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Temptation Square

by Leland Neville

About the Author: Leland Neville lives and writes in upstate New York. He previously worked for a news magazine in Washington, D.C. and taught in both a high school and a prison. Some of his mysteries have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Literary Hatchet and Pulp Modern.

Excerpt

I first saw the gray man in Temptation Square, the nefarious tourist destination in East Buffalo. He emerged from one of the crepuscular alleys that are instinctively spurned by even the most jaded tourists. He nodded and smiled. The gray man was ordinary and forgettable. He was nobody. He was everybody. He was evil incarnate.

I met Detective Tim Rizzo for lunch at the Deco Café, a conveniently located beanery on the edge of Temptation Square and adjacent to my private investigator business. I passed him an envelope of hundred dollar bills and ordered an Irish coffee. It was a monthly tradition.

“You should eat something,” said Tim. “You never eat. You don’t look so good.”

“I need you to ask around about a man I’ve seen in the Square.”

“Who is it this time?” Tim’s eyes remained focused on his roast beef.

“He’s genuine evil. Sin clings to him like ivy.”

“You’re just being judgmental again. Every few months you seem to find Satan and his minions lurking in Temptation Square. Real evil operates outside the Square. Don’t do anything stupid. I can’t afford to get caught up in your self-righteousness. We’ve been through this before. Temptation Square has been a godsend to the community.”

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