"The Compassion Play
An Aloha McCoy Story"
by: Ken Janssens
as published in
PRO SE PRESENTS Masked Gun Mystery #2
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Excerpt:
There are stupid people in this world and there are stuuuupid people in this world. I knew I belonged in at least one of those two categories. Don’t believe me? Then why was I hanging a good forty-something feet off the ground by my fingertips?
I had a new plan for this life. It seemed like a good plan. Well, an okay plan… alright, I didn’t think it entirely through. See, I ran a recreation center for youths on the outskirts of The Core and my biggest financial contributor had pulled out.
I had some ad money saved up from my short stint as an Olympic gymnast, but that was mostly for my mortgage. After trying but not succeeding in acquiring some other backers, I had to accept that I needed to find another income. Because I solved a “case” earlier in the month, I figured why not start up a part-time detective agency and run it out of my rec center. The start-up money was nearly a grand. And what’s my net income over the last three weeks? Yep, minus a thousand dollars. I had to start making some money soon. Knowing that was my number one priority, I decided to take on a pro bono case. Oh, I’d figured it out: definitely stuuuupid.
This whole thing began about four-thirty p.m. on a Tuesday. I was in my office going over my budget for the next month. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the headline of a newspaper half hidden under some other papers. ‘Star Teresa Keefe Comes Home.’ I looked at the accompanying photo of The Core’s own Hollywood success story—with her airbrushed skin, red, pixie-style hair, and puckered lips—then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My sweaty, tangled red-brown hair plastered against my light mocha skin and my formerly-white tank top said ‘Glamorous? Not so much’.
