The New Adventures of Foster Fade, The Crime Spectacularist
Page 20
“Swung over the side just outside the blast radius. I’m a genius, remember? I know how big my explosions are going to be,” he replied. He looked to Din and nodded to the man. “Who’s this?”
“Luke,” Din replied without expression.
Fade looked to Luke and furrowed his brow. “Who’re you?”
Luke turned to Din. “Does he not know?”
The corners of Din’s lips curled. “He knows.”
Fade gave them a broad smile. “Oh, I know. Well, it’s nice that she brought you along for moral support. Lord knows we need it… Now, to deal with our friendly assassin! Let’s find out what’s really going on in Black—” He spun around on his heel, stopping short when he found the space behind him void a body.
“Where did he go?” Luke asked.
Fade sighed. “Back under the mountain.”
***
Police and firemen helped battered passengers climb out of the wreckage. Some were carried on stretchers, long florid wounds stretched across their faces, but the majority walked out on their own volition with little more than bruises to show for their trauma. Out in the main concourse dozens of pressmen and photographers shouted questions at the survivors and documented any information they could glean. Seated on a fallen stone, Fade watched the procession with mounting frustration.
“Gubb is going to kill us,” he said for the tenth or eleventh time.
“Really?” Din retorted. “I could never imagine why.”
“Is it always this exciting?” Luke asked deadpan.
Fade glanced over at him. “He’s been hanging out with you too long, Din.”
Someone, Fade wasn’t sure who, kept insisting he wrap a blanket over his shoulders. It was only after the eighth attempt to remove it, that he gave up trying. He tugged the blanket closer over his body so he had something to do.
An hour passed—or at least it felt like it—by the time a familiar lieutenant approached. Fade recognized him from the Tipton Murders but still couldn’t remember his name. “Mr. Fade, rumor has it you were involved with this ridiculousness,” he said with a voice that reminded Fade of a pit-bull.
“Not by choice.”
The lieutenant nodded. “Mm. I’ll need you to chat with my boys in a few minutes, but I have a few questions I need to ask you.”
“Make ’em quick, Lieutenant,” he said sharply, finding himself suddenly missing Captain Stern’s wine-stained mug. “Din’s got to get back to the office so this story can make press. It’s really important to her.”
“Not my problem, Mr. Fade. And considering you gave me this one,” he threw a thumb back toward the train wreck, “I’m going to keep you as long as I want.”
Fade crossed his arms. “Ask away, lieutenant.”
“Do you know anything about the couple in sleeping compartment?”
“Ah. Mr. and Mrs. Kathleen,” Fade said brightly. “Nice folks. Apparently seem to really enjoy public spaces if you catch my—”
“Did you see who killed them?”
Fade’s face steeled over. “Excuse me?”
“They were found in their compartment, both with a bullet wound to—”
“Show me.”
The lieutenant brought Fade inside the tangled car, the walls and floor slanted and twisted like a funhouse. At the far end of the narrow pathway several police officers stood outside a compartment while a crime scene photographer set up his camera. The lieutenant had them all move aside so Fade could look inside. They were laid out together, side-by-side, the white sheets covering their heads as if they were sleeping. Fade could just see the collar of Kathleen’s luxurious coat, the fur tramped down with a dark wet crimson.
“He came back and finished them off…” he said numbly.
“Who did?” the lieutenant asked.
Fade shook his head. “He didn’t give his name.”
“I could use a little more than that.”
Fade turned to the lieutenant and began to tell his story.
***
“Come on, we have to get to the office and transcribe everything before I forget,” Fade said with bravado as they left the station a few hours later. “We need to get this into the morning’s paper. There’s no way the Crime Spectacularist is going to be beaten by any of his illustrious competitors. Especially on his own story!”
“Foster,” Din said softly behind him.
Fade stopped short, but didn’t turn to face her. “You two look good together,” he said after a moment.
Din’s powder white cheeks turned an uncharacteristic ruddy. “You know that’s not what I was going to ask.”
“Let’s pretend it was,” he said quietly.
Din nodded in understanding.
“Who was he? The man who died up in Black Rock? Who was he to you?” Luke asked.
Din looked to Fade, who smiled distantly. “His name was Michael. He was a childhood friend. The closest thing I had to a brother. He was ‘good to be good,’ the sort of man… Well, the sort of man I try to be.”
“And how do you think that’s been going for you?” Din asked.
“Lieutenant! Lieutenant!” a sweating, rotund officer shouted as he plowed into the station. “There’s been a gangland shooting at the navy yard! Five dead! And the eyewitnesses! You won’t believe who’s there!”
Fade looked back over his shoulder at Din and gave her a distant smile. “Let’s find out.”
THE END
FOSTER FADE’S BULLPEN
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ADAM LANCE GARCIA was one of the youngest New Pulp writers when he exploded onto the scene in 2009 with his first novella Green Lama: Horror in Clay. Written as a gift for his father, Horror in Clay was nominated for Best Short Story in the 2009 Pulp Factory Awards. Adam’s follow up novel, Green Lama: Unbound, took away two 2010 Pulp Factory Awards: Best Novel of the Year and Best Interior Art (thanks to the artwork of his frequent collaborator, Mike Fyles).
Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Adam was raised on a high quantity of golden age comic books, movie serials, and Star Wars. Adam credits this atypical upbringing to his passion for writing.
He is currently writing several licensed properties at a number of publishers, including Moonstone Books, Pro Se Productions, and Airship 27 Productions as well as working on his original graphic novel Sons of Fire with artist Heidi Black.
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DERRICK FERGUSON is from Brooklyn, New York. Married for 28 years to the wonderful Patricia Cabbagestalk-Ferguson who lets him get away with far more than is good for him.
His interests include but are not limited to: radio/audio drama, Classic Pulp from the 30's/40's/50's and New Pulp being written today, Marvel/DC fan fiction, Star Trek in particular and all Science Fiction in general, animation, television, movies, cooking, loooooong road trips and casual gaming on the Xbox 360.
Running a close second with writing as an obsession is his love of movies. He’s currently the co-host of the Better In The Dark podcast where he and his partner Thomas Deja rant, rave and review movies on a bi-weekly basis.
Derrick Ferguson is best known for his Dillon series of adventures; Dillon and The Voice of Odin, Dillon and The Legend of The Golden Bell, Four Bullets For Dillon and Dillon and The Pirates of Xonira. For Pro Se Press he’s written The Adventures of Fortune McCall. He has stories in various Airship 27 anthologies such as Mystery Men (& Women) Vol. II & III, Dan Fowler, G-Man Vol. II and Sinbad-The New Voyages.
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AUBREY STEPHENS is a retired teacher from Mississippi. He has degrees in both theater and history, with certification in English, science, and special education. He is also a marine veteran and former military officer. The rumor that he has attempted to blow up the earth is just that, though he was on combat missile crew alert when the NORAD radar had a 65 cent computer chip fail and report that there were Soviet inbound missiles headed for the U.S. He is a trained martial artist with a second degree black belt in karate, brown belt in judo, and brown belt in Kendo. He also s
tudied and taught European fencing for over 45 years. His hobbies include recreating the Middle Ages and the American Civil War. He is squired to one of the S.C.A.'s most well known knights and at this time holds the rank of Regimental Sgt.Maj. in the 3rd Tn. Cavalry Reg. He has acted, written, directed, or done set design and construction for over 200 theatrical shows. He has written several articles on the history of the War Between the States for regional magazines. Since his retirement from teaching he has edited for Pro Se Productions and will be a published writer with Pro Se soon as a part of their PULP OBSCURA imprint. He is in the process of writing a novelization of a golden age comic hero for Pro Se as well as working on an alternate history novel that stems from a slight change during 15 seconds in 1968. He enjoys swapping stories of the many sci-fi/fantasy conventions where he has worked, attended or been a guest. Stop and visit with him.
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H. DAVID BLALOCK has been writing speculative fiction for nearly 40 years. His work has appeared in novels, novellas, stories, articles, reviews, and commentary both in print and online. Since 1996, his fiction has appeared in over two dozen magazines including Pro Se Presents, Aphelion Webzine, Quantum Muse, Shelter of Daylight Magazine, The Harrow, The Three-Lobed Burning Eye, The Martian Wave and many more. His current novel series is the three book Angelkiller Triad from Seventh Star Press. He served as editor for parABnormal Digest from its inception until the end of 2012. For more information visit his website at www.thrankeep.com.
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DAVE WHITE lives in Lemont, Il, is married to his lovely wife Karen, and has two kids named Brandon and Allison, and a dog named Snickers. He dabbled with writing in his twenties when he was into Stephen King, but never pursued it. He discovered Pulp about six years ago, and with it a renewed passion for writing. He finally had his first story published in 2012 from Pro Se, and this year added an Avenger tale from Moonstone. He hopes to add many notches to his belt in the future.
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THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FOSTER FADE, THE CRIME SPECTACULARIST
Edited by Tommy Hancock and Morgan Minor
Editor in Chief, Pro Se Productions - Tommy Hancock
Submissions Editor - Barry Reese
Director of Corporate Operations – Morgan Minor
Publisher & Pro Se Productions, LLC Chief Executive Officer - Fuller Bumpers
Pro Se Productions, LLC
133 1/2 Broad Street
Batesville, AR, 72501
870-834-4022
proseproductions@earthlink.net
www.prose-press.com
Front Cover Art by Mike Fyles
Book Design, Logos, and Additional Graphics by Sean E. Ali
E-book Formatting by Russ Anderson
Foster Fade the Crime Spectacularist is the creation of Lester Dent. No adaptations in any other media may be produced without the prior written permission of the Heirs of Norma Dent.
The New Adventures of Foster Fade, The Crime Spectacularist is a work of the PULP OBSCURA imprint
PULP OBSCURA is an imprint of Pro Se Productions and is published in conjunction with titles from Altus Press, collecting the original adventures of lead characters featured in PULP OBSCURA titles.
Visit the Pro Se Press website at http://www.prose-press.com for more New Pulp novels and short story collections
Table of Contents
Copyright
DEAD MEN’S GUNS
THE CIDER KING MURDER
VOODOO DEATH
THE PIED PIPER OF HARLEM
GRUDGE MATCH
THE BLACK ROCK CONSPIRACY
FOSTER FADE’S BULLPEN