Mystery, Noir, Short Story, Word Challenge, Wordle

Redemption: A Dirk Malone Story

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle – #742. Our host is
Brenda Warren; her prompt words for this week are
shown below. Here’s where the prompts took me.

below, renew, weaves, through, cloaks, holy,
untethered, tendrils, gods, spark, ash, and wonder

Image by Me & ChatGPT

The dame weaves through my office door like smoke, all legs and desperation. Says her husband’s below ground now – officially suicide, but she don’t buy it.

I flick ash from my cigarette. “The gods of this city don’t care about truth, sweetheart.”

“Then renew their faith, Mr. Malone.”

The case cloaks itself in lies from the start. The dame says her husband was bogged down by depression, money problems. I find tendrils connecting him to the holy rollers at Saint Mark’s. The preacher says the husband’s a freewheeler, untethered from life’s responsibilities. I ain’t buying it; if you ask me, he lies like a rug.

Turns out the good reverend’s been running numbers through the collection plate and the husband was in over his head.

I wonder how many bodies it takes before someone notices.

The reverend tries to spark a deal; no dice. I introduce him to my .38 instead.

“Now’s a good time to start prayin’”, I tell him.

The dame gets her answers. I get paid. In this town, that’s all the redemption anyone gets.

NAR©2026

This is “Faith” by George Michael

Wordle 742

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

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