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The Home of Gifts

*In 2015, I wrote a short story called "The Home of Gifts." Bewildering Stories published it in October of that year in Issue 641. Here's a small taste and a link to the full story:

The last few days had been long, and all Mark Sands wanted to do was finish his report and go home. He sat alone looking over the same notes, hoping somehow that he'd missed something, and tried to ignore the fire in his back.

You believe me, don't you Mark? The question echoed through Mark's brain a hundred times, and the old man's face beamed at him. In twenty years of detective work, never had he been taken in by a lie. That's why the report wouldn't write itself. He could tell, with faultless accuracy, if someone was telling the truth. Yet, how could anything the old man said be true?

So Mark went back to the day he had met him. He laid the facts out one by one. They always told the truth no matter how cold.

*Visit Bewildering Stories for the rest of "The Home of Gifts."

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