Acclaimed As One of the Year’s Best!
RESTORATION SOFTWARE
…Gus came out of the motel bathroom, a palmful of hair dripping on the chipped tile. The long strands, a bushy, tangled mess, spilled in all directions. “It’s… sticky. Like pine tar or something.” Jonah wondered why he even picked it up.
He fumbled his phone, dropped it, fired its beam on the ceiling. “I saw something. It… was looking at me.”
“The woman’s here?”
“It was an ‘it.’ And it moved.”
This Gun’s for Hire
He held up his spiral notebook, open to a page with only one word on it: Dancing. “Listen, Stevie, I’m sick of sitting here trying to write in this book. I’m completely in the dark. When I get up in the evening, nuthin’. I ain’t got nothing to say. When I come home in the morning…”
Jersey Girl leaned over. “He goes to bed feeling the same way.”
Gypsy Steve nearly sprained his eyebrows. Did she just confess to something?
The songwriter tapped his well-chewed yellow pencil. “I just need something to start a fire under me.”
“Listen, boss, there’s something happening somewhere.” Steve adjusted his silk head scarf and took a deep breath. Took the notebook from his friend and handed him a .380 Beretta. “You can’t start a fire without a spark.”
From
Thrill Ride Magazine
GIFTS OF PROVIDENCE
He turned back to the bluff and cracked off three rounds from Lew’s repeater. About fifty yards below, off to the southwest, he spotted their attacker disappearing behind a cloud of dust.
‘Who was he.’
‘White horse. Bright red shirt. All I could see. Was hoping you’d know.’
‘Why would I?’
‘Wasn’t shooting at me.’
‘You’re hurt.’ Lew licked her thumb and wiped at a cut on his left cheek. ‘You were wrong, before. Reckon now it’s become your fight.’
‘Wasn’t shooting at me.’
TOXIC
Perhaps the most repeated phrase in hairstylist Henri Beauchamp’s repertoire is ‘Your secret’s safe with me.’
But those secrets that weren’t his clients’? Oh honey, step right up. ‘Do you want to know what I heard?’ is probably the second most repeated phrase in a salon.
His phone pinged – the latest edition of The Bayville Beacon, that gossip rag, had dropped. While his friends read along, Henri stammered, ‘I never claimed I was from… Wait… She wanted it that color… I would never call someone… Oh, yeah, that does sound like something I’d say… That’s why everyone signs waivers…‘
Henri looked up at the police chief. ‘This just became personal. I’m taking over the case.’
From the ‘Mysteries to Die For’ Podcast – A Book You Read with Your Ears!
Outside the Box
Jordan Black was a cardboard salesman, not a spy. Right now he should be in some hospitality suite eating bacon-wrapped scallops and schmoozing, not sneaking around a Sydney chemical plant using a dead man’s ID.
The overhead lights snapped on. Some spy he was—he hadn’t even heard the door squeak open.
‘Stop right there, mate. Put yer hands high.’
Jordan looked at the two men pointing weapons at him. Shit, not these guys again.
From
Thrill Ride Magazine
Better Not Cry
They don’t tell you how many kids piss on Santa’s lap.
Why couldn’t they just be normal, sit down, and ask for GI Joes and Barbies? He had this one brat this morning tried explaining crypto to him.
Nick bounced little Jimmy – ‘Jimbo’ – once on his knee. He could feel the tell-tale warmth of a faulty bladder, but it wasn’t Santa that the boy feared. It was everything else.
TRAMPS LIKE US
Gypsy Steve rattled the knob. ‘Wendy? Let me in! Together, we can break this trap. We’ll run – we’ll run til we drop, and baby… We’ll never come back.‘
She shook her head frantically and wiped an oyster from under her nose. ‘It’s too… traumatic.‘
‘We can live with the sadness. I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul. Someday, girl–‘
”When?’
‘I don’t know when! But we’re gonna get to that place—’
“What place?’
‘Where we really want to go.’ He looked at her, so fragile and delicate, through the chicken wire. ‘We’ll walk in the sun!‘
From
Thrill Ride Magazine
Clipped
‘Henri! They stole the money for my honeymoon!’
‘Don’t worry, I will investigate. I have a state license.’ He pointed at the certificate taped to the mirror.
‘That’s a beautician’s license!’
‘The test is practically the same.‘ He snapped her cape off with a bullfighter’s flourish. ‘I can’t promise you I will get your money back, but I swear I will deliver justice!’
From the ‘Mysteries to Die For’ Podcast – A Book You Read with Your Ears!
GHOSTED
In hindsight, I never should have told Scott Stamper he could get away with murder, let alone with killing his wife.
‘Bullshit,’ the movie star protested, but I could see wheels turning. Maybe not calculation; curiosity?
‘Turn off the tape’ is what he should have said, but he wasn’t that clever. Still, I didn’t think he’d go through with it. Even if he wanted to.
From
Freedom Fiction Journal
Match Wits with Seattle’s Finest!
Seattle’s crime rate doesn’t fluctuate whether or not Pearl Jam is on tour. But more crimes are solved when the multimillion-record-selling quintet is off the road. That’s because their singer, Eddie Vedder, is home and ready to help detectives clear their thorniest cases.