TIME OF DEATH: 11:59 TONIGHT. CAUSE OF DEATH: TUESDAY.

Detective Mara Quill believes in fingerprints, paperwork and never saying please. She does not believe in ghost stories. But the file on her desk names a victim with no name and no face, and it gives a time and a place. Mara intends to be standing in that place long before the clock gets there.

The place is a shop on Tallow Lane where lost hours are bought, sold and held, run by a proprietor who never lies, never volunteers, and corrects anyone who calls him a vampire.

One evening. One missing night. Every clock on the wall running four minutes slow.

Cause of Death: Tuesday is a speculative noir mystery short story for readers who like their vampires dry, their detectives stubborn and their twists earned. About a 40-minute read.

Every hour has a price. The ledger keeps every one.

Mara has until 11:59. The clocks are lying to her, the one man who never lies is not telling her everything, and somewhere in the dark between now and midnight, someone has already decided what she is going to forget.

When the last clock strikes, who will be left to remember she was ever here?

Perfect Short Read for Readers who Love:

Ticking clock: A fixed deadline that shapes every scene.
One night, one setting: The story unfolds in a single evening, mostly in a single place.
The perfect crime: A scheme with no weapon and no scene.
Morally gray immortal: A vampire shopkeeper who never lies and never tells all.
Black market of memories: A world where hours and memories are traded.
Stubborn, flawed detective heroine: A heroine who counts everything and says please to no one.
Twist ending (two of them): Two reveals the reader can look back and see coming.
Dry, dark humor noir: Wit under pressure, never at the expense of the feeling.
Sisters and family secrets: An estranged-but-loving bond with a buried truth.
Sacrifice and redemption: A heavy price paid for something that matters more.

Cause of Death : Tuesday - A Time-Bending Vampire Noir Mystery Short Story

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