Keith DeCandido - Four Walls

Eventually, though, it had to come to an end. Holding up the dregs of his espresso, Mac said, "Before we all head out, I'd like to propose a toast. To Stella Bonasera for dragging us all out to have fun together."

"Hear hear!"

"Yeah, Stella!"

Stella smiled. "Thanks, Mac."

As the party broke up, Stella and Angell said their good-byes to Belluso and Jeanie. Soon they were all standing on the Riverdale Avenue sidewalk.

Lindsay looked up at Danny. "I'm in the mood to shoot some pool."

"Oh yeah? I know a place, has a great table."

"Well, let's go, then," she said with a smile.

"Don't forget," Mac said, "you're on at nine tomorrow, Lindsay."

"I know," Lindsay said as she and Danny headed toward the latter's car.

Mac shook his head and headed toward his own car, then stopped when Stella called, "Hey, Mac!"

She ran to catch up to him, then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for the toast."

He smiled. "You earned it. And good work on the Campagna case, by the way. It would've been easy to just go after Morgenstern. But you stuck with it and followed the evidence. I'm proud of you, Stella."

Stella grinned. "Well, I had a good teacher. And nice catch on figuring out how Washburne died. That was a clever bit of detective work."

"Thanks. But I got a good reward."

"Oh?"

Looking back at Belluso's, Mac said, "Best cannoli in New York."

"Damn right."

KEITH R.A. DECANDIDO IS a white male in his late thirties, approximately 190 pounds. He was last seen in the wilds of the Bronx, New York, though he is often sighted in other locales. Usually he is armed with a laptop computer, which some have classified as a deadly weapon. Through the use of this laptop, he has inflicted novels, short stories, comic books, nonfiction, eBooks, and anthologies on an unsuspecting reading public. Most of these are set in the milieus of television shows, movies, video games, and comic books, among them Star Trek (in all its incarnations), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Command and Conquer, Doctor Who, Marvel Comics, Resident Evil, StarCraft, Supernatural, World of War-craft, and many more. He has also perpetrated the acclaimed high-fantasy police procedural Dragon Precinct, as well as several short stories in the same universe. If you see DeCandido, do not approach him, but call for backup immediately. He is often seen in the company of a woman tentatively identified as his fiancйe and two cats who go under the street names of "Aoki" and "Marcus." A full dossier can be found at www.DeCandido.net, with further information at kradical.livejournal.com.