THUGLIT Issue Three Read online

  I looked over at Barnes. “How much?”

  “How much what?”

  “How much are we going to be paid if we find the girl?”

  “There’s twenty-five hundred in the envelope to get you started.” My heart did a somersault. Twenty-five might not impress Bill Gates, but in my world, we were starting out on the right foot. And that right foot was in a Gucci loafer. “I’ll need to talk with my employer on a final amount.”

  “One more thing,” I said. “I meet your employer.”

  “That’s not happening. You deal with me,” Barnes said.

  “Ooh! I’ve got an idea! How about no? I meet him before I do another goddamned thing.” Barnes started to protest. I cut him off. “You tell him what you just saw. You tell him we meet or he can go fuck a duck. You know where I am.” I got up from the table. “I’m done.”

  Barnes and Kelly stood up. Barnes didn’t offer me a goodbye handshake as he walked out. I wasn’t hurt.

  Kelly said softly, “Thanks for the beer.”

  She followed Barnes out without a second glance back at me. I did the opposite and didn’t take my eyes off her butt as she exited. Then the low-watt bulb flickered over my dome.

  Sonofabitch.

  As I stared at her exiting skirt muffins, I realized I’d just been had.

  Kinda.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Junior sat at the desk writing down Paul’s info on an index card. We planned on getting a computer one day. On the other hand, we also planned on winning a million bucks on scratch tickets and retiring to Hawaii to build custom thongs for Natalie Portman. We were about as close to execution on either plan.

  Paul stood, leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed, looking like he was aching to get the hell out. The kid looked at me. “Am I done?”

  “Couple more questions,” I said. “What’s Cassie’s last name?”

  He hummed the “I dunno” notes.

  Swing and a miss.

  “What about the Dutch House?” I asked. Junior looked at me.

  “What about it?” It was no secret why kids went to the Dutch House. A big squat in Cambridge, just off the Square, it was a safe place for kids to get high, drink beer, and do anything else they didn’t want their parents catching them doing.

  “Has Cassie been there?”

  “Once or twice. I don’t think she dug it. She’s not into the scene that much.”

  “What scene is that?” Junior said, sneering. “Future Junkies of America?

  Paul smirked but his eyes reflected hurt. I shot Junior a “leave him alone” look. Junior scratched his chin at me. He forgot to use all his fingers.

  “I don’t think she’s been staying there or nothing.” Paul looked at our business card. “What does 4DC stand for?”

  “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.”

  He smiled. “Hunh, cool.”

  “We’re done,” Junior said, dismissing him with a wave.

  Paul started to go, but I grabbed his arm and slid a hundred from the envelope into his hand. He gaped at it. “Holy shit!”

  “If you get me to her, there’s more. Cassandra’s not in any trouble, despite the cop. You’re working for 4DC, now. You know what that means?”

  “Uh . . . no?” His eyebrows met in confusion.

  “What it means is you’re representing me. You’re representing Junior, here.”

  Junior waved his hands in protest. “Oh, no, no, no. This little shit ain’t representing me.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re representing us. Nobody else needs to know. Anybody asks, you’re just wondering where Cassie’s gone off to. Got it?”

  “Got it, boss,” he said with a crisp salute. He smiled so wide I thought the corners of his mouth would meet in the back of his head.

  As he ran down the stairs, I yelled after him. “And if you use that money to buy weed, I’m gonna break your shins.”

  I looked back at Junior, whose face was a mask of amazement. “Was that a hundie you just gave that little prick?”

  “Yep. We’ve got a gig.”

  I ran Junior through the basics, since basics were all I had. He sat on the corner of the desk and chewed his lower lip as he mulled the information. My fingers massaged the ache that roosts inside the lumpy cartilage of my nose when I think too much in one day. I’ve had my nose busted six times—one on Junior. Believe it or not, that bothers him competitively.

  After a long silence, Junior said, “That’s it?”

  “That’s it.”

  “Man, that’s not a lot to start with. A picture and a pothead.”

  “True that.”

  “This isn’t what we do.”

  “I know, Junior. I told them that. They still want us to try. If they want to hand out money, why not to us?”

  Junior thought that over. “That is a shitload of money, though.” He drummed his fingers, tapping out a cadence with the letters H-A-R-D tattooed across the knuckles of his scarred right hand. He rubbed his other hand, the one with C-O-R-E across it, over the pocket where he had deposited the twelve-hundred I’d just handed him.

  The picture of Cassandra sat on the desk. Junior stared deeply at it, jaws tight. “Boo?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Who the fuck is this girl?”

  To be continued in THE HARD BOUNCE

  Now available from Tyrus books.

  AUTHOR BIOS

  HECTOR ACOSTA briefly considered a wrestling career, but had to give it up when he had trouble getting through the ring ropes. He found writing to be more of his style, though he does miss having his own entrance music. His short stories have been published in the Weird Noir and Shotgun Honey: Both Barrels anthologies. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/hexican where he’ll occasionally talk about something other than why John Cena has to turn heel already.

  ROB BRUNET writes crime fiction. Since trading the boardroom for his writer’s garret, he rarely stumbles outdoors before dark, but still shaves on occasion. He is currently seeking representation for his first noir novel, while rewriting the second.

  PAUL HEATLEY has previously been published in Read This, Sex and Murder and Sparkbright. He lives in the North East of England.

  J.D. HIBBITTS grew up in Southwest Virginia, but roamed the globe for a few years as an enlisted member of the U.S. Air Force. His poetry and fiction appear in the following journals: San Pedro River Review, Sugar House Review, The Molotov Cocktail, Prime Mincer, Blue Collar Review, Poydras Review, and The Sierra Nevada Review, among others. He tries to keep himself away from any semblance of a web presence at the moment, so you’ll just have to e-mail him at [email protected].

  JOHN HODGKINS lives in New York City, where he teaches English at York College and Marymount Manhattan College. His non-fiction essays have appeared in such publications as Adaptation, Film and History, and College Literature, among others.

  ED KURTZ is the author of two horror/thriller novels, Bleed (Abattoir Press) and Control (Thunderstorm Books). His short fiction has appeared in Dark Moon Digest, Shotgun Honey, Beat to a Pulp, and the anthology Mutation Nation. He recently sold a novelette to Psychos, a new anthology from Black Dog & Leventhal and edited by John Skipp, and has fiction forthcoming in Needle: a Magazine of Noir, Nightscapes Vol. 1, Horror Factory, Blood Rites (Blood Bound Books) and Shades of Blue and Gray (Prime Books). He is also a contributing writer for Paracinema Magazine.

  TERRENCE P. McCAULEY won the TruTV Search for the Next Great Crime Writer contest in 2008. His manuscript, The Slow Burn will be published by Noir Nation Books in Summer 2012. His manuscript, Prohibition, is now available from Airship 27. A native of the Bronx, he is currently working on his next novel. His blog is at http://terrencemccauley.blogspot.com/ and his email is [email protected]

  NATHAN PETTIGREW was born and raised near New Orleans, Louisiana, and lives with his wife in the Tampa area of Florida. His stories have seen publication through several great places, including Bête Noire Magazine, ManArchy Magazi
ne, and DarkMedia Original Fiction and Poetry, which named his story “Roland The Conqueror” as one of their “most popular pieces of original horror fiction to date” when it appeared in May of 2012. Visit Nathan at Solarcide.com or on Twitter @NathanBorn 2010.

  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 and the anthologies Lost Children: Protectors, and Danger City. He has been nominated for a Derringer Award, short-listed for Best American Mystery Stories, selected for Writers Digest's Year's Best Writing 2003 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) firmly believes you need a shower.

  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.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  A Message from Big Daddy Thug

  The First Day of Hell Week J.D. Hibbitts

  Redemption By Terrence McCauley

  Red-Eyed Richard By Paul Heatley

  Doing The Job by Hector Acosta

  In the Neighborhood By Ed Kurtz

  Peek-a-Boo By John Hodgkins

  Lucky for Me By Rob Brunet

  Wakey Wake By Nathan Pettigrew

  Excerpt

  Author Bios