Mystery, Short Story, Wordle

Playing By The Numbers: A Dirk Malone Story

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle – #735. Our host is
Brenda Warren and these are our prompt words: hook,
sway, hearts, strip, chain, dizzy, sweep, you, stick, swell,
steam, and shock. Here’s where the prompts took me.

Image by Me & Copilot

The dame had a hook in me from the moment she walked through my door, all sway and trouble. She wanted me to find her sister on the strip, where neon hearts promised everything and delivered nothing.

“You stick with me on this one, Malone,” she said, chain-smoking Luckies.

Three days later, I’m watching steam rise from a manhole cover on Fifth, tailing a numbers runner who might know something. The city’s got a swell of new faces lately …. all of them dirty. My head’s dizzy from the chase, the sleepless nights, the bourbon.

Then I see her. The sister. Not missing. Not in danger. Running the biggest protection racket in the precinct, bold as brass.

When I tell the dame, the shock in her eyes lasts maybe two seconds. “If you’re thinking of ratting me out, Malone….” then she pulls a .38 from her purse. Turns out blood runs cold in both sisters.

I manage to sweep her gun hand aside, but the bullet still finds the wall behind me, inches from my head.

Some cases you solve. Others you just survive.

NAR©2025

This is “Witness Protection” by Coco Montoya

Wordle 735

All text and graphics are copyright for Nancy Richy and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

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