An Excerpt From the New Nick Forte Novel, Sideshow

Here’s an excerpt from the new Nick Forte novel, Sideshow, available on Amazon in print for $9.99 and as an e-book for $2.99.

 

Beth Bryant got right to business. “How many men have you killed?”

I saw no reason to sugar coat it. I was the guy paying for the hour. “Seven. That I know of.”

She paused her pen above the notebook. Added what I could tell from the motion of her hand was a question mark. “You’re not sure?”

“A year or so back I was trapped into a situation where I had to shoot at cars. It’s possible I hit a person. I know at least one man got hurt when I blew up a propane tank. Nothing in the papers about anyone dying and the cops never bothered me about it, but I suppose it’s possible someone could’ve been mortally wounded. It’s not like I visited people in the hospital or kept in touch with their families.”

“You think this is funny?”

I took a deep breath. “No, and I don’t mean to give that impression. You work with many cops?”

“Mostly retired. Those on duty tend to stay with in-house shrinks for their counseling.”

I liked her saying shrink. Last thing I needed was one with a stick up her ass. “Then I’m sure I’m not the first one to say something inappropriate. Cops see so much they’ll never unsee they have to make fun of it or go crazy. I wouldn’t be here if I thought killing all those men was funny. Come to think about it, that would’ve been an even better reason to come.”

“How do you feel about it?”

Someone once told me the difference between a good question and a great question was he knew the answer to a great question. This was a damn good question. I’d been thinking about it for years and the best I had for her was, “I honest to God don’t know.”

One of Beth’s eyebrows called bullshit.

“Honest to God. They’re all different. It’s safe to say the world’s a better place without them. Except maybe one, and he was an accident. The rest, they had to go. It was them or me.” Pretty much.

“Heat of the moment kinds of things?”

Deep breath. “Confidentially, right?”

“Unless you’re about to tell me you’re going to kill someone. Your past is safe with me.”

I took time to settle myself. Beth gave me all I wanted. “One guy. Russian gangster. His was a case of what I call prophylactic self-defense.”

“You killed him to remove a future threat?”

“You’ve heard it before?”

“The legal term is ‘preventive self-defense.’ It describes the use of force against a non-imminent threat.”

“This guy brought a whole crew to my uncle’s house to kill me, my cousin, and my uncle. Probably my aunt if he had the chance. I get the drop on him and he gives himself up. ‘Go ahead. Arrest me,’ he says because he knows he’ll be out the next morning. A week or a month or a year later he, or one of his buddies, would come up behind me and put two behind my ear. He had to go as sure as the ones who were actively shooting at me.”

“You said they’re all different. How does he compare to the others?”

I generally avoided thinking about ranking my kills as if they were college football teams. It wouldn’t be fair to Caroline for me to dance around it. I needed to either answer this question honestly or go home and face her.

I decided I’d rather tell Beth. “Between the two of us.” Not a question.

Beth nodded.

“Pulling that trigger is one of the five most satisfying things I’ve ever done.”

 

Sideshow is available through Amazon in both print ($9.99) and e-book ($2.99) versions.