by B C Bell
“Lefty, Mac. Name’s Costanovitch. Detective Jake Costanovitch.” He squinted at Mac while Lefty almost looked sober for a second before spinning around and heading for the other side of the room. “Good luck to ya, Mr. McCullough,” the detective said. “You got a nice place here. Real nice. My advice? Guy like you belongs in the tobacco business.”
“Thanks,” Mac said, not really sure if he’d just been given a warning. “We’ll see how it works out, y’know. Some things a man’s just born to do.”
The two men gave each other a nod, and Costanovitch navigated his way to the front door.
Mac puffed on his Cuban and leaned back against the wall.
His eyes drifted toward his suit coat, hanging behind the counter on a hook in the wall. If he twisted the coat hook, a secret panel in the wall would slide open, revealing a walk-in closet.
Hanging on the wall inside were a mask and a gun.
-END-
ABOUT OUR CREATORS
BYRON CHISTOPHER BELL – (writer) was born in Austin, Texas, where he was raised by wolves, and maintains that without the heroes of his youth he’d probably be in jail. His story “How Pappy Got Five Acres Back and Calvin Stayed on the Farm” was a winner in SFReader.com’s 2007 Annual Short Story Contest—he has also written for a variety of AIRSHIP 27 titles including Secret Agent X, Jim Anthony Super-Detective, Dan Fowler G-Man, and the soon to be released Ravenwood, Stepson of Mystery. He lives in Chicago with his wife. This book is for his Dad, the biggest and baddest of the wolves.
Follow Bell and The Bagman on the net at http://chicagobagman.blogspot.com/ ,or http://www.facebook.com/bchris.bell. Let him know what you think, and whether you’d be interested in reading about how Mac would handle Dillinger at The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.
KELLY EVERAERT (interior illustrations) – From a hidden lair located in Vancouver BC Canada, Kelly Everaert likes to apply pencil, ink or paint to perfectly useful paper to produce his illustrations. Kelly works on comic books, book illustrations, storyboards, and any other illustration projects that come his way. Original art, commissions and comic can be purchased at his web site. Learn more by visiting Keltic Studios – (http://members.shaw.ca/kelticstuidos/Keltic Studios.htm)
LAURA GIVENS (cover) - seems to have a God complex. She’s tried her hand at every form of creative endeavor she’s ever run across. She’s been a painter, a cartoonist, a graphic designer, a silk-screener, a writer, an actor, she’s done comedy improv and a bunch of other stuff. She even wrote, directed and produced her own no budget movie. Then she discovered digital art and the enormous power it grants one, and she’s been creating whole worlds on her computer screen ever since, laughing maniacally.
Laura’s digital art has graced the pages of such publications as Talebones, Tales of the Talisman, Jim Baen’s Universe and Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. She has done book covers for innumerable publishers in almost any genre you might think of. Check out her work at http://www.lauragivens-artist.com