Tag Archives: crime

MOUSTACHE MEMOIRS WINNER: Joey To – The Useless Suspects

Amusing, Moustache Memoirs, Top Stories, , , , ,

Five men lined up, all with greasy moustaches and wearing dark blue shirts.

I scanned. Not him. No… No…

I turned to the sergeant beside me. “The last two are identical twins. How am I supposed to tell?”

He shrugged… But then I noticed the thin cuts below his nose.

Joey has never participated in a police line-up. Instead, he prefers to line up some potatoes, peel them one by one, cook them, and then eat them. And he also tries to write a little.

Editor: Joey is the winner of the Moustache Memoirs contest and the $15 Amazon gift card! His story also wins this week’s Story of the Week.

THOMAS SUMMERSON: Hunting the Hunter

Odd, Submissions, , , ,

I saw her today and I knew what she was immediately. After some hours of watching her pickpocket unwary airport travelers, I want to meet her and know her.

No one here knows that I’m a predator of a much more dangerous kind, and neither does she as I approach.

Thomas Summerson is a daydreamer and storyteller. He writes every day, as work and family life allows, of course. He dreams and labors toward the day when he can leave the day job behind and write full time. “Twenty years of schoolin’ and they put ya on the day shift.” It’s true Bob, it’s so true.

TODD MERCER: Dystopic Bootstrapping Strategies, #3: The Freelance Organist

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Hard up,
I rented a stairway landing.
Eight by six, the price was right.
Roped off a pedestrians’ passway.

Sold my etchings, then clothes,
next blood, one or two kidneys.

I shouldn’t have harvested
that poor man,
but once you buy the
chloroform
and surgical tools…

Pricing studio apartments
today.

Todd Mercer won the Woodstock Writers Festival’s Flash Fiction contest and took 2nd and 3rd place of the Kent County Dyer-Ives Prizes.  His chapbook Box of Echoes won the Michigan Writers Cooperative Press contest. Mercer’s poetry and fiction appears in The Lake, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Thema, Blue Collar Review, Right Hand Pointing, Apocrypha & Abstractions, Cease, Cows, Dunes Review and Eunoia Review.

MARY SCHERMER: Unconditional

Amusing, Artistic, , , , ,

I awoke in the cell, hoping, knowing Tim would come for me. He loved me. No matter what.

Even when I tried to kill the neighbors.

“Kate,” he murmured, stroking my hair, “let’s go home. It’s okay. I fenced in the yard so you can’t chase the neighborhood cats anymore!”

Mary Schermer lives in a small town on the southern shore of Lake Erie and writes short stories for enjoyment.

CRAIG HOLZSCHUH: Lunch Noir

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , , , , ,

I never expected this when I left work early.

Two black women’s shoes and a stained blouse create landmarks across a trail of red smears.

“Daddy! I was playing dress up and mommy made chicken’s fingers and I got my own ketchup.”

Smiling, I kiss my daughter’s precious, tomato-covered cheek.

Craig would like to thank the creators of spell check,caffeine,and the English language. He is currently working on a fifty word story that will not use the same word twice.

THOMAS SUMMERSON: The Game

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

I was hanging from the ledge because of a clumsy misstep. It was my last case, and most important. I was retiring after twenty years as a detective and five pursuing this man.

He pulled me up and uttered words that changed me forever.

“The game is all I have.”

Thomas Summerson is a daydreamer and storyteller. He writes everyday, as work and family life allows, of course. He dreams and labors toward the day when he can leave the day job behind and write full time. “Twenty years of schoolin’ and they put ya on the day shift” It’s true Bob, it’s so true.

GABRIELLE SOONG: 15 Years

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

“The world’s your oyster!” they said.

I want to say they lied, pin the blame on anyone but myself, but I can’t.

I could’ve made something of my life. Instead I chose the unthinkable.

He’s been in prison for nine years because of what I did. Six more to go.

Gabrielle Soong is a 17-year-old high schooler and aspiring writer. Besides writing, her favorite things are music, reading, and soccer. She has big plans to travel the world and write novels.

ALEXANDER KEY: Good News, Bad News

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

“Good news, Mr. Sloane. I’ve just discovered some fingerprints we originally missed. Once I get these back to the lab, we should be able to positively identify your daughter’s killer.”

The man locked the door, drew his pistol, and said, “Bad news, Detective. I lied about being the victim’s father.”

Alexander Key teaches high school when not leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

SUZI HARRIS: Coffee Time

Odd, Submissions, ,

I wandered out of the house, naked beneath the leather jacket imbued with your musky scent. Wet footsteps followed me down the path to the pond. I settled on our boulder and sipped the coffee you refused to drink.

When the sun rose, I dialed 911 to report your murder.

Suzi Harris is a retired technical writer working on her first novel with the support of her crazy Canadian husband and two psychotic cats.

DANIEL MKIWA: Remembering Ralphie

Amusing, Submissions, ,

“He woulda loved this.”

“Ralphie?”

“Yeah. Y’know, sneakin’ around at night… Diggin’ a hole in the dark… Then back into town before the bars close.”

“Heh.”

“Ralphie loved this kinda stuff.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, it’s deep enough now. You grab his ankles; I’ll take his shoulders. Careful.”

“Rest in peace, Ralphie.”

Daniel Mkiwa is a writer. He lives in the Los Angeles area. Check out his writing blog at http://www.mkiwa.com.