THUGLIT Issue Four (11 page)

Authors: Patti Abbott,Sam Wiebe,Eric Beetner,Albert Tucher,Roger Hobbs,Christopher Irvin,Anton Sim,Garrett Crowe

The light stops.

“You see something over there?” Jerry asks. Rex watches Tip focus on the ground as if he’s about to bend over and examine something.

“Naw,” he says, looking directly at Rex. “You find anything o
n him?”

Jerry gives his head a shake.

“We done then?” Tip asks.

“Yep,” Jerry says. Rex put his hands down and feet together. “But write him up since he was doing 92 in a 60. And also, safety neglect, no side mirrors.” Rex had taken them off, two pounds apiece. He had learned everything gets faste
r. Jerry continues, “You're not wearing a helmet. Could get you for reckless driving, but I figure you'll learn that the hard way.”

Tip hand
s Rex the tickets, avoiding eye contact, and walking straight to the vehicle. Jerry lays a hand on the biker’s shoulder. “You gotta remember two things, son. One, know where you’re going. Two, know you’re nothing but 3D. I see you well, real well.” He turns his back and walks to the car. “The clock don’t stop,” Jerry says. “I don’t either. I know everything. All these parts.”

Rex
watches Jerry get behind the wheel. The cops make a U-turn in the road, heading back to where they came from. He rests his right foot on the kick-start. Before putting all of his energy into the kick of his foot, he says, “Don’t know shit” in a tone that is as low and silent as the trees are dark. Rex would come back tomorrow. He cranks his bike. It yells like the collapse of a star.

AUTHOR BIOS

PATTI ABBOTT
's stories have appeared in more than 100 publications over the last decade. She is the author of
Monkey Justice
(Snubnose Press) and the forthcoming novel in stories,
Home Invasion
(which got its start on Thuglit). She won a Derringer for "My Hero" in 2008. You can find her at
http://pattinase.blogspot.com
.

ERIC BEETNER
is the author of
The Devil Doesn't Want Me
,
Dig Two Graves
and the story collection,
A Bouquet Of Bullets
. He is co-author (with JB Kohl) of the novels
One Too Many Blows To The Head
and
Borrowed Trouble
. He has also written two novellas in the popular Fightcard series,
Split Decision
and
A Mouth Full Of Blood
. His award-winning stories have appeared in over a dozen anthologies and he was voted 2012 Most Criminally Underrated Author by the Stalker Awards. For more visit
ericbeetner.blogspot.com

GARRETT CROWE
currently lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His writing has appeared in several print and online publications. He works in public radio. You can follow him at
twitter.com/crowegarrett

ROGER HOBBS
graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 2011. He is the author of
Ghostman
, a heist thriller, out now from Alfred A. Knopf. He is 24 years old

CHRISTOPHER L. IRVIN
scribbles about the dark and mysterious and dreams of one day writing full-time. His stories have appeared in the University of Maine at Machias Binnacle Ultra-Short Competition, Weird Noir, Shotgun Honey and The Rusty Nail Magazine among others. He lives with his wife and son in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find him online at
www.HouseLeagueFiction.com

ANTON SIM
has wasted several careers in nonfiction scribbling about things that really happened and prefers writing about things that didn’t, couldn’t, and shouldn’t. He is proud to be a Thuglet.

ALBERT TUCHER
has published more than forty short stories about prostitute Diana Andrews. She has appeared in
Thuglit, DZ Allen's Muzzle Flash,
and the anthology
The Best American Mystery Stories 2010,
edited by Lee Child. Most recently she took on Atlantic City in
The Retro Look,
from Untreed Reads. Albert Tucher will also appear in
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
in 2013 with a stand-alone story called
Hangman's Break.
Like so many authors of hardboiled crime fiction, he is a librarian in his day job.

SAM WIEBE
's first novel,
Last of the Independents
, won the 2012 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Unpublished First Novel, and will be published by Dundurn in 2013. His stories have been published in Spinetingler and Thousand Islands Life. His story "Humanitarian" won second place in the 2011 Scene of the Crime contest. He lives in Vancouver

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) was once the only woman on the Spike's Hot Dogs Wall of Fame (Fall River, MA).

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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