Billy Crenshaw was confused and hurt. Just after helping an old man start his car, he’d had a taser gun used on him. He’d been hogtied with two sets of handcuffs, left hand to left ankle, right hand to right ankle. Then they’d cut his clothes off his body with a set of shears. They’d […]
The room I wait in is a climate-controlled sixty degrees, but I sweat beads of desperation. One more check then my unemployment runs out. I’m interviewing for a job I need. Simple as that. The door to Senior Director Barry Clydesdale’s office opens. He’s shaking hands with a guy half my age—twenty-five at most—and laughing, […]
Along with thousands of other hopeful or desperate men, Big Jim Montgomery trekked across the mountains forty years earlier at the height of the California gold rush, before staking his claim and setting up camp near Longridge in the spring of 1850. He never discovered the big seams that made a few others very wealthy […]
It had to be the earrings. Every time Martha wore them, certain women wanted to be her friend. Every time she wore this pair, the one with the amber hanging down slightly from the lobes, girls with bit down fingernails and covered over scars wanted to talk to her. Tell her things. Like this girl […]
Toad’s eyes were as dark and blank as the six bullet holes behind him, looking way over my shoulder while we talked about who just shot his friend in the stomach. “Shit, Detective Jurgis, I was ducking; I can’t say for sure,” he said, flipping his hands into a shrug. “Probably them Grub bangers. You […]
The way Joy calmly swept up the broken teeth from the kitchen floor would leave anyone with the impression of a woman who didn’t get too upset about things. This was just part of the familiar routine, sweeping up teeth, wiping blood spatter from walls. That’s what a woman gets sometimes working two jobs after […]
This is how the Gowan gang died. They ambushed Hawthorne near Greek Pass, a desolate cluster of rock and hard-packed dirt in west Texas. It was a perfect spot for a bushwhacking. The six of them set up in the high rocks in the morning hours, and by early noon Hawthorne came through. He rode […]
You’d never write, “must be devastatingly handsome” in the job description, but Don found it useful nonetheless. He’d guess he had screwed half of the women he visited, and this was after telling them he was repossessing their television or dryer or sewing machine. Tears would well up and they’d say something about their deadbeat […]
-Shhh. You should stop struggling. Struggling lessens the morphine’s benefit. -Lessens the what? -You, señor. The morphine in your blood. The less you move, the longer it will last. -Wha—where am I? -You are here. -Where’s here? -Outside the city. Cabo. Cabo San Lucas. You are here on vacation. You do not remember? -Did something […]
A town boy burst up to Sheriff Wilkins’ office yelling out, “He’s dead, Sheriff. He’s dead. Mr. Purley ‘s dead in his store. I peeked in the window and he’s on the floor and blood all over him!” The sun had barely warmed up Carver Grove and small bunches of the story came back to […]
Chapman steps to the corner of 10th Street and Ocean Drive. South Beach, wind in the palmettos, and the tide surging for dunes. It is the smoking metro twilight. Chapman smells shrimp and pasta from a sidewalk café. Lindell walks up. Chapman says, “We get inside. When I say, ‘God bless the internet,’ you pull […]
State Trooper Olan Miller is headed home in his cruiser. His shift is over, finally. Five more miles and he’s got a cold one in his hand. Up ahead, very dim headlights of another vehicle slowly come into view. There’s a figure too, standing to the side of the road. As he nears, he switches […]
