crack - 26. dark highway

by nick nelson

part 26 of 26

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want a lift? sure. thank you. where you headed? away. how far away? aways. i am headed that way myself. good. maybe quite aways, maybe not so quite aways. better and better. can i ask you a question? go for it. are you on a mission? um - no, i wouldn’t say so. i am. i’m impressed. an ancient and honorable mission - vengeance. on everybody that’s ever done me wrong. and that’s a lot of people. i am sorry to hear that. sorry that you were done wring, i mean. my name is slim, by the way, just slim? slim i usually from some place, like omaha slim, or madagascar silim, or lithuania slim, or wherever. i used to be but now i am just slim. it’s more anonymous that way. i guess so. this sure is a dark highway. highway’s always been dark. i don’t know. i read somewhere it used to be bustling. the spinal cord or the life blood of civilization or something like that. shouldn’t believe anything you read. always been dark as far back as i know, and that’s a long time. i defer to your judgment and experience. defer, that’s a good twenty dollar word. what ’s your name, by the way? smith - bill smith. the end

crack - 25. after all

by nick nelson

part 25 of ?

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a lazy afternoon at the police station. friday was trying to clean up her pending files as best she could before her day off. she had sent a message to william wilson two days earlier informing him that the thirty day period he had to appeal the closing of his case had expired, and asking him to acknowledge that he had received her notice. not that it was necessary that he send a response - the case was closed anyway - but she would have liked to have it in the file. he had not responded. that is odd, she thought. i know his type - persistent, and at least wanting to get the last word in. something is off here. she sent him another message, ending - mister wilson please respond. two hours later, when she was ready to leave, he had not answered . very strange, she thought. according to him, he has no job, and nothing to do all day. she decided to drop in on him on her way home. * there were no cars parked outside bill smith’s house. friday knew william did not have a car or a license to drive one, but bill smith probably did. did he drive into the city to his office? she rang the doorbell. twice. no answer. she had not expected one. she tried the door. it opened. she went inside there was a small kitchen to her right. it looked neat and clean, probably not used much. there was a small room to her left with a couch and a coffee table, and two closed doors beyond that. she knocked on both doors. no answers. she tried the first door. it was locked. she tried the second door. it opened. william was lying face up on a small bed. friday saw right away that he was dead. there were no signs of violence or struggle. but there was a small yellow post-it note stuck on his shirt front. on it was scrawled , in what looked like deliberately “clumsy” handwriting - got ya! so, someone had been after him after all. is this the end - or the beginning? friday called constantine. next

crack - 24. corpus delicti

by nick nelson

part 24 of ?

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we got you this time, slim, old buddy. got you good. so why don’t you just come clean and save us all a lot of trouble? you got nothing on me, agent. nothing. no corpus delicti. nothing. we have the truck and you sitting in it. fred fifty-two’s truck. and we know fred fifty-two had the money. so, the question is, where is the money. i told you how i got the truck. if you don’t want to believe me, that is your problem and i never heard of fred fifty-two. yes, you were walking down the road, and little jack horner came along with the truck and gave it to you because he did’t know how to drive it. ha ha. at least it is kind of original. there you go. i could not have made it up. that is what they all say. i got nothing more to say. agent jones nodded to deputy brown, who was standing behind slim. take him away. how far back in the jail? way back. way, way back. someone will pay for this. doesn’t sound like my problem. next