Excerpt from a novel, "A Halo for Red Betsy," which is nearing completion and will be out by the end of the year, or early 2014 at the latest. 0700 Monday 2 May 1949 I opened the door a couple inches and waited. He didn’t disappoint me. The first thing through the door was his gun, as if it had eyes. Amateur. I pushed the door hard against his wrist, forcing him to drop the gun. When I opened the door, he instinctually pulled his arm back, leaving me with the gun. I scooped it up fast and opened the door further. It would have been a good time for him to run, but I think he was too stunned. I motioned him into the room with the gun and closed the door. “Who you working for,” I asked. He just looked at me and continued to rub his sore wrist. I gave him a left cross to the jaw that sent him against the door. I cocked the gun and stuck in his face. “You’re not going to shoot me,” He said. He was right and we both knew it. I eased the hammer down, then smacked him across the temple with it, just to remind him that a gun had more than one use. I pulled him off the floor and sat him in one of the room’s two chairs. “Correction, I’m not going to kill you,” I said, pointing the gun at his knee. “That doesn’t mean I won’t shoot you. Tell me what I want to know and you’ll walk out of here.” He hesitated, so I cocked the gun. “Benny Chin,” he said. “Who’s that?” “Gambling boss.” “Gambling boss?” I said. “A Chinese gambling boss? What is this, a dime novel? What does he want with me?”
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 04:16:39 +0000
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