Sample Sunday: Excerpt: Package of Pain in Crimeucopia - Let Me Tell You About...

Normally, I would have been on top of this, but between being sick a lot these past months and the new issue with my foot, this got on top of me before I knew it was happening. Last Tuesday was publication day for the new anthology, Crimeucopia - Let Me Tell You About.... Published by Published by Murderous Ink Press, edited by John Connor, the read is available in both print and digital formats at Amazon and other vendors. It also contains my short story, “Package of Pain.”

Written in 2001, my short story is a crime fiction tale featuring a suspended Fort Worth detective. It is an adult orientated story and not designed for kids. A far tamer version of the story appeared a few years later on the long ago discontinued Mouth Full of Bullets website. This full version of the story is also included in my MindSlices short story collection.

 

PACKAGE OF PAIN

Mike Thornstein sat in his truck in front of his own house as a light drizzle coated the windshield.  The package was there again, even though it wasn’t supposed to be.  He had been promised by everyone that it was all over.  The investigation was supposed to have ended months ago.  He had been cleared, publicly exonerated, but nothing changed.

It sat there wrapped in plain brown paper on his stoop.  When they first started showing up every Friday like clockwork, his colleagues had searched for the sender.  Each one had been mailed from a mailbox in Fort Worth.  Television had “Walker,” but all Mike had were bureaucratic bosses who decided the packages weren’t a threat.  When the sender wasn’t identified after a few weeks, manpower and resources were delegated elsewhere.  Mike was still on suspension while awaiting assignment, albeit very unofficially, and the packages were still coming.  Something had to be done to end it.

The windshield wipers slapped across clearing the glass.  Visible again, the package sat there waiting for him.  He turned the engine off and listened to it tick as it cooled.  The glass slowly misted over as the drizzle continued.  The package dissolved from view into globs of water on the glass. Sitting there, watching the mist fall, wasn’t going to solve the problem.

Mike heaved himself out of his old truck and crossed the leaf-strewn yard.  Rain and wind had stripped most of the leaves off the trees, leaving just a few to decorate the leaden sky.  Everything dripped water and matched his mood perfectly.

The package was small and light, just like all the others.  Wrapped in brown paper and twine, it bore the Fort Worth postmark from the downtown office. Beyond that, it was like all the others and would offer up no clues as to the sender.  Mike shook it softly as he looked in vain for a return address.  Nothing rattled, and it fit in the crook of his arm as he fumbled with the door lock.

Mike got the door open, stepped in and back-kicked the door shut.  He wandered into the den and placed the package on the coffee table.  His coat went onto the couch as he headed to the kitchen.

The refrigerator beckoned, and he grabbed a beer made from some river out in the Rockies.  All beer tasted the same, but this one had been on sale.  His only preference was for long-necked bottles.  Beer wasn’t supposed to come any other way.  The top went flying into the sink with a clatter, and Mike chugged the beer down in several large swallows.  One soldier down and into the trash.  A second one was pulled out and popped open.  He took a long swallow and contemplated the job ahead.  Fortified, he headed back for the den.

The bottle went onto a small table next to the recliner.  Mike switched on the reading lamp and used a car key to slit the package open.  Just like the others, there was purple tissue paper inside.  He reached inside past the folds, and there was the expected videotape.  It was labeled “Continued” in block letters.  He popped it into the VCR and, as it began to play, he hit the stop button.  The tabs were snapped out so it couldn’t be recorded over, and he wasn’t ready to watch.  The tapes were a recent addition to the packages and made even less sense than the weird letters.

He sat in the recliner with the package in his lap.  He swallowed some more beer while he contemplated the box.  The bottle went back to the table, making another wet ring to join its companion.  Mike reached deeper into the box and found what he was looking for.  Black lace brushed against his fingers as he pushed the tissue paper back.  Nestled on the panties was one small bullet with a lipstick mark at the tip.  It sounded like some stupid detective novel from the forties, but it was all too real.  It was nice to know that this wasn’t a threat, according to the bigshots downtown.  He wasn’t reassured.

Mike twirled the panties on his finger, whipping them through the air.  Now he had almost half of a month’s worth of panties and they were still coming.  This was the sixth bullet, all sealed with a kiss.  He knew what he was going to see on the tape; it had been a variation on a theme.  He didn’t want to watch, but he had too.  He tossed the empty box and punched the remote.

For the rest of the story, pick up a copy of Crimeucopia - Let Me Tell You About....

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024

In addition to having been the multiple term president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, Kevin R. Tipple’s short fiction has appeared in numerous places online and in magazines such as LynxEye, Starblade, Show and Tell, The Writer's Post Journal, Mystery Magazine, and others. His short stories have appeared in the anthologies, Back Road Bobby and His Friends, Crimeucopia-Strictly Off The Record, and Crimeucopia-Say It Again, Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Notorious in North Texas: Metroplex Mysteries III, among others. His award-winning blog of reviews, guest posts, and more is at: https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/