by John Kenyon
“In my line of work a man has to draw the line somewhere. You can’t live with the rules, feel free to shove off. No hard feelings.”
“I can work with your rules. I’ve got several jobs in need of your special talents but I don’t want fingers pointing in my direction when they’re done. Can you do that?”
“I take the legal notion of client privilege more serious than a lawyer.”
Another smile danced across her lips, but no sign of humor reached her dark eyes. “There’s a new dealer trying to move into my territory. You take care of him without a hitch, then we’ll discuss the second. I have to make sure you can handle the work. King’s dropped the word that you can’t be trusted to keep up your end of a deal.”
“King didn’t like my rules,” said Soldier, stubbing out his cigarette. “I only work one job at a time, and if the employer isn’t satisfied, she’s free to farm the next job elsewhere. I’ll even supply her with a list of possible candidates.”
“Sounds reasonable. Is your fee the same as always?”
“Nothing’s changed.”
“Except you don’t work for Simon King anymore.”
“I don’t discuss my employers.”
Ruby slid an envelope across the table. Soldier picked it up, glanced inside, then slid the envelope in the inside pocket of his suit coat. She nodded, tossed a five dollar bill on the table for the waitress and walked out.
Three days later she returned to the diner. This time she didn’t come to the table alone; her bodyguards were bookending her.
Soldier looked up. “Bad investment?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” She tossed another envelope on the table. “This hit’s a little closer to home for you. If there’s a problem, say so, and I’ll hire someone else to do the work.”
Soldier opened the envelope and glanced at the picture inside. The target was King’s lawyer. “He’s not a problem.”
“You make sure King doesn’t come after me for this one and I’ll double your pay on the last job.”
“He won’t know you had anything to do with it, unless you or one of your ‘friends’ here start flapping jaws in the wrong place. King keeps his ear to the ground, doesn’t much happen in Grimm City that he isn’t aware of.”
King went on a rabid rampage after the hit on his lawyer, making Ruby hesitant to place the final job in Soldier’s capable hands. The lawyer was no great loss to King, but the private files that went missing at the same time were. King was detaching body parts around town in an effort to reacquire the files before they wound up in the legal system, or worse yet, in the hands of one of his enemies. When Ruby’s name didn’t come up during King’s inquisition, she once again approached Soldier.
“You won’t even break a sweat on this last job, Soldier,” she said. “His name is Manny Kinny and he works for me. He’s been skimming the profits at The Well, my tittie bar out on Keyser Avenue, and I need to make an example of him.” She slid the envelope across the table and left.
Soldier didn’t like the smile that was playing across her lips as she left the diner. Her eyes were alight with humor. He opened the envelope and studied the picture inside, wondering why people felt the need to break his rules.
Soldier entered The Well, walked up to the bar and ordered a beer. He watched the dancers seducing the poles for a while, his eyes skimming over the customers in the room, picking out Ruby’s men. He finished his beer and headed for the men’s room, slipping into an open doorway to see who followed.
He felt the poke of a gun in his back. “Manny?”
“Yeah.”
“You know who I am?”
“I’ve heard and you don’t impress me much.”
“You don’t need to be impressed, all you need to know is that I have three rules about taking jobs. I don’t do women, kids or cops. I’m guessing you’re in the third category because Ruby’s got her men out there ready to take me down once you’re dead. She doesn’t want the heat of killing a cop falling on her. She’s one smart lady and I expect by using me, she’s hoping the heat will land on King. Now, can you get us out of here or do we need to shoot our way out?”
“I figured I’d need a quick exit someday. Let me grab a couple of things and we’ll go.”
“Well, hurry up about it. They won’t wait long to see if I’ve done my job.”
Manny opened a small safe under the desk and slid some ledgers and computer discs into a briefcase.
“C’mon, in here,” said Manny, leading the way into a small closet. As he slid open a panel in the back they could hear someone pounding on the office door. Grabbing a flashlight off the shelf, he led the way down a staircase, through a short passage and into the sewers that ran under the city.
“You know these tunnels pretty well,” said Soldier.
“My grandfather used the tunnels during prohibition. He spent hours walking me through them when I was kid. He said you never know when a good tunnel will come in handy.”
“Your grandfather was right,” said Soldier as they came up out of the sewer near the police station.
“You’d best get out of town,” said Manny. “Ruby will be screaming like a wildcat once the DA lays charges against her.”
Soldier shrugged. “I’ll be safe enough, but you should know that she’s been working to take down King’s organization, and she’ll want to make a deal.”
“I take it she has the lawyer’s files?”
“Heard about that, did you?” Solider pulled a key from his pocket and handed it to Manny. “Whatever Ruby’s got won’t do her much good once you use this key. Inside this safety deposit box you’ll find everything you need to take down King.”
“I thought you and King were friends from way back. Why flip on him now?”
“We’ve been friends since our playground days. Fought our way up to the top of this ugly business together. He thought that entitled him to break my rules.” Soldier paused to light a cigarette. His face took on a hard look as he blew smoke into the cold night air. “King wanted me to kill his daughter, Emily. He discovered she wasn’t his own blood and didn’t like the idea of being cuckolded.”
“I take it you’ve got her tucked away safe somewhere?”
“I don’t kill women or children and to me, she was both.”
“Both?”
“Emily is my daughter. King killed his wife because he found out she had an affair, he just didn’t know it was with me.”
Author Bios
Patricia Abbott’s stories have appeared in more than 75 crime and literary fiction venues. She won a Derringer Award for her story “My Hero,” and is the co-editor of the ebook Discount Noir. Forthcoming stories will appear in Beat to a Pulp: Round Two, Deadly Treats, Crime Factory, Needle, Crimespree magazine, All Due Respect, Dark Valentine and a few unnamed projects.
Absolutely*Kate believes in believers. She authors and designs, promotes and publishes prolifics at the confluence of two rivers at RiverView Studios. Creator of AT THE BIJOU, lively international theatre for the mind e-zine where writers’ raves become readers’ faves, she’s sailing Harbinger*33, heralding greatness to be, as her next quantum-venture, manifesting destinies for 33 stellar authors whose starboard talents are billowing on the rise. Absolutely*Kate has been published online, in anthologies and is scribing her first indie e-pub, HOLY MOXIE! Yes, Absolutely*Kate has moxie. The world needs more, don’t you think?
Jack Bates writes with bloody knuckles. The results are pretty good. He pens a PI series for Mind Wings Audio Books. He’s also published a couple of other titles with Untreed Reads—Monkey See, Monkey Murder will be coming out soon and features a new PI named Hack Ward. Bates’ story “Broken Down on the Bonneville Flats” was nominated this spring for a Derringer from the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Sometimes he blogs at http://hardnosedsleuth.blogspot.com. There’s a complete listing of his most current stories there. Enjoy.
Eric Beetner is an award-winning short story and screenwriter and the co-author
(with JB Kohl) of the novels One Too Many Blows to the Head and Borrowed Trouble. His crime fiction has appeared in the anthologies Discount Noir, Murder In The Wind, D*cked, Pulp Ink, as well as Needle magazine, Crime Factory, A Twist of Noir, Thuglit, Pulp Pusher, Shotgun Honey and many others. For more info and links to stories visit ericbeetner.blogspot.com
Nigel Bird, author of Dirty Old Town (And Other Stories), lives in Scotland. The winner of the Watery Grave Invitational contest in 2010, he was nominated by Spinetingler for its Best Story Online award this year. He is soon to appear in The Best British Crime Stories and edited an anthology with Christopher Rhatigan (Death By Killing) called Pulp Ink. He is the man behind the blog Sea Minor and the interview series “Dancing With Myself.”
Loren Eaton lives in south Florida with his wife and child. He writes horror, crime fiction and science fiction, and his stories have appeared in a number of markets, including the Untreed Reads anthology Discount Noir. He blogs about narrative, genre and the craft of writing at ISawLightningFall.com.
Kaye George, an Agatha-nominated short story writer, is the author of Choke: An Imogene Duckworthy Mystery (Mainly Murder Press), as well as A Patchwork of Stories, a collection of her previously published stories, and The Bavarian Krisp Caper, available at Untreed Reads. Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology contains her story “The Truck Contest.” She reviews for Suspense Magazine and writes for several newsletters and blogs. She, her husband and a cat named Agamemnon live together in Texas, near Austin. Homepage: http://kayegeorge.com/ Blogs: http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com/, her solo blog, and http://allthingswriting.blogspot.com/.
Blu Gilliand is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Dark Discoveries, Dark Scribe Magazine, Shroud, Horrorworld.org and other assorted web sites and anthologies. He also runs his own horror and crime fiction blog, October Country (http://theoctobercountry.wordpress.com), and would love to see you there.
Seana Graham works at an independent bookstore in Santa Cruz, California. She has published stories in a variety of literary magazines, including Salamander, Eclipse and Eleven Eleven. Her short story “The Pirate’s True Love” was collected in the anthology The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and her work is also included in The Carpathian Shadows series, edited by Lia Schizas. She has also co-authored a book of trivia about Southern California.
Eirik Gumeny is the editor of Jersey Devil Press, author of the novel Exponential Apocalypse and folder of origami cranes. His work has been published online a lot, in print occasionally, and has been nominated for the Pushcart at least once.
R.L. Kelstrom is a retired parole officer and corrections counselor who finds himself still fascinated by crime and the criminal mind. He especially enjoys delving into the motivations behind anti-social behavior. He is published in another genre, but it was far too tame to satisfy the darker parts of his soul.
John Kenyon is an Iowa writer who edits the forthcoming crime fiction magazine Grift, as well as that publication’s web site, griftmagazine.com. He also keeps the blog Things I’d Rather Be Doing (http://tirbd.com) and writes a lot of crime fiction. His stories have been published in Crime Factory, Needle, Pulp Modern, Beat to a Pulp, Shotgun Honey and elsewhere.
BV Lawson’s award-winning stories, as well as poems and articles, have appeared in more than 40 print and online magazines, newspapers and anthologies. BV attributes her love of books and crime fiction writing to her librarian mother, who probably wishes she’d read to BV from law or medical books instead of mysteries. You can check up on BV at bvlawson.com.
Evan Lewis received the 2011 Robert L. Fish Memorial Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his first Skyler Hobbs adventure, “Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man.” A second Hobbs story appeared in the Untreed Reads anthology, Discount Noir. More Skyler Hobbs tales are slated to appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Beat to a Pulp: Round Two, and a Hobbs novel is in the works. Lewis also writes historical fiction. Visit his blog, Davy Crockett’s Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and the Wild West, at evanlewis.com.
B. Nagel lives in Mississippi with his wife and daughter. He works in a library, loves cheese toast and writes magical realism.
Sean Patrick Reardon lives in Pepperell, Massachusetts, and is the author of the crime thriller Mindjacker. His short stories have been featured in Killers, Thriller ’n Chillers, A Twist of Noir and Do Some Damage. He works for a large investment company, loves rock ’n’ roll and coaches youth lacrosse.
Sandra Seamans is a short story writer with stories scattered about the Internet in places like Beat to a Pulp, The Thrilling Detective, and Spinetingler. Her work can also be found in the print magazines Needle and Out of the Gutter. She blogs about short stories and writing at http://sandraseamans.blogspot.com.
