The Collectors (standard:other, 1128 words)
Author: kendall thomas	Added: Feb 12 2001	Views/Reads: 3869/2411	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Loan shark wants his money back--or else.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


We’d heard it all before.  In this business you get to know a deadbeat
when you see’m, and this doctor was a deadbeat for sure.  He would 
never pay up.  His kind never do.  Always living beyond their means. 

I shot the hooker first.  In this kind of situation, you always take the
broad out first.  If you don’t she’ll scream her lungs out when she 
sees you whack the guy.  It was a shame, too, cause she was a real 
looker, a real blonde.  The doctor had good taste in skirts. 

Guys don’t scream when they see someone get whacked.  They beg for
mercy, but Sam and me aren’t in that business. 

The doctor got on his knees, blubbering, pleading with me not to kill
him, to give him a pass.  I shot him slightly in front of the ear. 

I picked up the spent cartridges and put them in my pocket.  The only
thing I didn’t like about automatics.  I took the Rolex off his wrist, 
a good fifty grand, at least, and a five carat diamond ring.  Jewelry 
is the last thing a deadbeat parts with.  It’s his visible status 
symbol that allows him to keep up the appearance of prosperity, 
necessary when he goes hustling loans.  There was two thousand in cash 
in his alligator-skin wallet. Later, I washed the powder off my hands 
from the latex gloves.  It’s toxic, especially if you get some in your 
mouth. 

Sam went on home after we split up the cash.  I had a fence for the
watch and ring.  We keep the skim from a hit; for Sid, the hit was in 
lieu of the thirty thousand.  He would have rather had the money, like 
any good businessman, but if someone doesn’t pay you then he has to be 
put down so that others won’t try to stiff you.  Word gets ‘round. 

I went to my favorite club for a few nightcaps and to listen to the
jukebox.  Maybe pickup a broad. 

It’s funny.  I remember readin’ a story by a guy named Hemingway about
two killers who had a contract to whack some guy.  I really liked that 
story.  It was believable.  They were just businessmen, like Sam and 
me, doing a job.  Not like all that Hollywood crap you see on TV and in 
the movies.  It’s just a job like any other.  No better, no worse.  
Kinda boring actually. 

~Will~ 


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