Tillie's Big Race

By Cate Martin

Tillie shares a name with the famous "Tillie the Terrible Swede". She also shares an ambition with that woman from Chicago. She longs to break all the records on her bike. But her home deep in the farmlands of northwest Minnesota offers few opportunities to test her.

Then a car full of city folks blows into her town. City folks in a fancy city car, carrying very city weapons.

Their target? Her town's bank. But when their getaway puts her grandfather in danger, Tillie and her bike ride to the rescue.

"Tillie's Big Race", a short story featuring gangsters, Tommy guns, and a lone young woman on a bike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ratatoskr Press
• Release date: Dec 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781958606261

Book preview

Tillie’s Big Race

TILLIE’S BIG RACE

CATE MARTIN

Ratatoskr Press

CONTENTS

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Tillie’s Big Race

The Witches Three Cozy Mysteries

The Viking Witch Cozy Mysteries

Also from Ratatoskr Press

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About the Author

Also by Cate Martin

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TILLIE’S BIG RACE

Tillie leaned forward over the handlebars, standing on the pedals as she powered the clunky old bike up the hillside. It really wasn't much of a hill, not compared to the hills around her former school in Mankato, but it was the tallest this prairie town had to offer. Usually she made the climb easily, but this June day had dawned unseasonably hot and humid. The air was dead calm, without the slightest of breezes to cool her, and too full of moisture already to wick away any of the perspiration that coated her body.

Drops of sweat from her forehead showered down on her hands with every downward stroke. And they were already sweaty enough; her palms were so greasy they kept slipping over the grips. The salty taste of her own perspiration kept leaking into the corners of her mouth, but it was never liquid enough to relieve the sticky dryness of her tongue and throat.

She was nearly at the top of the hill when a car sped past her, the tires throwing up a dense cloud of dust that first blinded her then clung to every inch of her body. She could hear men's voices shouting and laughing. She didn't think they were catcalling her, but something had them awfully excited for this early in the morning of what was surely going to be a miserably