The Mash by Samuel Brower

Author:Samuel Brower [Brower, Samuel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B09C7VQFDY
Goodreads: 58743952
Publisher: Gypsy Head Publications
Published: 2021-08-09T04:00:00+00:00

-15-

The back room of the Sutton’s flower shop was empty. Mikey Sullivan stood scratching his head. He didn’t feel comfortable walking around with the wad of hundred-dollar bills in his jacket pocket, and had hoped to drop it off with his employers right away. Where were the Suttons? They rarely left their little office in the back of Mrs. Sutton’s flower shop.

Mikey heard someone stirring around out in the front of the shop. Mrs. Sutton, likely. She hadn’t been there when he’d come in, but the door had been left unlocked, so he knew she couldn’t have been far. Mikey went through the door out into the shop and sure enough Mrs. Sutton stood by a worktable pruning and arranging yellow and blue flowers in a clear glass vase with a yellow ribbon tied around it.

“They ain’t here,” Mrs. Sutton said, not even turning toward Mikey when she spoke.

“Where’d they go?” Mikey asked.

“Set off after Marvin Moore’s killers, I s’pose.”

Mikey’s eyes went wide. “Marv is dead?”

Mrs. Sutton finally turned away from her work and met Mikey’s eyes. “Well, yeah, Michael, you ain’t heard? Murdered just this morning. My boys carried his body over to the church themselves. Where you been? News is all over town.”

Mikey put a hand over his mouth. Ol’ Marv had been a staple in the holler for as long as he could remember. The storeowner had always been kind to Mikey, even though he’d been caught stealing nick knacks from the General when he was seven. Mikey could hardly believe it.

“Who done it?” he asked.

“Coal company gun thugs, or at least that’s the story ‘round town. Bastards are tryin’ to run us all off so they can blast their damned money from the mountain. Damn shame.” She motioned to the vase on the worktable. “Ever’body chipped in for an arrangement, that’s what I’m puttin’ together now.”

Mikey nodded. He left the conversation there and walked out through the front door, the little bell above him chiming too cheerily for his somber mood. He had a mind to tear it down from its hook and throw it into the street, but resisted the urge. It wouldn’t do anything but upset Mrs. Sutton. He walked to his car, placing a nervous hand over the lump of cash in his pocket for at least the hundredth time since he’d put it there before leaving his room.

An engine hummed up the road a ways, and soon a truck passed. Mikey thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He’d be damned if he hadn’t just seen Mr. Reilly’s truck, with Mr. Reilly driving, and the Sutton Brothers sitting shotgun. He set off at a run, chasing the truck. He stopped on the main road and watched the pickup edge out of town. Through the back window he definitely saw three heads. What in Sam Hill was going on? Had Mr. Reilly changed his mind? Was he going to help them after all?

Mikey then remembered what Mrs. Sutton had told him. The Sutton brothers were going after Marvin Moore’s killers.

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