“Don’t worry about it,” Curtis says reassuringly, “I got one with your name on it.” Heavy doesn’t say anything from the backseat, so I assume he’s just enjoying the ride, but I hope he’s ready to rumble when we get where we’re going, because I’m not just gonna get that money back, I’m gonna take a surcharge out of their hides.
We follow these clowns—who don’t seem to be in any big hurry—clear up past Forest Lake, where they finally pull off the interstate and head east to Lindström. Once through that dinky town, they go north on a narrow highway.
“They gotta know by now that we’re following them,” I say to Curtis, who is driving casually along now, unconcerned about tipping them off.
“Yeah,” he says, “but they’re not worried.”
“You think they’re planning to shoot it out?” I ask.
“Don’t know,” Curtis replies, as he turns off the narrow highway onto an even narrower gravel road, “hard to say what people will do to get their hands on that much money.”
That much money. I suddenly realize how odd it was that he asked me in the parking lot how much was in the car today—in all the months I’ve been stopping at the Gopher, I never mentioned what my day job is—and how I didn’t see him inside the bar but he appeared as soon as those jerks took my car. Now here I sit in the passenger seat, with this guy driving who I really don’t know that well, and Heavy in the seat behind me who I’ve never seen before, and I start to wonder. And my wonder turns to worry. I look at Curtis as he pulls the car off the gravel road into a tree-obscured lane with two wheel ruts, and I say, “No, no way.”
Suddenly, from behind, Heavy clasps my shoulder with his meaty hand and presses the cold barrel of his pistol against the base of my skull. I get the message—don’t move—and I don’t. I just sit there and say the Lord’s Prayer in my mind.
We come to a stop in a leaf-canopied clearing where a broken-down old cabin stands, roof covered with moss, and there next to my beautiful baby-blue Lincoln Continental stand Dude #1 and Tattoo. Son of a bitch, am I a schmuck! Tattoo steps up to the passenger side and opens the door, covering me with my own gun, and I hear the key alarm bong as Curtis and Heavy get out of the car. I stand up and shake my head.
“You ain’t gonna get away with this,” I say, as Heavy pushes me toward the back side of the cabin.
Curtis sneers at me. “You’re such a blowhard, Davy. I’ve been sitting in that bar listening to your bullshit for so long I can’t wait to hit the off button. But you’re gonna talk right up to the end, aren’t you?”
“You can make this personal if you want, Curtis. But I ain’t gonna tell you the combination to the box. It’ll take you a year to get it open, and when Benno finds out he’s gonna skin you motherfuckers alive.”
“I already have the combination,” he says with a velvety satisfaction in his voice. “And what makes you think Benno doesn’t already know what we’re up to?”
“Shit,” I whisper.
“That’s right,” Curtis says. “Benno didn’t give you no lunch break.” He steps away and tells Heavy, “Pop this jerk so I can get to work. I got deliveries to make.”
It’s all clear to me now. “Go ahead and take the fucking job, Curtis. I’m sick of it anyway. And by the way, the fringe benefits suck.”
Heavy pushes the gun against the back of my head and squeezes the trigger. Ah, what the hell, it was worth it—that’s one hell of a chili dog.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS:
GARY BUSH recently finished a novel featuring private detective Max Coppersmith. He is currently working on a second Coppersmith novel and researching a historical mystery. His short fiction has appeared in Flesh and Blood Volume 3, Fedora 2, Small Crimes, and MXB Magazine. Bush lives in Minneapolis with his wife Stacey.
K.J. ERICKSON writes the Marshall Bahr mystery series, set in the Twin Cities. The fourth title in the series, Alone at Night, won a 2005 Minnesota Book Award.
CHRIS EVERHEART , a Minnesota native, is a fiction and screen writer. He has worked in film and advertising in Minneapolis, where he lives with his wife and stepson.
JUDITH GUEST has lived since 1976 in Edina, Minnesota, where she has been gathering lots of material, which could take another thirty years to be disseminated. She is the author of five books, including Killing Time in St. Cloud and The Tarnished Eye. She has one husband, three sons, and three daughters-in-law, plus seven of the best grandchildren known to man (or woman).
PETE HAUTMAN has written novels for both adults and teens. His poker-themed crime novels Drawing Dead and The Mortal Nuts were selected as New York Times Book Review Notable Books. His latest novel, Invisible, is about model railroads, pyromania, friendship, and window-peeping. Hautman lives with novelist and poet Mary Logue in Golden Valley, Minnesota, and Stockholm, Wisconsin.
ELLEN HART , five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery and two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Crime Fiction, has written twenty-one mystery novels in two long-running series, all set in the Twin Cities. She teaches crime writing at the Loft Literary Center, the largest independent writing community in the nation, and lives in Minneapolis with her partner of twenty-eight years.
STEVEN HORWITZ has worked in publishing for twenty-five years. He lives with his wife and two dogs in St. Paul, Minnesota.
DAVID HOUSEWRIGHT is a former newspaper reporter and advertising copywriter, who was born, raised, educated, played hockey, discovered girls, and currently lives in St. Paul. He is the author of several Twin Cities–based novels, including Dearly Departed, A Hard Ticket Home, Pretty Girl Gone, Dead Boyfriends, Penance, which won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and Practice to Deceive, which earned the Minnesota Book Award.
WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER writes the award-winning Cork O’Connor mystery series set in Minnesota’s great Northwoods. With his wife and family, he lives in St. Paul, a wonderfully noir city that he dearly loves.
MARY LOGUE was born and bred in the Twin Cities. A poet and writer, she has strayed occasionally, but always manages to find her way back home. A new book of poetry, Meticulous Attachment, and a new Claire Watkins mystery, Poison Heart, were published in 2005. She lives with Pete Hautman on both sides of the Mississippi.
LARRY MILLETT is a Minneapolis native who spent much of his career as a writer, reporter, and editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He is the author of four works of nonfiction, including Lost Twin Cities and Twin Cities Then and Now, as well as five mystery novels in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson travel to turn-of-the-century Minnesota to solve cases at the behest of railroad tycoon James J. Hill. He currently lives with his wife and two children in St. Paul.
BRUCE RUBENSTEIN is a crime writer who grew up in the Twin Cities and knows a great deal about the events, places, and people upon which his tale is based. He’s written many crime stories, and recently published a book, Greed, Rage and Love Gone Wrong (University of Minnesota Press). His wife is his inspiration because of her constant demands for more money.
JULIE SCHAPER has been a Twin Cities resident for eleven years. She lives with her husband and two dogs in the Merriam Park neighborhood of St. Paul.
MARY SHARRATT grew up in the Twin Cities and currently lives in a dark satanic mill town in Lancashire, England. A Minnesota Book Award finalist and winner of the 2005 WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction, she is the author of the novels Summit Avenue, The Real Minerva, and The Vanishing Point, and coeditor of Bitchlit, a fiction anthology celebrating female antiheroes.
QUINTON SKINNER is the author of 14 Degrees Below Zero and Amnesia Nights. He lives with his family in Minneapolis.
STEVE THAYER is a New York Times best-selling author. His novels include Saint Mudd, The Weatherman, and The Wheat Field. He lives in Edina, Minnesota.
BRAD ZELLAR has lived in the Twin Cities for more than twenty years. He is a writer and editor for the Rake, a monthly magazine, and has a lousy relationship with sleep.
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from the Akashic Books Noir Series
D.C. NOIR
edited by George Pelecanos
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GEORGE PELECANOS is a screenwriter, independent-indepen-and dent-film producer, award-winning journalist, and Strange novels set in and around Washington, D.C., where he lives with his wife and children.
BROOKLYN NOIR
edited by Tim McLoughlin
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—Laura Lippman, winner of the Edgar, Agatha, and Shamus awards
DUBLIN NOIR: The Celtic Tiger vs. The Ugly American
edited by Ken Bruen
228 pages, trade paperback, $14.95
Brand new stories by: Ken Bruen, Eoin Colfer, Jason Starr, Laura Lippman, Olen Steinhauer, Peter Spiegelman, Kevin Wignall, Jim Fusilli, John Rickards, Patrick J. Lambe, Charlie Stella, Ray Banks, James O. Born, Sarah Weinman, Pat Mullan, Reed Farrel Coleman, Gary Phillips, Duane Swierczynski, and Craig McDonald.
MANHATTAN NOIR
edited by Lawrence Block
257 pages, a trade paperback original, $14.95
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LAWRENCE BLOCK has won most of the major mystery awards, and has been called the quintes-has quintes-sentialquintes-city’s sential New York writer, although he insists the city’s far too big to have a quintessential writer. His series characters—Matthew Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, Evan Tanner, Chip Harrison, and Keller—all live in Manhattan; like their cre- cre-ator,cre-else. ator, they wouldn’t really be happy anywhere else.
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edited by Peter Maravelis
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Brand new stories by: Domenic Stansberry, Barry Gifford, Eddie Muller, Robert Mailer Anderson, Michelle Tea, Peter Plate, Kate Braverman, David Corbett, Alejandro Murguía, Sin Soracco, Alvin Lu, Jon Longhi, Will Christopher Baer, Jim Nesbit, and David Henry Sterry.
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edited by Laura Lippman
298 pages, a trade paperback original, $14.95
Brand new stories by: David Simon, Laura Lippman, Tim Cockey, Rob Hiaasen, Robert Ward, Sujata Massey, Jack Bludis, Rafael Alvarez, Marcia Talley, Joseph Wallace, Lisa Respers France, Charlie Stella, Sarah Weinman, Dan Fesperman, Jim Fusilli, and Ben Neihart.
These books are available at local bookstores.
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Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
MAI-NU’S WINDOW
IN MY EYES
NOIR NEIGE
BUMS
BLIND SIDED
BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME
TAKING THE BULLETS OUT
THE GUY
THE BREWER’S SON
LOOPHOLE
HI, I’M GOD
EMINENT DOMAIN
BLASTED
IF YOU HARM US
CHILI DOG
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS:
Twin Cities Noir Page 22
