Welcome back to Fearsome Fiction, and to Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.

When we last left Marshall, he was finding his footing in a New York City that was as thrilling as it was foreign — a city that moved faster than he did, that asked more of him than he expected, and that seemed to be keeping secrets at every turn.

In tonight’s chapters, those secrets begin to take on weight. Trent hands Marshall a small yellow envelope — a floppy disk he calls “insurance” — and refuses to say more. It’s the kind of thing a man hands off only when he’s afraid of what might happen to it. Or to him.

Marshall puts the envelope away and goes on with his evening, because what else do you do? You put on a borrowed coat, you navigate your first New York City subway ride — tokens and all — and you head to Chelsea for what you tell yourself is just dinner. And maybe something more.

What he finds at Leland’s apartment, though, isn’t dinner. It’s a little white pill and a great deal of persuasion. And with one small word — sure — Marshall James crosses a line he can’t uncross.

Chapters twenty-two, twenty-three, and twenty-four. A disk full of secrets. A train into the dark. And the first of many falls to come.

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Welcome back to Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast, with Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller, chapters nineteen through twenty-one.

It’s 1992, and Marshall James is forty blocks into his first real walk through New York City — down through Chelsea, where hope is spilling out onto the sidewalk in front of every coffee bar. He’s thirty-three, starting over, and beginning to believe that might actually be possible.

That belief gets complicated fast. A tour of Muscles Gym leads to a dinner invitation from Leland Jenner that Marshall knows he shouldn’t accept — and accepts anyway. Meanwhile, he learns that Trent has his own standing Tuesday arrangement with a certain Senator Daniel Roth.

Then we jump forward. Marshall and his partner Boo arrive in Lambertville to look into the murder of a famous author — last seen alive at the bed and breakfast where they’re now unpacking. The canal, the locked rooms, and a housekeeper with perfect comic timing are all waiting for them.

Chapters Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-One. Night Flight to Murder Town.

Welcome to Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast and another three chapters of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.

Marshall James arrives in New York and gets his first look at Muscles, the gym where he’ll be working, courtesy of Trent. He’s told the previous manager had to go away and has not been seen since. The new one, Leland, can’t quite hide his interest in Marshall. And Trent makes it clear, without raising his voice, that everyone in the room knows exactly where the lines are.

New York is a city that demands a verdict, and Marshall’s is immediate. He loves it, against his better judgment. But love doesn’t mean safety. Trapped in Trent’s luxury apartment with a man whose pager never stops buzzing and whose overseas calls carry the unmistakable sound of crime, Marshall knows he needs to run. He just needs money first, and a map.

Meanwhile, back in the future, Marshall and his husband Boo arrive at a bed and breakfast in Lambertville. Their host Kyle Callahan jokes that their room is the “murder suite” and it’s been been good for business. Marshall will soon learn the truth of it, as they explore the river town they just might move to.