This story is part of this series………
Green Coat, Black Gloves, Red Handbag.
I Shot Him.
This story is now part of my new short story anthology, PASSERBY.
If you like what I do, you can help me to keep on doing it by buying one of my books.
“You’re not like other cops Mr Loggains.”
“That’s because I don’t give a fuck Billy. I’m tired, my feet hurt and I haven’t had a decent shit in three days. So can you just help me out here? The lady who shot the bloke in the nice suit and the dark overcoat? What did she look like?”
“Ordinary.”
“How tall was she?”
“Ordinary tall.”
“You’re just going to keep saying ‘ordinary’ no matter what I ask you, aren’t you Billy?”
“I’m not trying to make trouble for you Mr Loggains. You been real nice to me.”
“You’re a citizen Billy, just like everyone else. You get the same level of respect or the same shit treatment that everyone gets. I don’t play favourites.”
“You’re a good bloke Mr Loggains, and that’s the truth.”
“No I’m not. I’m just as big an arsehole as everyone else, and if I don’t solve this case my arse is going to get kicked by my boss and I like arse, we’ve been together for a long time.”
“I’d help you if I could Mr Loggains.”
“Fair enough.
Do you want me to keep you in till tomorrow?
They serve a reasonable breakfast here.
The cafe down the road cooks it for us when we have ‘visitors’.
It’s safer in here Billy.
What do you say?
I can clear it with the custody sergeant?”
“Thanks anyway Mr Loggains, but I like being under the stars.”
“I’ll have one of the boys drive you back to the park.”
I didn’t want to draw attention to myself by pulling up in a police car but Detective Senior Sergeant Loggains was trying to be nice and I didn’t have the heart to say no.
I promised the lady I wouldn’t give her away and I’m true to my word. The money didn’t hurt but that’s not why I did it.
She had a beautiful smile.
I haven’t seen a smile like that for such a long time.
My mum had a smile like that.
It seemed to me that this lady had been backed into a corner.
Mothers can be dangerous if you back them into a corner.
Besides, she could have shot me too. I’m nobody and no one would have missed me.
But instead, she sat down next to me and told me her story.
She treated me like a real person.
She asked for my help.
What was I going to do, say no? No one asks my opinion, and no one asks for my help and very few people treat me with respect.
I said I would help her long before she gave me the money.
She didn’t even make a crack about me drinking it all away.
I have to admit though, I am going on a bender.
Nothing but expensive wine and Scotch whisky.
I’m going to have a few extra friends for a while, at least until the money runs out, but that’s okay with me.
We share what we have when we have it.
For a while everyone wanted to hear the story of the crazy lady in the park.
The film crew from the ABC were the best. They stole a blanket out of the Channel Nine van and gave it to me. It’s a bloody good blanket. Mind you it’s got ‘Property of the Channel Nine News Department’ printed on one side, but as long as I don’t turn it over no one notices. They slipped me a couple of dollars as well but it’s the blanket I remember.
Every time I told the story I changed something.
No one seemed to notice except for Mr Loggains.
I think he suspects that I know, but I also thinks he believes he can catch her some other way. “Murderers always make a mistake”, he tells me, but we both know that isn’t so. Even an honest police force only solves about two thirds of all murders. The rest just sit there waiting till a piece of evidence comes along or science comes up with something that will reopen the case.
Usually, they just run out of ideas and their bosses tell them to move on. I’m hoping this case will go that way.
The lady in the park seemed like someone who had not done this kind of thing before and I hope that doesn’t get her caught.
It’s a terrible thing to take a life, and I ought to know, but you would have to admit that she was very brave.
Very ordinary and very brave.
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It took a total of four cups of coffee to create this story.
Enjoy my work? Then buy me a coffee?
araneus1 
Get him drunk, Officer! I’m still on tender hooks…
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Thanks Bruce…….. this story line just won’t go away……. glad you are having fun with it.
Terry
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I’m wondering now if you are thinking of entering the world of authordom
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That’s a very good question and I am now about to bore you with an answer.
I wrote my second book [non fiction] in 2010…… it has sold a handful of copies and I have, eventually, gotten around to turning it into an ebook. It should go live in a week or two. Unlike my stories, it is aimed at a specific group of people who may be contemplating homeschooling or who are simply interested in education so……….. small market, but that’s OK. The book has been in two different local libraries and has been on loan for the past four years………. so someone is interested. In case you were wondering, my first book is a guide for equities traders and is as yet unpublished but has the distinction of being my earliest effort and has its very own ‘rejection letter’……. my first and it came through the mail in an envelope!
As for fiction writing………. last year I completed my first novella…….. it isn’t exactly Hemingway or Chandler but I’m very pleased with it but a variety of publishers are not. I hawked it mostly to Aussie publishers because it is a story in and around Melbourne and the city is definitely a character in the book. Long story short……… I have decided to self publish this novella and as soon as I have finished the cover it will go up. I think it is a fun story and quite a good book for a first go. I also have a collection of short stories that were written last year and a bunch of friends are [VERY SLOWLY!!] sifting through them so that I can self publish a ‘Best of’…….. this may take a while but I do have a cover. This collection has similarly been rejected by at least two publishers but at least one of them said that ‘it didn’t quite excite us enough’….. which presumably means that it excited them a little?
Current projects include a novel which is about half way through……….. which I am very pleased with…….. and another novel which has been put on hold because I’m more excited about my current one.
I guess, because I’m old school, I would like to have a publisher say………. holy shit Terry, why has no one snapped you up before this? but I think that is unlikely in my tiny population country with a tiny publishing industry……….. and I know [because I’ve done the research] that self publishing is WAY more profitable for the author…….. but I would still like to have a publisher.
Part of the problem is that I REALLY enjoy writing short stories and this tends to take me away from my novel [I work on it three days a week], but I get the biggest boost from writing them and my number one goal is to keep my spirits up, so I’m going to continue to write them as long as I’m enjoying it.
ADDED COMPLICATION: For the pst couple of years I have been writing the biography of a local identity and this takes up one day a week.
So, you can see that I am trying, but it is a slow process.
If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.
I’ve been alive long enough to know that the trick is to just keep moving and do what you do and the rest tends to sort itself out.
In the short term, I’m enjoying my WordPress followers. I like writing for them [I like eating as well, but this will come], and their encouragement is what has gotten me this far.
What happens next? I don’t know, but I know it is going to be fun.
I’ll bet by now that you are sorry that you asked the question, but I thank you, none the less, for asking it.
Terry
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Holy shit Terry, why has no one snapped you up before this? Well, if I was a publisher, I’d snap you up like shit was going out of fashion.
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made my night, thank you.
Terry
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