The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023 by Otto Penzler

Author:Otto Penzler [Penzler, Otto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781613164501
Publisher: The Mysterious Press
Published: 2023-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

I sat on my porch for the next hour, watching and grudgingly admiring Hiram’s work as he excavated the deep hole, rotating the excavator to dump the dirt nearby, making a pile next to the pile of crushed stone.

I had his five hundred dollars in my pocket, and held my cane between my legs, idly unscrewing and screwing the hard brass top.

Then he paused, took a shovel, and jumped into the hole. It was about chest-high to him, and he worked with the shovel to square off the edges of the rectangular-sized hole.

I had to give him credit. Even as a wife-beater, blackmailer, and probable murderer, he did have pride in his work.

Thing was, so did I.

He tossed the shovel out when he was finished, and grunted and heaved himself out of the hole. Hiram stood up, brushed his hands together to get the excess dirt off, and I limped my way over to him, holding out the five hundred-dollar bills.

His eyes lit right up.

He held his hand out and I brushed his hand away, and punched him hard in the chest.

His eyes widened and he let out a muffled “oof” and took two steps back and fell into the freshly dug hole.

I stepped to the edge and he got to his feet, eyes narrow and raging, and he said, “What the fuck was that all about? I’m gonna get out of here and beat the ever-living shit out of you.”

“I doubt it,” I said.

I took a step back and he placed both beefy hands on the edge of the hole, to lift himself up.

I twisted the top of my cane, loosening it, and slid out a narrow and razor-sharp edged sword. I slapped him twice across his hands and he yelped, and fell back, holding up his bleeding hands in disbelief, like the proverbial ninety-eight-pound weakling had turned around and suddenly nailed him.

“What … what …”

I said, “Us soft guys sometimes can be a surprise.”

Two more motions of the sword cane.

He fell back and sit down, still looking surprised. I went forward, knelt down on the grass.

Blood was oozing through his fingers against his chest, where I had stabbed him, and his other hand was against his throat, where I had slit him. Blood was trickling through his fingers there as well.

“Hiram, you had a good thing going here,” I said. “Constant payment, never caused you a problem, never gave you a complaint. But you got greedy, got stupid, and threatened me.”

His face was starting to pale out. Hiram couldn’t talk.

I said, “You’re bleeding out. It’s going to be painful, as you suffocate. And all because you were greedy.”

I got up, brushed some dirt and grass off my knees. “Just so you know, I’ve been fucking Maura for the past year. And Bruce will be going to college this fall.”

I walked over to the John Deere, gave a cool and professional look at the controls, and got to work, first sliding on a pair of latex gloves from my back pocket.

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