Dark Spectrum - Episode 23

This week’s episode features a chapter from Dark Spectrum, Jake Ramsey Book #2, the first book Black Brick is available as a free ebook from most ebook vendors. Here is an excerpt from the show:

RONALD LIVED ON THE fourth floor and I resisted the urge to run up the stairs. I wasn’t in a hurry. I had plenty of time. The one thing I needed to do now was avoid calling attention to myself. I needed to look like I belonged in the building.

On the first landing, I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths, imagining I’d just got home from a late night at work. It wasn’t easy to put myself into the shoes of an ordinary working man, but I did my best. After a minute, my heartbeat had slowed and I wasn’t so antsy. I slumped my shoulders and went up the stairs. Just another man heading home after a late night at the office.

It was a good thing I’d exercised the self-control because on the second floor I ran into the woman who I’d followed into the building. She was on her way back down with a bag over her shoulder that she had not had before.

We made eye contact, I gave her a mirthless smile I hoped conveyed a sense of fatigue, but she looked away without a word. If she were concerned that I didn’t have the right to be here, it didn’t show on her face. Glad I’d taken the time to relax, I continued past while trying to not think about what she might have done if she had found me pounding up the stairs like I was going to accuse somebody of kidnapping children.

The stairway was a stark affair with white cinderblock walls and metal stairs. The handrails had been painted white recently. Each floor had emergency telephones that were several decades old. I was surprised to see them still in service, considering everybody had a cell phone these days.

I was relieved when I got to the fourth floor without a problem. I stepped out into the corridor as if I belonged and tried to avoid looking over my shoulder.