STEEL CITY NOIR: BEAUTY HIDES HER WAY

Art by Julian Lopez

New Pulp Author Vito Delsante returns to Trip City’s Steel City Noir for another bite-sized pulp tale. Beauty Hides Her Way begins and ends as so many pulp tales do… with a woman.

(Based on Actual Events)

“I have to know. Why Pittsburgh?”

“What do you mean?” she asked. “Like, why did I choose Pittsburgh?”

“Yeah. Why here?” I stopped, raising my head off of the pillow slightly to look out of the open window.

There, on the horizon, thousands and thousands of lights that symbolized better futures and presents than the one I was in right now. “You could have gone to New York. LA. But…you’re here, in ‘Nowheresville.’”

“Oh, baby,” she said as her lips curled up into the smile of a killer, “I didn’t choose this city. The city didn’t choose me.” She grabbed the half-smoked cigarette from her bedside ashtray. She lit it again, the renewal of a promise made. She exhaled easy, like the smoke was a part of her and the air was the poison.

“Honey, this is as far as my money took me, and I decided to stop.” She laughed. She didn’t giggle, or snicker. She laughed like the joke was so obvious to everyone but me.

I wanted to hate her for that but it was far too late for any semblance of sentiment now.

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You can read the rest of Steel City Noir: Beauty Hides Her Way here.