“THE DAY OF CALAMITY” – EXCERPT #3
There was one distinctive couple I met at a social function at the temple even though they were not affiliated with it. Bradley Wolrebinski was a Polish Jewish émigré who wrote lurid crime fiction under the name R.C. Donnelly. His wife, Svetlana Halonen, was a half-Russian half-Finnish artist who had an astounding greenhouse in the back of their opulent home on Park Place. I was never aware of them having gainful employment nor being involved in anything unsavory or illegal. Somehow they threw lavish parties, attended all manner of citywide events, and were both crazy as loons. It was possible the art world was more profitable than many others would have you believe. I was closer to them than to anyone other than my father.
Due to his avocation, Bradley’s mind thought in criminal terms, the devious and nefarious being an explanation for just about anything, including why the Orlando, Florida Army Air Base lost last year’s National Baseball Congress Championship. It was the unique quirk that allowed him to write his stories. I could never be sure if he genuinely had a criminal background or was associated with anyone who did. The uncertainty led an air of mystery to his gregarious persona. When it came to formulating a plan of attack, I chose to consult with him rather than Mendenhall or Gunsaullus. Unlike the movie detectives, I was not about to commit a breaking-and-entering to acquire information. Beyond the legal aspects, I could not bring myself to perpetrate a crime to catch a criminal. From Amos, it is said to hate evil, love good, and maintain justice. I wouldn’t be able to do that from a jail cell.
Private detective Harold Bergman stood as a testament to his former life as a Wichita Kansas policeman. Having endured the brutalities of World War II, he carries a slight but noticeable limp, a constant reminder of the battles fought on distant shores. As a Jew, his identity is woven into the very fabric of his being, but he cannot fulfill his father’s wishes that he become a rabbi, and instead faces a world where the laws of God and the laws of man don’t make sense, taking it upon himself to find the Truth and perhaps himself.
Harold finds himself entangled in the lives of a spoiled daughter, and the wayward husband of a devout colored woman. Their cases take Harold on a perilous journey into the depths of a dark underworld, where shadows dance with malicious intent and faith emerges as his sole weapon. Failure to wield it will usher in a day of calamity.
“The Day of Calamity” , The Wichita Chronicles Volume 1 will be released on November 29, 2023.
