Yellow Tulips

by Peter W. J. Hayes

About the Author: Peter W. J. Hayes is the author of the Silver Falchion-nominated Vic Lenoski mystery series. His short stories have been finalists for the Derringer and Al Blanchard awards, and have appeared in publications such as Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Mystery Magazine, Crimeucopia, Pulp Modern, three Malice Domestic anthologies and The Best New England Crime Stories. Two of his stories were chosen by Robert Lopresti for his Best Mystery Story I Read This Week blog.

Excerpt

Levon Grace felt the commercial airliner tilt as it turned south toward Ankara. Below, the setting sun glittered on the surface of the Black Sea. Levon tried to appreciate the sight, but couldn’t. This was his first visit to Ankara, it was unfamiliar ground, and his assignment should have started three days sooner.

“Cake-walk,” Carter Quince had told him the day before, sitting across from him in the narrow armchair of Levon’s Washington D.C. hotel room. Outside, traffic snarled through the darkness under a pattering rain. Carter’s tone was apologetic.

Levon knew Carter was trying to be honest with him, but Carter told lies for a living. The apology behind his words was the best he could do.

“Let me get this straight,” Levon said. “Your best informant in the Turkish National Intelligence Organization, or MIT, or whatever they call it, disappeared two days ago. Her name’s Aisha Aydin. And you think she left MIT headquarters in Ankara and went dark.”

Carter’s blue eyes were serious behind his round tortoiseshell glasses. “Right. She transmitted her burn code but never showed in Istanbul. That’s her protocol to escape the country. That means she’s in her Ankara bolt-hole, waiting for someone to show up.”

“And you don’t have the address.”

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