Evil Editor's Blog, page 414

Zack Martinez Case 11

It was raining in the city by the bay. A hard rain, hard enough to make Zack glad he lived in L.A. instead. Even at times like this, when he was standing in an underpass watching the M.E. tag bits of a young woman's body.

"Looks like homicide," the M.E. said. "Or a really determined suicide. Or the worst paper cut I've ever seen."

Zack sighed. He walked over to his partner, Monaghan Monroe. "We got an ID?"

"Annabelle Lee. Supermodel and socialite."

"Anybody in the frame?"

Monroe flipped through his n

Zack Martinez Case 10

Zack Martinez knew it was going to be bad the minute he pulled up to the little stucco house.

Neat lawn: check; trees: check; carefully pruned roses: check.

He'd seen places like this before. Hell, he'd grown up in one. He could still hear his parents arguing over what pan to use for the rice.

He looked around the living room. Overstuffed couches, soft beige carpeting, massive bloodstain from the crushed skull of the man. He didn't need to look closely at the overturned table and scattered wooden p

Zack Martinez Case 9

Zack Martinez's glassy gaze passed glumly over the contents of the dead boy's bedroom. It was irritating to have a poisoned teenager slumped on the floor wearing a wrinkled and mutton-chopped rubber mask. It was downright incongruous for a teenager whose walls were covered with posters that screamed "attitude" to line his bed with stuffed animals: a squirrel, a llama, even a hedgehog. Zack had never seen a stuffed hedgehog before. (Maybe his son would like one). Anyway, too cute to be true...

And

Zack Martinez Case 8

Detective Zack Martinez knew two things; his wife would have him for dinner if he forgot to get take-out from Bubba's Grill on the way home, and the barbecue sauce on the corpse of Jimmy "The Condiment King" Miller wasn't just a marinade. His instincts pointed to Adamo Adelchi, master chef and runner-up in last week's Dade County Pork Pull Bonanza. Mr. Adelchi was a sour dish after losing the big competition that had earned him last year's bread and butter. It wasn't beyond reason that someone f

Zack Martinez Case 7

When homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo is found partially dead under his Peugeot next to the train station, homicide detective Zack Martinez knows two things: One, Columbo didn't commit partial suicide by backing up over himself, and two, if he doesn't bring home a piece of Columbo's famed trench coat to his new and best wife (so far), she will back up over him with his 1959 Renault Dauphine.

Detective Martinez likes his coffee black, his chocolate white and his corpses tawny, not blue-ish, s

Zack Martinez Case 6

The cutlery was silver, just like the dame's hair. Only thing was, you couldn't see the silver for the blood. Forks and knives stuck out of her like bristles on a hedgehog—very painful bristles.

Detective Zack Martinez walked around the ransacked dining room, peering suspiciously at pristinely clean dishes and untouched table settings. The dinner guests huddled in the parlor under the watchful eyes of the police, still unaware of what had happened.

All but one, according to the butler. He had seen

Zack Martinez Case 5

The scene was as Zack Martinez expected; ghastly, gory and gruesome. Pursing his lips as he concentrated, ace LA detective and veteran of over 500 homicide cases easily ignored the blood, while the young uniform officer was busy throwing up in the rose bushes.

"So what are you thinking – mob hit?"

"No."

"Member of the Ban the Da Vinci Code hate club?"

"No."

"Ex-wife?"

"Maybe. I never rule out exes. They are capable of anything." Especially my unfaithful ex bitch, he added to himself. Zack walked arou

Zack Martinez Case 4

Dark blood pooled underneath the naked body and gore decorated the room. The sound of a tornado destroying a drive-in and service station shook the floor of the room. Detective O'Shaughnessy found the TV remote and muted the sound as Zack Martinez entered, stepped over the sofa and put two fingers to the body's neck.

"He's dead." Martinez said.

"You think so?" O'Shaughnessy motioned him away. Martinez ignored him. "You could be a suspect. You shouldn't be here. You should leave before you say anyt

Zack Martinez Case 3

The head, turned on the lino at a godawkward angle, with blood squirting in feeble arcs I can scarcely bear to witness.

A shooting. A shooting. A shooting. BANG BANG.

And the limbs, spreadeagled like a badly graffitied swastika; broken, maybe severed, I can't say.

Oh, and a ring. I see it now, a ring: I love you more than Andy Warhol's hairdo. I dressed up real smart, Babe, sure I did — look, see, the tie you bought me for Christmas. Aaack. Aaack. Breath.

It was Sarperstein's attorney, I tellya — th

Writing Exercise Update

There is no longer any danger that one of the Zack Martinez openings will have no continuation, so all openings are available