Yellow Mama E zine

AIN’T THAT THE JOB?

by Victor Kreuiter

 

 

        He should have started with “Did you bring the list?” Instead, Walters started with the blade. It was dark, they were alone, and it was easy. Then, he worked his way through the dead man’s pockets until he found the envelope.

 

***

       “You have the list?”

       Walters shrugged. “We need to talk. I think . . .”

       “You think it’s worth more than I’m offering.”

       Walters shrugged. “Others might pay more.”

       “Let’s see it.”

       “Don’t have it with me.”

       Dennison sighed. “Let me do some thinking.”

 

***

 

       “Did you bring the list?”

       “Dennison wants it.”

       “What’s he offering?”

        Walters rubbed an eyebrow. “More than you.”

       Palmer sighed, looked over his shoulder, and said “Will someone shoot this guy?”

 

***

 

        “Think he hid it?”

        “If he was smart,” Dennison said.

         Palmer sighed. “You think he’s smart?”

        Dennison sighed. “Smart enough to get it. Smart enough to hide it.”

 

***

 

       “Did you get the list?”

       Randall Dennison cleared his throat. “It’s in the wind,” he said.

       “We can’t have that,” Cooper said.

        “I know . . . I got an idea.”

***

 

       “Did he get the list?”

        Cooper stood in front of the desk. “Dennison and Palmer are fighting over it, but I got an idea.”

***

 

       “One of you has the list,” Cooper said.

        Dennison shrugged. Palmer shrugged.

        Cooper looked over his shoulder. “Who you think’s lying?”

 

***

 

       Cooper stood in front of the desk. “Neither of them had the list.”

        “You sure?”

        “No,” Cooper said, “but we tried persuasion. They couldn’t be persuaded.”

        “Walters?”

        “He’s swimming.”

 

***

 

       The man behind the desk dialed his phone. “This list,” he said, “we’re not sure it exists.”

 

***

 

       “It’s taken care of,” the Chief of Staff said.

       “What’s that mean?”

        “It means you need to find something else to worry about.”

       “Like I need something else to worry about.”

       “Ain’t that the job?”

 

 

      Victor Kreuiter’s stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Bewildering Stories, Halfway Down the Stairs, Yellow Mama, Literally Stories, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Del Sol SFF Review, The Windhover, Straylight Literary Magazine, Crimeucopia’s “Let Me Tell You About” anthology, and other online and print publications. His story, “Miller and Bell,” was included in The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of 2023.

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      Luke Lester is an artist and writer from Victoria, Canada. He has recently been published in Absolute Underground, Black Petals, Flash Fiction North, Paragraph Planet, Ultramarine Literary Review, and Yellow Mama. More of his art and writing can be found on his blog: The Other Place.