by Mark Walker
The voice spoke again: “On the table before you, you will find your specific instructions in the folders with your number. Memorize these instructions. It is very important because this is the only time you will see them. At the bottom of the sheet you’ll find a telephone number. Memorize it or write it on your hand. Five days from today, on Friday the thirteenth, call this number between twelve noon and thirteen hundred hours to get the exact time, date and location of the job. After reading your instructions, you will destroy them here in my presence.
“There will be two weapons used on this job. Numbers One and Five will use these weapons, and they will be provided for you on the day of the job. Number Two, you will carry the benefits of our endeavors. It is because of your size that I chose you. Numbers Three, and Four, you will be carrying smoke grenades that should only be used should circumstances warrant, and if you should need to cover your exit. You will all wear gas masks that will also serve as disguises. On the day of the job, these items, untraceable transport and a driver will be provided.
“The take will be a six-way split. I am the sixth. I shall cover the driver and other small expenses. Our shares should be in the neighborhood of £10,000 apiece, perhaps slightly more, perhaps slightly less. After the job, the driver will immediately return you here to this location to make the split. The weapons will be turned in at that time.
“Have no doubt: should any of you try to cross me, I will find you no matter where you try to hide. I know all about each of youwhere you live, where you eat, where you drink, where you go to market, all your habits, and who your friends are.
“For example, Number Five, you enjoy Bass ale at a well-known pub every evening; Number Four, you have a special friend who is a waitress, and her name is Jeannie; Number Three, since you’ve gotten ‘out,’ you bite your nails and like to go to the cinema; Number Two, you favor jacket potatoes, tinned beef and smoke French cigarettes; Number One, although you have an address south of the river, you also have a bolt-hole, located in a certain area of Wapping north of the river. So, you see, I know of which I speak. Now, go to the table and read your instructions.”
Hesitantly, the five men ambled to the table and selected the folder with their respective numbers and began to read them under the hard light from above. Small noises of amazement came each onea grunt here, an umm thereand for five minutes they read the sheets of paper, looked carefully at the floorplans, and digested the information. Number Three, rather fidgety, did write the phone number down on his hand. Then, Number Two, the smoker, pulled out a cigarette lighter and set his folder on fire, and one by one, the others added their folders and a small bonfire started on the metal table.
The metallic voice spoke again. “Good. Now, gentlemen, you will leave here one by one, every two minutes, starting with Number Five and counting backwards.”
Six minutes later, the fire on the table top was burning down sending smoke into the rafters, and when Number Two had made his exit, the voice came back. “Number One.” The man looked up startled. “You are to take the lead on this job as you have the most experience and are known for keeping a cool head. That is also a reason you will carry a weapona handgun to be preciseonly to be used to persuade and as an added precaution. The other men’s instructions tell them to defer to you, so there shall be no problem there. I am confident you will carry out your assignment with expertise. You are dismissed.”
Without any hesitation or another word, Number One made his exit.
For a full minute after the door clanged shut the warehouse was silent, the pile of folders reduced to smoky, cindered rubble. There was a static crackle from the grille, and there emerged a metallic chuckle, the chuckle became a cackle, and the cackle became a braying laugh that echoed long through the empty chamber.
The joke was going well.
Acknowledgments
To Kelly Briggs, a true gent, as always. Thanks to early readers of the first and second unpublished versions of this tome, and to new ones: Annie Cleveland; Grover and Libby; Ronnie, Tricia, Matthew, and Sydney Franks; June Ford; Alan Klem; Suzanne Laporte; the LaRocca Family; James Maynard; Ceci Miller; John Murphy; Michael H. Price; Pat Singleton.
To my original editor and dear friend, Ceci Miller, for shepherding the early career of Kelly Riggs; and Bob McLain and the folks at Pulp Hero Press.
Inspirational Thanks: Bob Allen; Sonya Burrows; Grover Coulson; David Creature; Matthew, Sydney Franks; Art Lippa; David McCallum; Kevin Moran; Jennifer Murray-Finch; Paula Phipps; Justyna Rapita; Mia Robinson; Kyla Self; Johnny Simons.
Spiritual Advisors: Lauren Bacall; John Barrymore; Humphrey Bogart; Leslie Charteris; Agatha Christie; Tom Conway; Ian Fleming; Errol Flynn; Clark Gable; Michael Joe Goggans; Cary Grant; Jane Greer; Brett Halliday; Rita Hayworth; Alfred Hitchcock; Jim Holdaway; John Howard; Elliot Kastner; Roger Moore; Tom Levesque; Carol Lombard; Peter Lorre; Lynn Massingill; Moebius; David Niven; Peter O’Donnell; Michael Powell; William Powell; Royce Renfro; Dan Rodriguez; Lizabeth Scott; Barbara Stanwyck; Richard Stark; Joseph Stecko; Jimmy Joe Steenbergen; RLS; Rex Stout; Gene Tierney; Robert Vaughn, Edgar Wallace, Warren William, et al.
About the Author and Illustrator
MARK EVAN WALKER spent much of his early life in the theatre, creating masks, props, designing, and painting scenery. He has even been accused of acting, his name having been discovered on a vintage playbill for a production of Sherlock Holmes: The Game of Chess, listed amongst the cast as Professor Moriarty. He has designed and painted almost five hundred theatrical productions including many works of Shakespeare, musicals, operas, dramas, and children’s theatre.
Walker has illustrated and written copy for ad agencies, retailers, newspapers, publications, and private schools. He was illustrator of the award-winning Runt Farm children’s books by Amanda Lorenzo. He is co-author and illustrator of Dark Borderlands, strange tales of the South, with Michael H. Price, with new stories to be published in 2020. For over two decades he has been a regular pulp fiction illustrator for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, the world’s oldest mystery magazine, and has written for their blog at themysteryplace.com.
When not poring over his vast collection of vintage mysteries and thrillers, Walker may be found enjoying sunrises with a strong java, sunsets with a fine red wine, or Turner Classic Movies. He travels frequently for pleasure, also researching material for future Kelly Riggs Mysteries, other stories and squibs.
