Before he was Hank Sr., he was a sandlot sensation at third base. Scouts for the Brooklyn Dodgers and nearly every other team coveted him. Hank Wells, eldest of 6 sons from Flatbush was the talk of New York when he finally signed with Brooklyn. “When are Dem Bums bringin’ up Hank? What’re they waitin’ […]
Andy shivered awake in the black cramped space with a throbbing headache, his back against an itchy wooden wall. Slits of sickly yellow light beamed in from above. Far away, a door creaked open. There was a loud thump followed by heavy footsteps. Head spinning, Andy pulled himself to his feet and leaned his hot […]
These were the roofs Joseph climbed as a child. From these same rooftop perches he’d heard laughter and known it was at him and his father. His father had tried to stay here, had told him, at nights in their home on the edge of the woods, how he would show them that he and […]
Father Stone stared down at his sister Molly’s red hair, so beautiful in death that it seemed to protest, to defy being attached to so white and cold a corpse when he identified her at the morgue. Like raindrops, the cops followed the path of least resistance downhill; it was a random robbery gone wrong, […]
Randy went through Jake’s pockets while Mary flipped the channels looking for HBO. They’d managed to pick Jake up at a rest stop, Randy offering to blow him in his truck, only to have Mary stick a knife in his back. They used the husky man’s cash to procure the motel room, then hog tied […]
The 80s Mustang in his rearview mirror swerved out again and this time Monk let it pass. Goosed his pickup just enough the guy had to cut in tight to avoid a head-on with an SUV coming the other way. Sure enough, by the next stoplight, they were side by side again. Street lined with […]
My horse ain’t at all well. His chest started clunking yesterday—he’s drying out. De-hy-dration. I pinched his neck, and the skin stayed raised up too long. That’s a sure sign. Worse today. I need to find water. Still have a long way to go to get out of this desert. My tongue is sticking to […]
The Scorpions have the best parties; you just have to know who not to fuck with. I’ll tell you who that is … nobody. As long as you’re cool with the MC they’re mostly cool with you. I’ve never been a club member, never wanted to be. I’ve always been independent, making my own rules, […]
Before I agreed to tail his wayward wife, I wanted to know Erroll Cunningham wasn’t the killing type. Actually, he was more the corporate type, smallish, forty-ish, and polite. He suspected his wife was cheating and he looked like the kind of guy you’d expect to be cheated on. If you’re a private detective in […]
The wind cut harsh through the trees, dragging with it squalls of snow that stung a man’s flesh and chilled his marrow. Mitchel McCann had known there was a blow coming right enough, he told Shepard we should skin out, but Captain Shepard delayed, as he was want to do whenever there was a decision […]
Boggs lifted the twin bed’s mattress and found what he was looking for duct taped under the bedsprings – the most wanted gun in England. It had been less than a week since Boggs and Gibson brazenly robbed the east Oxford Betfred midday with nylon stockings over their heads. All had gone to plan until […]
I realized, turning the corner and finding the boys laughing around the fire barrel, that I disliked most species of laughter. Surprise laughter startles me. Bitter laughter tires me. Sincere laughter makes me feel left out. I got close enough without the boys noticing me to see that they weren’t burning trash in that barrel. […]
