Bullets for Coffins by Whit Howland

Author:Whit Howland [Howland, Whit]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Untreed Reads Publishing
Published: 2013-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

He walked into a right cross from a fist festooned with a giant pinky ring.

The punch knocked the clown off balance and he fell to the pavement. Standing over him were detectives Lou and Brody. Lou stepped closer and put his big shoe on Huey’s Adam’s apple. Huey wheezed as Lou pressed harder against his neck.

“We hear you’ve been bothering the widow Ludnick,” Brody said.

“Depends on what you mean by bothering,” Huey rasped.

“Sniffing around where you don’t belong!” Lou said.

Huey sniffed the air. “Kinda like that?”

Lou took his foot off of Huey’s throat. He kicked him in the stomach and stepped away. Huey got up on all fours, coughed and spat. Brody knelt down and knocked his hat off. Then he grabbed a handful of the clown’s hair and pulled his head up to look him in the eye.

“We won’t spend too much time beating a dead horse,” Brody said as he shook Huey. “Fact is you’re messing with something you don’t understand and you’d do well to keep your snout out of it.”

Huey chuckled. “Snout? I only see two pigs here. And I ain’t one of ’em. So what if I don’t?”

Lou grinned and also knelt down in the clown’s face.

“Put it this way, if you’re lucky, it’ll be us who throws you the beating.”

Huey coughed again and he leaned back. “Yeah, I consider myself one Grade A lucky duck!”

The clown’s head lurched as Lou gave him a jab to the jaw. Brody kicked him over on his side.

“Stay out of it, creep!” Lou said as he and Brody strutted away.

* * *

The bartender leaned on the counter and read a newspaper by the light of a big neon beer sign. It was mounted on the wall behind and above him. Occasionally, he’d tap the tubes and the sign would buzz and shine brighter. When someone kicked the jukebox in the back room, he yelled, “You break it, you buy it!”

The barkeep then looked over at Huey who laughed as he knocked back another Bubblegum Whiskey. The clown drained the glass and slammed it on the counter. “Hit me again!”

The man pulled a glass off the wall and poured Huey another drink. He plunked it on the counter and slid it toward him. Huey reached out and raised the glass to the man in a gesture of gratitude. The bartender nodded back.

As Huey took another sip, he had the strange sensation someone was watching him. He turned around to see a female figure, dressed in purple, sitting at a booth over in a darkened corner. He finished his drink, then turned back and found her gone.

“That lady over in the corner…how long was she here?” Huey inquired.

“Who?” the bartender asked. “That lady dressed in purple who was sitting over in the booth.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” the bartender said into his newspaper.

Huey sighed in disgust. He was tired of people playing games with him. But he saw no benefit in pursuing this line of questioning. He drank up and headed for the door before he ended up punching somebody.

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