Chet was a moron. I gave him very simple instructions for a very simple job and of course he fucked it up. It should have been easy. I said, “See Manny tell him you need two of the usual. Give him the money and bring them back here.”
Simple right? Two guns two hundred a piece. He goes to see Manny and Chet decides he doesn’t like the guns like he’s some kind of fucking expert. Ok, he was in the army, that’s how I know Chet. I was his squad leader. He was a nice kid but he couldn’t tie his own bootlaces without instructions. When we got out he looked me up. He needed a job. I took pity on him and hey I needed a lackey because I was spreading myself too thin.
So, Chet comes back and tells me he didn’t buy the guns from Manny.
He stood on the street next to the MuniBike rack and looked up at me.
I was three weeks new in the building and had climbed out onto my second floor fire escape to smoke a cigarette.
My daughters were with me that night, already asleep.
The guy on the street raised a cigar to his mouth and switched his gaze from me to the floor above mine and over one unit to 3B. I had met 3B the day I moved in, and already had her over for a drink.
The guy lowered the cigar and switched his eyes directly back to me. Yep, he was 3B’s boyfriend.
Ten minutes later I was inside filling the kitchen sink with water.
Cotton shirt, linen trousers, no tie or jacket, clean-shaven.
I gestured towards a chair and he took it. I sat down opposite. The passage of our bodies through the air flickered at the candlelight in my consulting room, releasing a fresh scent of sandalwood. My new client didn’t speak. I stared at him, blinking slowly, gently, until he dropped his shoulders and relaxed.
It is important to set the mood.
He was handsome, Caucasian, just a few years past his prime, the square jaw softening into jowls, the wrinkles starting to gather around his eyes. I smiled. For male clients, I always wear red lipstick. This colour works better than plum or pink. I took his left hand in both of mine and turned it over. No stains from ink, paint, grease; no calluses, scars or recent injuries from work tools.
You have to know your demographics.
There’s no breeze, and I’m pretty sure this tanker ship hasn’t moved in hours. We must be anchored in Frisco. Three of us were herded into this crate on deck almost twelve hours ago. It was damn hot until sunset. I sucked my jeans dry after pissing myself, but I’m still thirsty. The air reeks […]
Death Breath’s boot crashed on Owen’s head. It cut him hardway. “Motherfucker,” he thought, “motherfucker.” Owen stared up at the lights in the auditorium. He could hear the crowd chanting “You fucked up! You fucked up!” To Owen they sounded muffled, almost as if they were coming from underwater. The kicks were stiff and real […]
I stick out my thumb by a strip mall ghost town west of Platte and out wait for bad luck to happen. Five minutes later it does. I’m riding in a beaten down Galaxie 500 with bald tires, heavy enough not to get blown off the Nebraska plains, with a cornpone operator sitting next to […]
She climbed into the truck’s cab with a muffled sigh. The veiled mask over her head shifting to the right—it wasn’t a good fit. “We all set?” Craig grinned ear to ear. “In a sec.” She raised a gloved finger. Craig drummed a beat on the steering wheel. “Telling yah, I already got three farmers […]
I often talk about good people, the folks I’ve gotten to know over the last few years from the crime fiction community. Matthew McBride is good people. He is a past contributor of Shotgun Honey, and has had stories with Plots with Guns, Thuglit, A Twist of Noir and others. His first novel Frank Sinatra […]
I’m not going to kill you. I wanted to get that piece of information out in the open straight off so there’s no misunderstanding – so you can be completely open and relaxed with me. You’re going to survive this conversation. You’re even going to be able to walk away on your own once we’re […]
Seamus McCarty’s hands were made for work, rough-hewn tools that had never caressed a woman’s cheek, rarely made a wasted move. They picked potatoes and stashed money, then grappled with ropes during a sea crossing that saw softer hands fall still. In the new country, they built things; first wooden toys then ice chests then […]
We here at One Eye Press are ecstatic to release our second One Eye Press Singles, Bracken MacLeod’s WHITE KNIGHT. What’s it about: Once, he had imagined himself slaying dragons and making the monsters pay. But his armor was wearing thin as the women who drifted through his office haunted him with the same, hard-bought […]
From the first story I read on Plot with Guns to the many that Kieran has graced Shotgun Honey with since its inception, Kieran Shea has been, and continues to be, a diverse writer with a sense of drama and action, and a knack for dialogue that many envy. A veteran short story writer, we […]
