My entry for the July/August 2025 mysterious photograph contest in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
I'm having trouble getting my subscription issues mailed in time for me to compete. I had to inquire for a month before I finally got my July/August issue, which I received in late August. This was too late to compete, but I sent this in anyway.
A couple of weeks ago, I got an issue again. I was expecting September/October, but it was July/August once again.
On their website, they are now promoting their November/December issue. I love the magazine, but the subscription service, at least for me, sucks.
Anyhoo, here is the story I submitted.
ICE Fishing
Hector was
not fishing alone. Lisandra was with him. He felt her presence; her tapered
hand pressed gently on his shoulder. This quiet stretch of the Gulf of Mexico
was their favorite spot.
Lisandro
had been taken six months ago, removed from her work by an ICE agent. It did
not matter that she was a contributing, well-loved member of her community. The
agent took her, despite Hector's protests. Legal efforts failed, and she died
in a deportation facility, depressed, tortured, and ill.
Hector obsessed
over who the ICE agent was, and his skills as a former detective paid off.
Identified, Hector waited in the shadows as the agent left his car, immobilized
him, and bagged his head, taking him to a place from which he would not return.
His fishing
line dangled in the ocean. He wasn't trying to catch anything. He had already
caught what he wanted. He was waiting to ensure that the tides would not
displace what he had weighted down.
He would
rather have Lisandra back, but this would do. To arrive at their spot and know that
the one who took her had paid.
It would
not end there. There were also the guards who tortured her. He already had
leads to find them. Then, Hector and Lisandra could come out here forever.
And fish on
their graves.
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