Category: Crime/Mystery/Thriller

All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, General Fiction

I Don’t Like to Complain by Russell Dupont

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I don’t like to complain.

When you live in a neighborhood, side-by-side with other home owners, there’s a little give-and-take that has to go on. On one side of us there’s the Cummings. The Cummings are in their fifties and almost every Sunday they have a little family barbecue, their two sons and their families come over and the kids, they’re still kids, and they make a little noise but Fred Cummings is a good guy and I don’t mind the smoke from his grill because what he’s cooking usually smells good. By seven o’clock, they’re long gone.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

Wee Florrie by Ian Ibbetson.

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The interview room was sweltering. Flies gathered around the one small window high up on the street-side wall. The Scottish summer heat didn’t seem to bother the old woman in the other chair. Archie’s first thought was how cool she looked. The tweed jacket remained on despite the heat and the pearls sat perfectly against the olive green twinset. Every tight white curl had been marshalled precisely into position. His own shirt had begun sticking to his back an hour ago.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

The Fourteenth Victim by Mark Grace

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Twelve bodies in the last month with the same MO. Each victim had blunt force trauma to the back of the head, indicating a surprise attack. Once stunned, the brutal attack continued. The autopsies showed multiple broken bones, ruptured organs, and, in one case, a heart attack. The bruising on the skin indicated that the same weapon used to hit the head was also used to beat the victims to death. The murder weapon was still unknown after twelve murders. Hoofprints were all over each crime scene, which indicates the killer knows how to handle a horse. In a farming community like this one, that offers almost no help.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

Taking the Plunge by M.A.B. Lee

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It wasn’t on my mind to kill him, just shut his mouth for a bit. A body needs peace and quiet sometimes. The plunger was right there handy and I picked it up and stuck it over his mouth. It stuck real good, too, I didn’t expect that. Carlton turned red as a beet and before he could pull it off, he keeled over dead. If people knew how dangerous these things were they wouldn’t sell them just anywhere.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

Crusader by Diane M. Dickson

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The air in the alleyway was damp and cold, smelling of urine, rot and decay. Old bricks were wet as his hands brushed against them and the cement under his trainers was slick with vile gunk. Frankie drew away from the wall with a shudder. Pulling his zipper closer under his chin, he crept slowly towards the doorway hidden in the gloom. His dark knitted hat sparkled slightly with moisture under the dim overhead lighting, making him appear to have been sprinkled with Christmas glitter. The thought would not have amused him. He had no patience for such stuff, tinsel and trimming, laughter, joy. What place did it have in a world with all this work to do, all this clearing out and cleaning up?

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, General Fiction

Fire Eating by Christopher Ananias

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A homeless man is lying across the railroad tracks. A green bicycle is parked sideways on the rocks. “What the hell is this,” I say to Jonny. We’re grinding along the parallel lines in an old beater I just bought last night.

“Helluva deal,” says Jonny, smiling, then he gives him a little toast, and takes a big gurgling gulp of Budweiser, and belches from deep in his stomach. A beery cheeseburger and onions drift towards me. “Look’s like he’s homeless…” then he says, “Homes.”

Around town you might see this homeless man or his twin, sometimes they’re female (they all look alike in their dirty Carhartt’s), pumping their bike or shopping cart from trash can to trash can sorting out spaghetti-sauced aluminum GOLD.

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Crime/Mystery/Thriller, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Between Vern and Alex by Harrison Kim

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AUGUST 2021:

“My will is your authority,” says Vern, the bishop’s mitre wearing business dealer.  His blue veined cheeks turn red, then purple, as he laughs until the tears flow, rocking back and forth, holding his sides in front of red-bearded, yellow-toothed twenty-seven-year-old Alex as they sit making connections and trades in the rusted bus that is Vern’s hoarder home.   “Hold the mirror higher,” Vern commands, and Alex does.  He sees the red capillaries bulge under Vern’s eyes.  “Where did you get this holy hat?” the dealer asks.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, Short Fiction

Cup of Flour by Tim Boiteau

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Woke up to frosted window panes and frozen pipes. Marta and I made do with the gas stove, lighting it old school with matches against the hissing invisible stream. Water supply was low, but would last us a few days. The driveway had vanished beneath the white, with only the stitch of barbed wire fence to mark road from field. While I was attaching the snowplow blade to the truck, Marta called out from the house that Pam, our neighbor, wasn’t answering her phone.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, General Fiction, Short Fiction, Writers Reading, Writing

Dirty Glass by Hugh Cron – Adult Content

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“Dirty glass…Fuck!”

…The first time that Martin had really focused on a dirty glass was decades back, in another one of his lifetimes. He’d had a few lifetimes and each had caused him a different level of grief.

Martin thought back to that morning at 8.00am, when he had been told that he had to check on a property. He found that depressing, fuck all was said about checking on the resident, no, he had to check on the property.

He pulled up beside the row of Maisonettes and sighed as he saw that the main entrance door was hanging off its hinges. He headed into the building. It always made him laugh that this was a building that you had to go inside, to go upstairs, to then go outside to get to the front door. He rattled the door. He could hear some mumbling and drunken giggles, “I hope that’s a lovely lady with nice tits!!”

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

My Little Dump by Christopher Ananias (Adult Content)

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I am slipping again. All of my thoughts are filthy and negative, and the dishes are stacking up. The TV is a blurb of sounds and flashing light in the cramped clutter of my living room. An occasional face draws me into the moment, reminding me of the past.

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