I walked past who I took for Jerrel Bent, stopped by Blue Eyes and bent over him. A surprised look on his face and his mouth open. His pockets gave up a wad of cash, money for the guns. The extra five grand, too. Shoving it in my pocket, I said, “No need to count it, I trust you fellas.” I dropped the Uzi next to him, said the rest were in there, pointing to the burning car. A deal’s a deal.
The tape was heating, Conway’s voice sounding wonky, singing about a great big freeway.
The stabbing in my side kept up as I walked to the Suburban, opening the driver’s door, easing Dirty Leg out and laying him in the road. The keys were in the ignition, the tank gauge read full.
I backed from the flaming wreck and pulled past it, the cassette and tape deck starting to melt. Conway’s singing becoming distorted, something about stars that never were and asking if I knew the way to someplace. I pulled away, the Valiant’s tank catching and the whole mess blowing up.
Driving along that back road, thinking that didn’t work out too bad. Thinking I’d head north till I hit the next town, find someplace to eat, knowing I’d need to start thinking about jacking a fresh ride. The cops would be looking for this one. Maybe looking for me, too. I took out the roll of bills, and with one eye on the road, I counted out my fresh start.
Acknowledgments
As always, a big thank you goes to Jack David for his ongoing support. And to the great people at ECW who get it right and make it fun. It’s a pleasure to work with them. Many thanks to my brilliant editor, Emily Schultz. And for the keen eye of copy editor Peter Norman who catches everything, and David Gee who perfectly conveys the essence of my stories with his cover designs. Also to my son, Xander, for allowing me to bounce story ideas off him, and for tolerating my silly notions and mischief.
And, of course, to Andie.
About the Author
Dietrich Kalteis is the award-winning author of Ride the Lightning (bronze medal winner, 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards, for best regional fiction), The Deadbeat Club, Triggerfish, House of Blazes (silver medal winner, 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards, for best historical fiction), and Zero Avenue. His novel The Deadbeat Club has been translated to German, and 50 of his short stories have also been published internationally. He lives with his family in West Vancouver, BC.
DISCOVER ONLINE
Set to the cranking beat and amphetamine buzz of Vancouver’s early punk scene, Zero Avenue follows Frankie Del Rey, a talented and rising punk star who runs just enough dope on the side to pay the bills and keep her band, Waves of Nausea, together. The trouble is she’s running it for Marty Sayles, a powerful drug dealer who controls the Eastside with a fist.
When Frankie strikes up a relationship with Johnny Falco, the owner of one of the only Vancouver clubs willing to give punk a chance, she finds out he’s having his own money problems just keeping Falco’s Nest open. Desperate to keep his club, Johnny raids one of the pot fields Marty Sayles has growing out past Surrey, along Zero Avenue on the U.S. border. He gets away with a pickup load and pays back everybody he owes. Arnie Binz, bass player for Waves of Nausea, finds out about it and decides that was easy enough. But he gets caught by Marty’s crew.
Johnny and Frankie set out to find the missing Arnie, but Marty Sayles is pissed and looking for who ripped off his other field — a trail that leads to Johnny and Frankie.
ECW digital titles are available online wherever ebooks are sold. Visit ecwpress.com for more details. To receive special offers, bonus content and a look at what’s next at ECW, sign up for our newsletter!
SIGN UP NOW
Copyright
Copyright © Dietrich Kalteis, 2018
Published by ECW Press
665 Gerrard Street East
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4M 1Y2
416-694-3348 / [email protected]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Cover design: David A. Gee
Typesetting: Erika Head
Author photo: © Andrea Kalteis
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Kalteis, Dietrich, author
Poughkeepsie shuffle / Dietrich Kalteis.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77041-401-3 (softcover)
Also issued as: 978-1-77305-247-2 (ePub),
978-1-77305-248-9 (PDF)
I. Title.
PS8621.A474P68 2018 C813’.6 C2018-902545-X C2018-902546-8
The publication of Poughkeepsie Shuffle has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays. We also acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), an agency of the Government of Ontario, which last year funded 1,737 individual artists and 1,095 organizations in 223 communities across Ontario for a total of $52.1 million, and the contribution of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Poughkeepsie Shuffle Page 19