Tuesday Tales: From the Word HURRY

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales, the weekly blog where a select group of writers share a scene from their work in progress with you. This week, our word prompt is HURRY. I’m continuing with The White Dahlia. The story is moving right along at a much quicker pace. Enjoy.

The sooner she got home, the better.

“Beth! … Beth Reynolds! … Detective Sergeant Reynolds, I know you can hear me! What’s your hurry?”

For the second time in as many days, Beth turned her head at the sound of Jack Ogden’s despised voice. He was running toward her. In this heat, he was sweating like a chunky kid chasing an ice cream truck.

“Who’s that?” Al asked.

“That is the infamous Jack Ogden, the pariah who wrote the story about the body yesterday. He looks like crap. No doubt burning the candle at both ends, with too many women, fast food, and booze,” she answered, unable to quash her bitterness.

And if he got close enough, he might smell her latest cologne, knowing damn well she’d discovered another body. But that’s all he would get out of her. The uniformed officer stepped in front of him, blocking his access to her.

“That’s far enough, sir.”

Jack poked his head around the man.

“Beth. Either you speak to me, or I’ll shout out my questions for everyone to hear.”

She turned toward the journalist, knowing that if she didn’t, he would make good on his threat.

“What do you want, Jack? I was about to have dinner but seeing you just turned my stomach.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure it wasn’t something in there that did that for you? Why are you here? Is it because of the explosion? You aren’t with the bomb squad anymore, so there has to be more to it.”

“No comment,” she ground out through clenched teeth.

“The Commissioner said a van exploded. Would it by any chance be the van the police have been looking for, the dark van seen in the alley on Thursday night?”

How the hell did he know that? They’d kept the search under the radar, and yet slimy here knew all about it. Who’d he speak to?

Jack narrowed his eyes. Her hesitation was all the answer he needed.

“So it is the same van.”

“No comment,” she spit the words at him, barely able to control her fury.

Jack turned from her to Al.

“Detective Foster. The woman who died Thursday night was one of your missing persons, and here you are again this evening. Why is that? Does this have something to do with her? Care to add anything?”

That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales