Mobster Tales 2: Short Story Collections

By Harvey Stanbrough

In this rollicking, gat-filled collection of eleven short stories, you get to see both sides: The mobsters and the cops. The perps and the victims. The guilty, the innocent and the merely complicit.

These guys create and dispose of bodies, brag and complain and finagle a way out where no way out existed before. Come along for a wild ride!

In most of these stories, we hear from the mobsters themselves. And these are not mere "gangstas," wearing filthy, ill-fitting jeans and unlaced combat boots while holding a pistol sideways so they look cool when they squeeze off a round.

These are wise guys who know their business, though it isn't always strictly business. And they know their family, though it isn't always strictly a family. And they know loyalty, though sometimes they understand it a little too late.

In one story, the reader will slip into the skin of a detective doing the much harder job on the other side of the mobster's macabre task.

• Language: English
• Publisher: StoneThread Publishing
• Release date: Oct 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386388760

Harvey Stanbrough

Harvey Stanbrough is an award winning writer and poet who was born in New Mexico, seasoned in Texas, and baked in Arizona. Twenty-one years after graduating from high school in the metropolis of Tatum New Mexico, he matriculated again, this time from a Civilian-Life Appreciation Course (CLAC) in the US Marine Corps. He follows Heinlein’s Rules avidly and most often may be found Writing Off Into the Dark. Harvey has written and published 36 novels, 7 novellas. almost 200 short stories and the attendant collections. He's also written and published 16 nonfiction how-to books on writing. More than almost anything else, he hopes you will enjoy his stories.

Book preview

What Happened That Day

Tell you what, there wasn't no way alive outta that stinkin' room. Not that I could see. Not at first.

An’ it was impossible things got that far all at once.

*

Okay, so me an’ Nicky an’ Jake an’ Max, we was sittin’ there playin’ cards on one of them foldin’ card tables. Our jackets was draped over the back of the chairs. Just them metal foldin’ chairs, you know.

Well, all except Nick. His jacket was hung up by the door on a hook over there. ‘Cause, you know, he’s Nick.

But that’s all there was in that room. I mean there wasn’t no couch to hide behind or no big ol’ easy chair, nothin’ like that. There wasn’t no regular table you could turn on its side. Not even a little coffee table, y’know? There wasn’t nothin’ like that.

There wasn’t even no lamps or nothin’ like that. Just the bulb hangin’ down over the table. Hangin’ there on a wire, y’know? An’ one of them little brown push-button switch sockets on it. So you could turn it off right there or with the switch by the door.

So there was the main door an’ then the door to the room where we had the girl.

In that room there was the little army cot where the girl was an’ one of them little blue plastic chairs with the chrome legs.

An’ then along the wall in the main room on the other side of that door was the sink an’ a cabinet with a hotplate, an’ then that little refrigerator.

It wasn’t much, that refrigerator. A little one, y’know? An’ old. It had that rounded top an’ the little ice box inside behind a little aluminum door. It wasn’t even turned on, but Big Mike said we wouldn’t be there more’n a day or two.

An’ then there was the back wall with the window, an’ then the other wall an’ then the front wall an’ then the door again. That’s all there was in the whole room.

Well, an’ about in the middle of the room was that card table an’ them four chairs.

I don’t even remember what game we was playin’ for that hand. You know, dealer’s choice an’ all that. But I remember jacks was wild.

Oh, an’ just before it happened, Stinky Gus came outta the back room there where we had the girl. I remember ‘cause he closed the door real quiet behind him.

An’ Jake looked up at Stinky an’ he said, Hey, you gotta— an’ he was gonna say stay in there or somethin’ like that, you know. ‘Cause it was Stinky’s turn to stay in the room with the girl an’ watch her.

Big Mike said specifically we was to take turns watchin’ her, an’ he said we had to be in the room with her durin’ our turn. He didn’t want us to lose her. He was tryin’ to make a point with that Jack Tilden guy. You know, the private dick. He was tryin’ to make a point that the guy needed to leave us alone.

So he had a couple of guys snatch the girl an’ bring her up there an’ put her in that room. An’ then he set us to watchin’ her.

Anyways, maybe that wasn’t right, y’know? I mean, it ain’t like there’s no windows in that room or nothin’ like that. The only window in the whole place was the window on the wall there behind me.

Oh, an’ that one, it had sort of a curtain on it. I guess you’d call it a curtain, only somebody just kind of draped part of a ripped-up old sheet over it on a couple of nails or somethin’.

I mean, none of us was interested enough to lift it up an’ see what was under there. But it looked like maybe nails or screws or somethin’ was tuggin’ up the corners.

But anyways, hey, what Big Mikey says, that’s what you do, that’s all.

So that’s what we was doin’ when Stinky came out. It was Stinky’s turn to watch the girl, an’ then the rest of us was playin’ cards to pass the time.

Only Jake didn’t finish sayin’ what he was gonna say to Stinky ‘cause Stinky put his finger up to his mouth and said, Shh! real hard but still quiet, you know. An’ then he turned his hand around and said, It’s a’right. She’s sleepin’ real good.

An’ Jake, he just looked at me an’ shook his head.

An’ I knew what he meant. If somethin’ happened an’ that girl skipped out, Big Mike wasn’t gonna be happy about it. An’ if that happened, it ought to all come down on Stinky.

Only that ain’t how it’d be. I mean, Stinky’d pay for sure, but the rest of us’d be right up the same creek with him. I mean, you know, we might be a little more dry than Stinky. We might even still be breathin’. Only you don’t wanna go up Big Mike’s creek any distance, y’know? That ain’t a good place to be.

So I looked up at Stinky an’ I said, but real quiet, rememberin’ the girl was asleep, I said, Nah, you gotta get back in there, Stinky.

An’ he frowned at me real hard ‘cause he don’t like that name. Hey, I forgot for a minute, you know.

An’ Stinky, he says, Hey, she’s sleepin’. You wanna go in there an’ make like a log, go ahead. I want in the game.

Well I wasn’t gonna go in there. We was on two-hour shifts watchin’ the girl, an’ Stinky wasn’t in there more than about a half-hour.

So I looked at Nick an’ Max, you know, with my eyebrows raised. Like askin’ them did they wanna go in there. I didn’t look at Jake ‘cause I already knew what he thought about it.

Max, he just looked down at his cards even though he didn’t need to. He already looked at ‘em once, an’ I never known Max to look more’n once before the draw.

That was it. We was playin’ five-card draw, jacks wild. A real sissy game, but Max called it.

Anyways, the way Max played, he’d look one time an’ pull out what he wanted to throw away, an’ then he’d settle back an’ look at the other guys. You know, tryin’ to read ‘em.

Only when I raised my eyebrows at him, he looked down at his cards, so I knew he wasn’t interested.

Now Nick, he’s a cool customer. When I looked at Nick, he just smiled about halfway and moved his head real slow left, then right. One time each way, meanin’ no.

So I looked back up at Stinky an’ I said, We ain’t interested, Gus. That time I remembered not to call him Stinky.

But he just shrugged, then looked around the room for another chair.

Only there wasn’t no more chairs except the one in the room with the girl. So he hooked his thumbs in his belt and just stood there, lookin’ down at the table. Waitin’ to watch the cards land I guess.

I should’a made him go back in there, only I didn’t. An’ really, it wouldn’a made a difference.

2

Anyways, we was sittin’ there playin’ a hand an’ I’m thinkin’ what do to about Stinky when all of a sudden somethin’ crashes through the window behind me.

I rocked my chair over backwards to the right, you know. I was figurin’ there was someone behind me an’ I was tryin’ to get outta the way.

An’ as I was fallin’ over, I seen Nick on my left an’ Jake on my right an’ Max across the table, all slappin’ toward their left side for their guns.

Stinky slapped too, only there wasn’t nothin’ there. I could see that. There wasn’t even no holster an’ no rig. I guess he left his gun in the room with the girl, which wasn’t the smartest thing to do. I mean, the girl was thirteen, so prob’ly she could use a gun.

But that’s prob’ly what he done ‘cause Stinky had a bad habit of takin’ off his rig an’ drapin’ it over whatever chair he’s sittin’ in. Only the chair he was sittin’ in last was in the other room.

Anyways, then there was a crash on the main door an’ a big explosion.

Somebody grunted an’ landed hard to my left, like over by the counter or the refrigerator or somethin’ but I didn’t see who it was. Maybe Stinky or maybe Nick. An’ there was another explosion from over there an’ then the light went out.

So maybe Nick shot the light on accident. Stinky didn’t have no gun.

Anyways, somethin’ little sprinkled down on my face an’ neck, an’ I was thinkin’ it was dust.

So I spit real hard an’ reached both hands to wipe away whatever it was, an’ there was another explosion on my left. Only this time there was a streak of fire in the dark. It went toward the door.

I figured that had to be Nick maybe, shootin’ at the door from that side

Anyways, my face hurt when I rubbed it an’ my hands hurt some, so I figured the stuff was glass from the light bulb. So I quit wipin’ an’ went for my gun again.

There was another big explosion only I didn’t know where an’ I didn’t see no fire. An’ then there was a thwack when the bullet hit, an’ then a thump right above me, like somebody landed hard back by the window. An’ then a groan from back there.

Well, that had to be Nick or maybe Stinky, but I was on the floor an’ the bullets were in the air, so I stayed down there.

While I was gettin’ my gun out there was another short explosion an’ then another one an’ another one, an’ bullets slappin’ walls all around. Those were in front of me on the right. So maybe Jake an’ Max were shootin’.

An’ then another explosion from my right an’ somebody yelped, an’ then the girl’s door was openin’. That was real plain ‘cause it squealed.

An’ then two more explosions, one from the middle of the room out to my right an’ one from close to the girl’s door.

Then somebody thumped against the wall to my right and fell on the floor. I felt the floor move. Only no groan this time.

I finally got my gun out an’ was gonna shoot toward the main door but somebody ran past my right side. I was gonna shoot that way but maybe it was Max or Jake, so I didn’t.

So I’m still layin’ there on my back tryin’ to see what’s goin’ on an’ what way to shoot.

Then there was feet scrapin’ toward the main door an’ some guy yelled, I got her!

An’ somebody said, Good real loud an’ then the main door slammed an’ everything fell quiet.

The room stunk with sweat an’ the smell of guns goin’ off.

So I said, Nicky?

An’ nobody said nothin’.

An’ I said, Hey, Gus?

An’ there wasn’t no answer.

Then Hey, Joey? came at me from my right side, like over by the wall. Only I couldn’t be sure who it was. An’ then there was a groan.

I pointed my