Grateful Touring

By Sarah M. Chen

As the director for New England foliage tours, Jack has an easy side hustle smuggling cigarettes while entertaining a motor coach of leaf peepers—as long as he’s teamed up with his driver, Chris. Things get complicated, though, when Bob announces he’s the new driver and Chris is MIA. Fearing the worst and with the trip still on schedule, Jack braces himself for a bumpy ride.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Jul 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781479465965

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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

GRATEFUL TOURING, by SARAH M. CHEN

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 2016 by Sarah M. Chen.

Originally published in Windward: Best New England Crime Stories.

Published by Wildside Press, LLC.

wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

GRATEFUL TOURING,

by SARAH M. CHEN

When the motor coach cruised by the familiar eagle statue in Dock Square, Jack finally relaxed. In a few minutes, his tour group would be exploring the seaside town of Kennebunkport for the allotted hour, and this temp driver, Bob, would hopefully have to take a piss. Then Jack could dig around the passenger cargo bay to make sure the money was safe before he had a meltdown.

It all started a couple hours ago, back at South Station in Boston, when a stocky guy marched up to Jack with his suitcase, announced his name was Bob, and said he was driving the New England foliage route for King Tours today. The guy was around Jack’s age with a chest the size of a VW bus.

Where’s Chris? Jack asked, alarm bells going off. He’d been waiting a good ten minutes for Chris, his usual driver, to arrive with the keys to the coach so he could throw the bag of money into the driver’s bay like he did before every tour.

Bob heaved his massive shoulders up and down. How the hell should I know? He pulled a set of keys out of his