A Dead Guru Is A Good Guru

A hardboiled crime story…

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…a dishwasher at the Greasy Plate Café in Santa Cruz. And her sex life was nearly nonexistent: there were a few lovers, but after the sex it was always the same in the morning, a note left on the bed: It was fun. I’ll call you––her phone never…

By D.A. Helmer

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Going To The Mattresses

…trouble is, I got indicted for selling smack. Actually, I wasn’t the one pushing. This kid, named Enrique Henderson, was selling the horse, and he was paying me protection money for it all the while. Now the boss, Mr. Spirochete, he really frowns on the selling of narcotics, you know? He had started an edict—you deal, you die. Two behind the ear, just like…

By Jack Bristow

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Sweat

This is a short crime piece I wrote, which is a departure from my usual suspense!

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…steam was especially thick. It was the kind of steam that made you wish that you had gills instead of lungs. It was the perfect steam to melt the toxins out of large, subcutaneous bodies. One such beluga sat, piled on the tile bench leaning his Grecian mane against the dripping wet wall behind him, a thick gold chain draped across his chest, a white towel loosely covering his less-than-impressive unmentionables that were pasted by sweat onto the cool tiles of the…

By a stump

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