Wright & Wrong by W. Glenn Duncan Jr

Author:W. Glenn Duncan Jr. [Duncan Jr., W. Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-648-22347-4
Publisher: d squared publishing

I pivoted, bringing the gun up as I did, trying to work out what to aim at and whether I should be turning my back on the people I’d just been pointing a gun at.

Ray was about halfway along the path from the driveway, looking at me, then at the bottom of the porch steps where his sister was being held by a bearded man with wild eyes.

His arm draped over her left shoulder, across her chest, palm resting against her ribs under her right breast. It could have been a lover’s embrace.

The Smith & Wesson he pressed to her right temple said different.

Charlene blinked staccato at me and Ray continued his head-swiveling approach to the situation.

“Easy there, buddy,” I said. I ticked the .38 up a notch, focused it on the end of his bulbous nose to make sure he could hear me.

“Don’t fucking tell me to take it easy, man! You have any idea what her kid did? Do you?”

I felt like the contestant on a game show where any answer I gave would be wrong. Instead of answering, I settled my feet a bit firmer on the driveway, gripped the pistol a little tighter and shut the hell up.

“He killed my angel! That’s what he did! He took her away, and he won’t be around to pay for what he done.” Beard pushed the S&W’s muzzle harder into Charlene’s temple. She tried to tilt her head away from the pressure. He tensed his arm, holding her in position. “So don’t tell me to … Take. It. Easy.”

My mouth was dry. Ray was still doing his tennis-spectator impersonation in my peripheral vision. What worried me more was what the folks on the front lawn behind me were up to. I didn’t think they could conjure up a backbone between them, but all it would take is one weekend warrior with a twitch in his trigger finger and this could turn to shit real quick.

I heard one of the news van doors creak open and a few raised voices. Just what we needed: Live coverage from our team on the scene.

“Why’n’t you tell me why I shouldn blow Momma’s head off right now. Huh?” Beard said. Charlene closed her eyes and started to slump. I wasn’t sure if Beard would notice the extra weight, but I didn’t want anything to rattle him further right now.

So I started talking.

“What’s that gonna solve?” I said. “It won’t bring your girl back. You know that.” Christ, I hated this shit. “It’s not gonna help anything. You kill her, I kill you. More dead people. That’s all.”

That’s all? As lines go, that one sucked like an industrial vacuum cleaner. No wonder I hadn’t gone into hostage negotiation when I was on the force. Do you feel lucky? That’s more my style. Still, this turkey didn’t deserve to die. He was having a shitty day and needed to take it out on someone else.

But it wasn’t gonna be my client.

“So what? I don’t care anymore, man,” Beard said.

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