Chapter 2
August, 2009.
Doug Oleander, American Star ace reporter and fiction writer – on most days the two were one and the same - considered his blank notebook page for a minute, unsmiling, his face mute of all expression. The sinking Las Vegas sun glared through the blinds covering his wide window, throwing hard bars of light across the dark surfaces of his living room. He tapped the point of his pen absently against the blotter with his right hand, adding to a confusion of blue freckles. With his left he scattered and sifted through a collection of 3x5 photographs he’d been sent over the past few weeks, hoping something would reach out and tweak his imagination.
Smoke drifted from the cigarette clamped between his lips, creating ghost-shadows across his desk, burning his eyes. T
