Read Six Crime Stories Online

Authors: Robert T. Jeschonek

Six Crime Stories (27 page)

BOOK: Six Crime Stories
2.69Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

*****

 

Special Preview:
Backtracker

 
A Thriller
by Jason Koenig

 

Chapter 1

 

For a split-second, he tasted cool air and opened his eyes to look around. Then, he hit the water with a sudden, violent force, and could no longer breathe.

As he sank, the water rushed into him, flooding his lungs, freezing him from the inside as well as the outside. Stunned and numb, he dropped further into the icy reaches, propelled by the momentum of his fall. Down, down he plunged, a senseless, dead weight, stars flashing behind the lids of his eyes, blooming and winking like holiday fireworks.

Then, instinctively, desperately, he flung away the shock, heaved it off like a blanket, and he realized what was happening.

He was drowning! For God's sake, he was drowning!

With renewed awareness, he fought the water, flailed and kicked and twisted wildly. Still sinking, he writhed and pedaled, battered at the frigid envelope, struggling to end his descent. He couldn't let it stop him; there was so much to do.

Though his limbs were numb and his lungs burned, and the fireworks on his eyelids blazed more brilliantly than ever, he surged with strength at the thought of his mission. Thrashing his legs against gravity, he felt himself slowing, felt the speed of his fall diminish. He continued to kick at the water, and finally felt himself stop, and then he opened his eyes and looked up.

Above him, there wasn't anything but blackness.

How far down
was
he? How many feet had he sunk?

Closing his eyes then, he started for the surface, trying to think only of what he had to do, not how far he had to swim. He chopped his hands and feet through the water, pushed against it with all his might. Propelling himself upward, he focused on his dream, climbed toward the open air with all the force of will with which he'd pressed toward his dream's fruition.

He had to survive, had to get there, had to
do
it.
Everything
depended on this moment.

He wondered how far he was from the surface. He'd been swimming for so long, and he still wasn't there yet. How far...how far?

A sharp tingling sparked over his body, and he felt himself weaken, begin to succumb. Squinting upward, he saw only more blackness, a mercilessly dark infinity.

He was drowning! He was going to die.

It wasn't fair. He'd come so far.

He gave himself a final push, a last, angry jolt, and cursed the world for the millionth time. After all it had done to him, how
dare
it rob him of his last chance?

And then, he couldn't kick any more.

Full of rage, a hurricane rage, he stopped swimming.

Miraculously, he felt himself breaking the surface.

Shooting his head up and back, he choked, spat water from his lungs, gulped at the air. He slipped under again, but wouldn't let it grab him this time, instead kicked and swept his arms so that he could regain the surface. Bolting his head upward once more, he coughed up water, gagged and spat and actually took in some air.

Snapping his eyes open, he gaped at what lay around him. It was dark, but there was enough moonlight to see the rippling surface of the lake, the tree-lined silhouette of the shore.

The shore was a long way off.

Still kicking and sweeping at the water, he managed to slowly turn around. Watching the shoreline, he saw it fold away in the distance, curl along the length of the lake. Turning, he followed the curve of the shore, watched it reach a final, far extension and roll back toward him. That tree-lined rim flexed away into a wide cove, then angled sharply inward, protruding into the lake before it swept off toward a distant dam. When he'd finished his rotation, he realized that the protrusion was the closest point to where he floated, and he started to swim toward it.

Though it was the closest point, it was still far away, and would take him a long time to reach. He was bolstered, however, strengthened with fresh, flaming resolve; he'd blown himself back from the brink of death, and he had so much to do, and he couldn't give up.

Freezing, aching, gagging, he dragged himself across the lake with long, painful strokes of his arms. As he crawled toward the shore, he felt jubilant, thrilled to have survived this latest misfortune.

And he felt excited, full of anticipation for his coming venture.

He reviewed his plans, all the places he had to visit...

...all the things he had to do...

...all the people he had to kill.

 

*****

 

What happens next? Find out in
Backtracker
,
a thriller
now
on sale
for your e-reader device
!

*****

  

About the Author

Robert T. Jeschonek is an award-winning writer whose fiction, comics, essays, articles, and podcasts have been published around the world. DC Comics, Simon & Schuster, and DAW have published his work. According to Hugo and Nebula Award winner Mike Resnick, Robert "is a towering talent." Robert was nominated for the British Fantasy Award for his story, "Fear of Rain." His young adult urban fantasy novel, My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, is now available from Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and
was named one of
Booklist
's Top Ten First Novels for Youth.

 

*****

 

E-books
by Robert T. Jeschonek

Fantasy

6 Fantasy Stories

6 More Fantasy Stories

Blazing Bodices

Earthshaker
– a novel

Girl Meets Mind Reader

Groupie Everlasting

Rose Head

The Genie's Secret

The Return of Alice

The Sword That Spoke

 

Horror

Bloodliner
– a novel

Diary of a Maggot

Dionysus Dying

Fear of Rain

Road Rage

 

 

Humor (Adults Only)

Dicks
– a novel

 

Literary

6 Short Stories

Getting Higher

 

Mystery
and Crime

Crimes in the Key of Murder

Dancing With Murder
(a cozy mystery written as Samantha Shepherd)

The First Detect-Eve

The Foolproof Cure for Cancer

The Other Waiter

Who Unkilled Johnny Murder?

 

Science Fiction

6 Scifi Stories

6 More Scifi Stories

Give The Hippo What He Wants

My Cannibal Lover

Off The Face Of The Earth

One Awake In All The World

Playing Doctor

Serial Killer vs. E-Merica

Something Borrowed, Something Doomed

Teacher of the Century

The Greatest Serial Killer in the Universe

The Love Quest of Smidgen the Snack Cake

The Shrooms of Benares

Universal Language
– a novel

 

Superheroes

7 Comic Book Scripts

A Matter of Size
(mature readers)

Forced Retirement

Heroes of Global Warming

The Masked Family
– a novel

 

Thrillers

Backtracker – a novel

Day 9
– a novel

 

Trek Trilogy

Trek Fail!

Trek Off!

Trek This!

 

Young Readers

Dolphin Knight
– a novel

Lump

Tommy Puke and the Boy with the Golden Barf

 

 

*****

 

Now on Sale
from Robert T. Jeschonek

A Young Adult Fantasy Novel That Really Rocks!

One of Booklist's Top Ten First Novels for Youth

 

Being trapped in a book can be a nightmare—just ask Idea Deity. He's convinced that he exists only in the pages of a novel written by a malevolent author . . . and that he will die in Chapter 64. Meanwhile, Reacher Mirage, lead singer of the secret rock band Youforia, can't figure out who's posting information about him and his band online that only
he
should know. Someone seems to be pulling the strings of both teens' lives . . . and they're not too happy about it. With Youforia about to be exposed in a national magazine and Chapter 64 bearing down like a speeding freight train, time is running out. Will Idea and Reacher be able to join forces and take control of their own lives before it's too late?

 

School of Rock
meets
Alice in Wonderland
in this fast-paced, completely unpredictable novel of alternate realities, time travel, and rock ‘n' roll. If your favorite band does not exist . . . do
you?

 

"Overall,
My Favorite Band Does Not Exist
is a wacky and enjoyable trip...full of intriguing, imaginative concepts that keep a reader hooked." –Thom Dunn,
The Daily Genoshan

 

"This first novel has all the look of a cult fave: baffling to many, an anthem for a few, and unlike anything else out there." –Ian Chipman,
Booklist
Starred Review

 

"
Chaos theory meets rock 'n' roll in adult author Jeschonek's ambitious, reality-bending YA debut." "...this proudly surreal piece of metafiction could develop a cult following
..."–
Publishers Weekly

 

"Reading this reminded me of authors like Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman…"
–
BiblioJunkies

 

Now Available
from Clarion Books!

 

*****

6 CRIME STORIES

Copyright © 2011 by Robert T. Jeschonek

Cover Art Copyright © 2011 by Ben Baldwin

 

Published in December 2011 by Pie Press by arrangement with the author. All rights reserved by the author.

"Crimes in the Key of Murder" originally appeared in
Pulp Empire
3, 2010.

"The First Detect-Eve" originally appeared as "Snakeskin" in
Postscripts
13, PS Publishing, 2007.

 

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

 

Design by
Pie
Press

Johnstown, Pennsylvania

BOOK: Six Crime Stories
2.69Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Frognapped by Angie Sage
Hold Me Down Hard by Cathryn Fox
El húsar by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Cambio. by Paul Watzlawick
Project U.L.F. by Stuart Clark
By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson
All Dogs are Blue by Leao, Rodrigo Souza
Erotic Encounters by Gentry, Samantha