At home we each had a drink. Carla'd sobered up. She opened another bottle of wine and was piecing things together in her head, mouthing words I couldn't hear.
"I'm going to call the police," she said. "Let them know it was an accident."
"You're not."
145 over 92.
Plavix.
Drink.
147 over 94.
I nudged her off towards the basement. I made sure she went first.
Sometimes I get jealous of other people because they can see things I can't. Like Carla waking up strapped to a chair next to a girl she'd last seen alive eight days ago—dead.
Unthawed, Linda had gone livid and the bruise marks I had given her had come out on her puckered skin. She was leaking now. Her snatch was the color of half-cooked meat. Carla didn't scream, but it looked like she might lose her wine. I took off the gag so she wouldn't choke on her own drunk.
"I quit my job, Carla."
Nodding. Good.
"Actually, I was let go. But it was amicable. I've got two weeks pay coming to me. Enough to keep Linda for at least another month." The fact was, I didn't know if we could keep Linda another month. What I thought was: we have to get this body out of the house before Detective Bull Dyke shows up for coffee in the morning.
No more nodding now. Tears. Tears of compassion. Tears of fear. Good old Carla. You shouldn't have gone after my money when all I needed was a little of that— compassion. A man drowning in wet sand needs better hands.
"You shouldn't have done it, Carla."
Now a voice. "Martin?"
I knew this voice: vocal cords sodden with the hysterical hope of that last chance she wasn't going to get. Crab thinking.
"You think it's so easy to make it look like an accident, Carla? The insurance companies send actuaries. You'd have gone to jail. They'd have sent you to death row. I saved you from that."
"Martin? Look at me. Martin?"
It came out of me so fast I couldn't stop it. Then a second time. My bloody fist. Carla's incisor on the basement floor. I hadn't meant to hit her at all.
Her voice was faint now, phlegmy. "Insurance?"
"Come on, Carla."
"What goddamn insurance?"
"You're making me angry, Carla."
"I said what goddamn insurance?"
"My bypass, you bitch. Eight years ago. My condition."
"Bypass? What bypass? You have panic attacks. Your episodes. You take your pills. I don't understand." Carla's voice sounded wrong coming through the cracked tooth. Like she was talking through a spoon.
I told you where it all started.
Here's how it ended.
It ended with Carla begging me to open my eyes. Carla telling me it wasn't as bad as what I thought, that I'd had another episode, that was all, just another episode. In other words, Carla trying to stay alive when she needed to be dead and we both knew it.
160 over 95.
Hypertension. Stage Two.
You can't hallucinate high blood pressure. And you can't hallucinate a dead body in a chest freezer, though Carla, with her mouth full of blood and spit, told me you could.
170 over 98.
178 over 99.
It ended with Carla's throat in my hands, her warm wine breath on my face. That crease in her brow like a fat man's knuckle.
181 over 102.
183 over 105.
186 over 108.
It ended with 192 over 110.
AUTHOR BIOS
Since 2006, JESSICA ADAMS has been living on a sailboat and traveling the world. She's currently in the Dominican Republic. A lot of things happened leading up to that, but especially Hurricane Katrina, which turned her into an exile. Writing fiction is way more fun than copyediting textbooks, which is what she does for a living these days.
MICHAEL CEBULA lives in the midwest with his wife and two dogs. Larry's Proposal is his first published story.
ANGEL LUIS COLÓN has landed ass first into crime fiction and is taking a shine to it. His work has appeared in WeirdYear, Red Fez, and Fiction on The Web—with forthcoming work due out in Shotgun Honey and All Due Respect. He hails from the Bronx and works in NYC, but is currently exiled to the wastelands of New Jersey with his family—thankfully; he has access to good beer and single malts.
J. DAVID GONZALEZ's work has appeared in Plots With Guns, Yeti, Jai-Alai Magazine, thickjam and elsewhere. His essay on the history of Florida crime fiction, "Staring at the Sun" appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books and, subsequently, Salon.com. Born in Miami, he currently lives in Los Angeles where he works as a bookseller at Skylight Books and produces The Working Poet Radio Show, an interview series recorded live from the Los Angeles Public Library.
SCOTT GRAND lives with his wife on the Northern California coast. Not San Francisco, actual Northern California. Scott has no formal education beyond high school except for that welding class that one time, where he got a B. Scott writes in the dead of night while he swims his way through a pot of coffee. He almost believes his wife when she tells him he's in charge.
KENNETH LEVINE is an attorney who writes short stories. His stories have been published in the New Plains Review and Imaginaire.
MATTHEW MCBRIDE is the author of Frank Sinatra in a Blender and A Swollen Red Sun. He is represented by Stacia Decker of the Donald Maass Literary Agency in NY.
MAX SHERIDAN is trying to get off the island of Cyprus. He once hacked for the Cyprus Mail, a low-circulation newspaper—until he challenged the film critic, a notorious windbag, to a duel. His short stories have appeared in Thuglit, DIAGRAM Magazine, Ampersand Review, The Writing Disorder and Atticus Review. His latest novel, Montcrief, is seeking shelter. He keeps his work here: www.maxsheridanlit.com.
TODD ROBINSON (Editor) is the creator and Chief Editor of Thuglit. His writing has appeared in Blood & Tacos, Plots With Guns, Needle Magazine, Shotgun Honey, Strange, Weird, and Wonderful, Out of the Gutter, Pulp Pusher, Grift, Demolition Magazine, CrimeFactory, All Due Respect, and several anthologies. He has been nominated three times for the Derringer Award, short-listed for Best American Mystery Stories, selected for Writers Digest's Year's Best Writing 2003, lost the Anthony Award in 2013, and won the inaugural Bullet Award in June 2011. The first collection of his short stories, Dirty Words is now available and his debut novel The Hard Bounce is available from Tyrus Books.
ALLISON GLASGOW (Editor) stopped a shoplifter after chasing him for three blocks—while eight months pregnant. You think you're tough, huh? Do ya? DO YA?!?
JULIE MCCARRON (Editor) is a celebrity ghostwriter with three New York Times bestsellers to her credit. Her books have appeared on every major entertainment and television talk show; they have been featured in Publishers Weekly and excerpted in numerous magazines including People. Prior to collaborating on celebrity bios, Julie was a book editor for many years. Julie started her career writing press releases and worked in the motion picture publicity department of Paramount Pictures and for Chasen & Company in Los Angeles. She also worked at General Publishing Group in Santa Monica and for the Dijkstra Literary Agency in Del Mar before turning to editing/writing full-time. She lives in Southern California.
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"Matthew McBride's new novel, A Swollen Red Sun, is rough and ready suspense, encompassing a wide array of characters from the sour side of life, and smashing them together with vigorous and blunt prose."
—Daniel Woodrell, author of The Maid's Version and Winter's Bone
In the southern town of Lake Castor, the old mill closed, and jobs vanished. But Calvin Cantrell doesn't care for those jobs anyway. Instead, he dreams of becoming a famous serial killer. When sleazy restauranteur Tom London hires Calvin to kill his ex-wife, Calvin's dreams begin.
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Winner of the Montana Prize in Fiction
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bsp; "With ferocious economy and a great big heart, Taylor Brown writes one of the best debuts I've ever picked up. These are stories, verses, meditations, and accusations-everything, in short, you could hope to get from important fiction. This work demands your attention."
—Charles Dodd White, author of A Shelter of Others
Table of Contents
A Message from Big Daddy Thug
Sounding by Matthew McBride
Black Pearls by Jessica Adams
Dinner Rush by Angel Luis Colón
A Bottle of Scotch and a Sharp Buck Knife by Scott Grand
A Plea Bargain To Purgatory by Kenneth Levine
Larry's Proposal by Michael Cebula
Ofrenda by J. David Gonzalez
192 Over 110 by Max Sheridan
AUTHOR BIOS
Other Books
THUGLIT Issue Eleven Page 12
