the author of twelve best-selling novels, has been a television director, union organizer, theater technician, and law student. He was born in England but now lives in New York City, and leaves the island of Manhattan only when required to by forces beyond his control.
DAVID CORBETT is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: ThThThe Devil’s Redhead, Done for a Dime(a New York Times Notable Book), and Blood of Paradise— which was nominated for numerous awards. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, including San Francisco Noir and Las Vegas Noir, and he contributed a chapter to the world’s first serial audio thriller, The Chopin Manuscript. Corbett lives in Vallejo, California.
STELLA POPE DUARTE has won two creative writing fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, for Fragile Night and Let Their Spirits Dance, her highly acclaimed debut novel. Duarte has won honors and awards nationwide, and her most recent novel, If I Die in Juárez, is the story of the over 400 young women brutally murdered in Ciudad Juárez. Currently, she teaches creative writing for an assortment of college, university, and community-based programs. She lives in Phoenix.
DIANA GABALDON is the author of the award-winning, New York Times best-selling Outlander novels and the Lord John Grey novels. Gabaldon holds several advanced degrees in science and spent a dozen years as a university professor with an expertise in scientific computation before beginning to write fiction. A third-generation Arizonan, Gabaldon lives with her husband in Scottsdale.
DOGO BARRY GRAHAM is a novelist, poet, screenwriter, social activist, and Zen Buddhist monk whose works include The Book of Man, Before, and Kill Your Self. His nonfifiction has appeared in such national magazines as Harper’s and Flaunt.
Originally from Scotland, he has traveled widely and has made his home in the U.S. since 1995. He lives in Phoenix, where he is the abbot of the Sitting Frog Zen Sangha. His blog, The Urban Monk, can be found at the-urban-monk.livejournal.com.
CHARLES KELLY, as a reporter for the Arizona Republic, found missing heirs, investigated the 1976 bomb murder of Republic reporter Don Bolles, and helped a falsely convicted American tugboat captain get out of a Mexican prison. He is the author of the novel Pay Here and is currently working on a new novel as well as a biography of the hardboiled writer Dan J. Marlowe. Kelly lives in Scottsdale.
PATRICK MILLIKIN is a bookseller at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale. As a freelance writer, his articles, interviews, and reviews have appeared in Publishers Weekly, Firsts Magazine, Paradoxa, Your flesh Quarterly, and other publications. Born in Los Angeles, he moved to Arizona in 1972 and grew up in Scottsdale. Millikin currently lives in central Phoenix.
GARY PHILLIPS has been a community organizer, taught incarcerated youth, was a union rep, and worked for one of those shadowy 527s. He has written hard-boiled books and such for a long damn time. His short stories have appeared in several previous Akashic Noir Series volumes, among other publications.
KURT REICHENBAUGH grew up in Tampa, Florida and earned his English degree at Florida State University. He has lived since 1990 in Phoenix, where his day job is grinding out financial spreadsheets for a life insurance company. His stories have appeared in Sounds of the Night, Tales from the Moonlit Path, and Niteblade. He has recently completed his first novel and is working on his second.
JAMES SALLIS is the author of over thirty books, as well as hundreds of stories, poems, and essays. Perhaps best known for his New Orleans–set Lew Griffin detective series, Sallis has also written Drive, a modern noir classic soon to be adapted into a film starring Hugh Jackman. Sallis teaches creative writing at Phoenix College and Arizona State University. An accomplished musician, he performs regularly around town, both as a solo artist and with his trio, Three-Legged Dog.
