by David Sayre
Ines was sunning, letting the heat dry the ocean water from her body. Sheen had gone back into the waters where Biscayne Bay met the Atlantic Ocean for one final swim of the day. He rubbed a beach towel over his chest and legs, and then let the atmosphere do the rest.
He lay down beside his wife and kissed her. She smiled at him and he thought of the evening a few days after he'd survived the altercation with Cristiano, when he'd told Ines about the case. How it had been more dangerous than anything he'd ever dealt with and that it took him to places in the city, mixing with people that he preferred not to encounter. He'd still felt bad about the night that he came home after getting his face beaten and offering her no acceptable explanation. It was the first time in their marriage that he felt he'd not been truthful with her, something he didn't like. So he told her the story.
But he also told her that he'd helped Eladio and what a good young man there was beneath the ex-dealer's rough exterior. Ines loved her husband's compassion and told him she was proud for him having made someone's life better by taking a chance on them. It made her respect and love him more than ever. Though she said she didn't like the violence and jeopardy he'd dealt with on that job. Sheen promised he didn't like it either, and assured her that his days typically weren't like that.
He'd since had a few cases. They were more mundane. The kinds of activities Sheen had considered his norm. And he was happy for that.
He was happy to be safe and to have the love of a great woman, who was a great mother to their kids. The boys had started their senior years and all was well. Life was as good as can be expected. Sheen needed, nor wanted, for anything else.
They'd dried off in the sun, packed up their belongings and tossed them in the backseat of the Alfa Romeo. Ines sat in the car beside Delmon and placed her hand on his thigh. She rested a head on his shoulder and admired the pink hue that had collected behind the clouds as the sun was creating stunning colors to usher the afternoon into the evening.
Sheen turned over the engine . . . but it didn't turn. He cranked the key again and tried to let out the clutch . . .
Nothing.
On the third try, Ines had lifted her head from Delmon's shoulder and given him a concerned look. He felt sheepish as he looked to her in defeat, knowing he'd have to walk to the payphone at the beach's restroom pavilion and call for a tow truck.
Sheen offered a pained grin to Ines as he said, "Ok. Maybe we ought to take a look at that Dodge Caravan."
Acknowledgements
As always I have to thank the good people in my life, my family and friends who always support me. I am truly blessed to have them. I owe particular gratitude to Jorge Domingo for designing the book's cover, the second of which he's created for me, and I couldn't be happier with his work.
Writing Dirty Side of the Storm was a fascinating experience. Often times fun, always creatively fulfilling and sometimes touching. I had a great deal more comfort writing this second effort than I had embarking on my first novel, Some Are Shadows. I had intended, when the first novel was finished, to write a story set decades later with the original Detective Sheen's son following in his father's footsteps and working a case in 1990's Miami. I fortuitously decided to set the story in 1992 (being that it was exactly forty years after the first book, as well as a few other, less prominent reasons). Once I had done that it occurred to me that the biggest thing to happen in Miami that year was the landfall and destruction brought on by Hurricane Andrew. Suddenly the possibility for dramatic elements seemed limitless. What a backdrop to set this story against.
The element for which I was not prepared, and hadn't planned, was the theme of fathers and sons that emerged in this story.
During the time that I was writing the first draft of Dirty Side of the Storm, my father, Lewis Sayre, passed away. Upon reading through the first draft I realized there are paragraphs that I can distinctly remember writing while in his hospital room. I realized something else during that initial read through. Despite having never consciously intended to do so, I had penned something through which was threaded an underlying subtext of fathers and sons. My father loved my first book, Some Are Shadows, and I often think about how happy I am that it was published before he passed on.
Writing about Ben Sheen in Some Are Shadows and Delmon Sheen in Dirty Side of the Storm gave me the opportunity to write, not only about two generations of a family, but also two different eras of my hometown, Miami, Florida. I look forward to catching up with the further exploits of the Sheen detectives in future works as I bring in some new characters and timeframes, and perhaps revisited some old ones.
My final thank you goes out to you, the reader. You hold this novel in your hands because you wanted to be taken on a journey and I couldn't possibly tell you how much I appreciate you for coming along with me on this ride. Storytellers need, ultimately, one thing . . . someone to tell their stories to and I hope you enjoy this bit of fiction I've been able to put on paper.
Thank you for reading.
David Sayre
January 2019
About the author
Lifelong Miami resident David Sayre follows up his debut novel, Some Are Shadows, with the next generation of Sheen detectives in Dirty Side of the Storm. Sayre previously wrote and directed short films and also wrote articles on film and television. Readers can follow him on Twitter @writtenbysayre and on his website at davidsayre.net