Mystery, Noir, Short Story, Word Challenge, Wordle

The Sorry Truth: A Dirk Malone Story

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for MLMM Monday Wordle #461.
Our twelve prompt words are shown below.
Here’s where they took me. Thanks, Di!

petty, rich, custom, sorry, pride, worry,
try, carry, support, honest, suggest, and head

Image by Me & ChatGPT

Dirk Malone leaned against the custom mahogany bar, nursing his third whiskey. The joint was full of rich types who wouldn’t know an honest day’s work if it bit them in their pride.

“You look like you carry the weight of the world, detective,” the bartender said.

“Just another petty case, Joe” Dirk muttered. But it wasn’t petty. Not really. The dame who’d hired him had disappeared, and all signs suggest her husband was involved. Dirk didn’t worry much about most things, but something about this one gnawed at him.

He’d let his guard down and like a school boy still wet behind the ears, he found himself falling for this dame. Whether she was just toying with him or she was the real deal, he didn’t know, but it felt like she was falling for him, too. Who’s kidding who? He’s a two-bit dick and she’s the wife of a rich SOB. Stuff like that only happened in Woolworth’s dime novels. This is real life and now she’s vanished into thin air.

The husband had money, the kind that could support a small army of lawyers, the kind that payed off judges and silenced witnesses. The dirty kind. Dirk had seen it before …. corruption wearing expensive suits.

He finished his drink and checked his watch: 2:45 AM. Dirk’s knuckles did a quick rat-a-tat on the bar in farewell to Joe. He’d head uptown through the rain-slicked streets of Amsterdam Avenue. Walking helped him think.

Inside his cramped office, he found an envelope under the door. Blood money, probably. Enough to make him look the other way. He tore it open and tossed the cash onto his desk. A pile of Ben Franklins stared back at him. He whistled through his teeth.

“Sorry, pal,” he said to the empty room. “That’s not how I work.”

He straightened his hat and felt for the gun in his pocket. Time to try knocking on doors that didn’t want opening. Someone would talk. They always did.

Eventually.

NAR©2026
#MLMM
#Wordle

This is “One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)” by Frank Sinatra

MLMM Monday Wordle #461

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

22 thoughts on “The Sorry Truth: A Dirk Malone Story”

  2. Oh, gosh. Remember Woolworth’s? In high school, we would wait in front of Woolworth’s for the public transportation bus to take us home from school.

    ‘Dirk’s knuckles did a quick rat-a-tat on the bar’–I love this line. That is how you say good-bye!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Tell me what you're thinking. 🖊️