Trace of Smoke Excerpt 7
June 16, 2008
NEW: I will have a trailer done this week! But I won’t release it until April to generate interest in the book. And I have a new and wonderful blurb on my home page from the esteemed historical fiction writer Paul Doherty. Hooray!
EXCERPT: Like every Monday, I had come to the police station to sift through the weekend’s crime reports in search of a story for the Berliner Tageblatt, looking for a tale of horror to titillate our readers. Mondays were the best times for fresh reports. People got up to more trouble on weekends, and at the full moon. Ernst’s photograph flashed through my head. He too had got up to more trouble on the weekend. I swallowed my grief and handed Fritz back his handkerchief.
Fritz shook his head. “We found a few floaters last weekend.” He walked behind the wooden counter that separated his work area from the public area. “Mostly vagrants, I think. Probably a few from a new power struggle between criminal rings, but we’ll not prove it.”
I held my face stiff, using the polite smile I’d mastered as a child. I was grateful for the beatings, slappings, and pinchings I’d received from my parents. They had taught me to hold this face no matter what my real thoughts and feelings. Ernst had mocked me for it. Everything he thought or felt showed on his face the instant it entered his head. And now he was dead. I gulped, once more fighting for control. Fritz furrowed his brow. He suspected something was wrong, in spite of my best efforts.
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