A Man Of Conscience

by E.M. Schorb

About the Author: Schorb's novel, R&R, a Sex Comedy, won the most recent Beverly Hills Book Award for Humor and his mystery, Paradise Square, received the Grand Prize for Fiction from the International eBook Award Foundation at the Frankfurt Book Fair over a decade ago. A Portable Chaos was the First Prize Winner of the Eric Hoffer Award for Fiction. www.emschorb.com

Excerpt

The night can sweat with terror as before

We pieced our thoughts into philosophy,

And planned to bring the world under a rule,

Who are but weasels fighting in a hole.

—W.B. Yeats

This happened in London, although it could have happened in Dublin or New York or any major city of the world. It could have happened in some backwater as well, but it happened in London, not far from Piccadilly Circus. But where it happened is of no real importance—when is more relevant, but that will become clear in the telling of it. The story derives from a Scotland Yard confession, to which the author was privy before his retirement.

It was early evening of a cold December day just before Christmas, 1947. The pavements glistened under falling heavy mist and traffic sounds were muted. Two men were walking down a street. The man following came up behind the man ahead. The man ahead felt the barrel of a pistol in his back. He was told to keep walking and was ordered into a dark doorway.

“This was a trick,” he said in a hushed voice, back over his shoulder. “I was told this was a meet for the cause.”

“Get down those stairs.”

Story Comments