“Sweet!” Surfo said. “Right?”
“Right.”
Benigno handed him the bottle. After Surfo swigged from it, Benigno took a sip too. To him, it was like water.
Surfo eased the van into gear and they rolled.
The engine purred and snarled.
Surfo punched a button and god-awful noise filled the cabin.
“Skrillex!” Surfo yelled. “¡Está chingon el guey!”
They were out of sight of the bar. Almost to the cannery. Out of reach of the one streetlight.
“Stop for a second,” Benigno said. “Over there. I want to piss.” He looked around as Surfo pulled over. He left the engine running—good. “Then we head back. You have already been too generous.”
Surfo nodded, rubbed his eyes.
“What was her name?” Benigno asked.
“Who?”
“The woman. In prison. What was her name?”
Surfo blew air through his lips. He shrugged.
“You don’t know?”
He lit another Domino and studied its bright red cherry of embers.
“Nah.”
Benigno put the cigarette out in Surfo’s right eye.
Surfo didn’t scream—he roared, like some animal. They were at least a kilometer away from the bar—nobody was going to hear it. But Benigno was already hammering his face with his left elbow, striking heavy blows over and over until Surfo slumped with his head back and bubbles of blood inflating in his crumpled nostrils and popping in the air. The old man hopped out and retrieved the hose and paper bag from between the surfboards. He unrolled the hose and went to the back of the van. He had Jesus songs on his mind. Missionary songs. He sang them softly to himself as he got the duct-tape roll from the bag. He shoved the hose into the exhaust and used half the roll to make sure it was secure and not leaking fumes. He ran the hose down the side of the van and inserted it in the window and made sure the exhaust was flowing nicely.
“You like duct tape,” he said to El Surfo as he turned off the lights and eased the door shut.
The gas had run out long before the Pemex kid in the Kiss hat showed up. By then, El Surfo was dead as a slaughtered pig. Gray-blue and foaming at the mouth. Benigno had hauled him well off the road, among scraggly weeds. He heaved a few cracked cement slabs onto the corpse and sat in the shadows until the kid showed up. All doors open to air out the van.
They filled the tank and they were pleased at the sound of that Porsche engine and they drove out of town, though the kid didn’t understand why Benigno wouldn’t let him turn on the headlights. At Wilo’s, the kid took his fifty bucks and the two surfboards.
“Sell those,” Benigno said. “Don’t let the bad guys see you.”
The kid was gone like smoke.
It took Wilo twenty minutes to rig the chains onto the engine, and it came out like a tooth. They tied heavy ropes to the front end and hooked them onto Panfilo the mule’s harness.
“I want that harness back,” Wilo said.
“You can have the mule too,” Benigno said.
They headed down to the frontage road. The mule was a puller. It made Benigno happy as he walked beside the big brute. By now, the road would be cleared. Light like God’s own fires was pouring over the dry gray peaks. Silver fish-belly clouds. Violet and orange streaks above him. Soon, he’d see the ocean again. Though he didn’t care about it. He patted Panfilo as they walked. He fed him a carrot. Truckers honked and he waved at them. If the bad guys slept a little late, he’d make it home. If they came looking for him...well, it would be a bad day for them.
Benigno found Maria in the van, sitting in the driver’s seat, her hands already on the wheel. She looked at him and laughed. She imagined hitting him with her shoe. Hammering his head with it. But she loved driving the van. She rested her elbow on the door frame and let the sea air coming through the open window lift her hair. She closed her eyes and remembered that her name was Veronica.
People in their cars, speeding to La Paz, laughed at the little old man and the mule and his daughter sitting in the broken-down old bus, the whole parade walking like some velvet painting you’d buy in a tourist shop. It was all so picturesque. So very simple.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to offer my respect and gratitude to all the contributing authors, who took my vague guidelines and produced a remarkable batch of stories. Special thanks go to Josh Kendall, who believed in this project from the beginning and provided much-needed guidance. I’d also like to recognize the hard work of Pamela Marshall, Ashley Marudas, Maggie Southard, Pamela Brown, and the rest of the gang at Mulholland and Little, Brown. Copyeditor Tracy Roe’s expert parsing and trimming improved the book immeasurably. Kari Stuart and Patrick Morley at ICM Partners provided invaluable assistance every step of the way. As always, I owe a tremendous debt to Barbara Peters, John Goodwin, and all of my peeps at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore. The music of Townes Van Zandt inspired the book’s title and, in some ways, its theme. Gary Phillips gets a special mention for giving me the blessing to tweak his idea and run with it. My good friend Dennis McMillan deserves credit (blame?) for gifting me his 1960 Cadillac and helping to awaken my adult-onset mechanic’s syndrome. Finally, deepest thanks go to my beautiful wife, Sandra, for her unconditional love and support and for tolerating my idiosyncrasies and obsessions.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Patrick Millikin is a longtime bookseller at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona, and a freelance writer; his articles, interviews, and reviews have appeared in Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Review of Books, True West, and other publications. He is the editor of Phoenix Noir (Akashic Books, 2009), which contained the Edgar Award–winning story “Amapola” by Luis Alberto Urrea. Millikin lives with his wife, Sandra, in Phoenix. He currently drives a 1997 Chevrolet Cheyenne K2500 pickup and is slowly restoring a 1960 Cadillac Sedan DeVille.
CONTRIBUTORS
Ace Atkins is the New York Times bestselling author of nineteen books, including the Edgar-nominated Quinn Colson novels and five critically acclaimed continuations of Robert B. Parker’s beloved Spenser series. A former newspaper reporter and SEC football player, Atkins also writes essays and investigative pieces for several national magazines, including Outside and Men’s Journal. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his family, where he’s friend to many dogs and several bartenders. He drives a 2000 Ford F-150 with over 350,000 miles on the odometer.
C. J. Box is the bestselling author of twenty-one novels, including the Joe Pickett series. His latest, Off the Grid, debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Box’s many awards include the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel (Blue Heaven, 2009), the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, the Macavity Award, and, most recently, the 2016 Western Heritage Award for Literature by the National Cowboy Museum. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages, and over ten million copies of his novels have been sold in the United States alone. Box lives in Wyoming with his wife, Laurie, and he drives a Ford F-150 Lariat four-by-four truck. His first-ever auto was a classic ’53 Chevy pickup.
Kelly Braffet is the author of the novels Save Yourself, Last Seen Leaving, and Josie and Jack. Her work has been published in the Fairy Tale Review, Post Road, and several anthologies. She currently lives in upstate New York with her husband, the author Owen King, and is at work on a new novel. Braffet drives a hybrid Toyota Camry, which she realizes is not that exciting, but since it’s one of the models that have been known to accelerate uncontrollably occasionally, she still feels pretty dangerous.
Michael Connelly is the New York Times–bestselling author of twenty-one novels featuring LAPD detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. He has also written six novels featuring LA defense attorney Mickey Haller (the first of which, The Lincoln Lawyer, was adapted into a feature film starring Matthew McConaughey) as well as several stand-alone crime thrillers. Sixty million copies of Connelly’s books have sold worldwide and his work has been translated into
thirty-nine languages. He has won the Edgar Award, the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award, the Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, the Shamus Award, and many others. Connelly is also a producer and writer for Bosch, the Amazon Prime television show based on his work. Connelly lives with his family in Florida and California. Connelly’s latest novel is The Wrong Side of Good-Bye. He currently drives a 2014 Chrysler 300 SRT8.
Diana Gabaldon is the author of the award-winning number-one New York Times–bestselling Outlander novels, described by Salon magazine as “the smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science PhD with a background in scripting ‘Scrooge McDuck’ comics.” The series is published in forty-two countries and thirty-eight languages, with twenty-seven million copies in print worldwide. Gabaldon’s current writing projects include the ninth major novel in the Outlander series, as yet untitled, and a collection of novellas. She is a coproducer and adviser for the Outlander TV series, produced by the Starz network and Tall Ship Productions, which is drawn from her novels. Gabaldon lives with her husband, Doug Watkins, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Watkins provided both the original suggestion for “Fogmeister” and the historical research on which the story is based, and he is a car enthusiast himself; at the moment, he's restoring/rebuilding a 1971 Firebird from the wheels up. (Diana drives an Audi S6.)
Sara Gran is the author of the novels Dope, Come Closer, Saturn’s Return to New York, and the Claire DeWitt series. Her books have been published in over a dozen countries and as many languages. Sara Gran also writes for television and film and worked for two years with the Peabody-winning John Wells production Southland. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now living in California, Gran has worked with books as a writer, bookseller, and collector for most of her career. She currently drives a filthy Mini Cooper around Los Angeles.
Patterson Hood is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and a founding member of the Drive-By Truckers, whose latest recording, American Band, is set for a fall 2016 release. He has also done three solo albums, the most recent of which is Heat Rumbles in the Distance (2012). As an author, Hood has written a number of essays and articles that have appeared on NPR and in such publications as the New York Times and the Oxford American. Hood was born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where his father was bassist for the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Hood’s past cars have included a 1957 Dodge Custom Royal and a souped-up 1969 Chevy pickup, but now he just drives a Subaru Outback and a Honda minivan.
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels, including the popular Hap and Leonard series, and numerous short stories. His work has been published in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received many awards, including the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, and, most recently, the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for his novel Paradise Sky. His work has been adapted for film (Bubba Ho-Tep, Cold in July) and television (the Sundance Channel’s Hap and Leonard). Lansdale lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, and he drives a Toyota Prius.
George Pelecanos is the bestselling author of nineteen novels set in and around Washington, DC, a recent collection of short fiction, The Martini Shot: A Novella and Stories, and the graphic novel Six. He has been the recipient of the Raymond Chandler Award in Italy, the Falcon Award in Japan, and the Grand Prix Du Roman Noir in France and is a two-time winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His credits as a television producer and writer include The Wire, Treme, and The Pacific. He is currently at work on The Deuce, a new series for HBO. Pelecanos lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, and drives a Bullitt Mustang.
Gary Phillips is the author of more than a dozen novels, including Bangers, The Jook, The Warlord of Willow Ridge, and the popular Ivan Monk mysteries. He’s edited numerous anthologies, published more than fifty short stories, and some of his work has been optioned for TV. In addition to being a longtime member of the Mystery Writers of America, Phillips chaired the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color grant awarded by Sisters in Crime and served as president of the Private Eye Writers of America. When not sharing the oh-so-PC Prius with his wife, he puts the hammer down in his V-8 ’92 Cadillac Eldorado. Maybe, he tells himself, one day he’ll get that ’58 Ford Fairlane he and his mechanic pops rebuilt many years ago running again.
James Sallis is the critically acclaimed author of numerous novels, including the Lew Griffin series, The Killer Is Dying, Death Will Have Your Eyes, Drive, and the recently released Willnot. He has also published multiple collections of poetry, essays, and short stories, a major biography of Chester Himes, and a translation of Raymond Queneau’s Saint Glinglin. Sallis lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife, Karyn. He drives a Nissan Frontier pickup but says that he is saving up for that pinnacle of modernity, a Hudson Terraplane.
Wallace Stroby is the author of seven novels, four of which feature professional thief Crissa Stone. An award-winning journalist, he was an editor for thirteen years at the Newark Star-Ledger, the state’s largest newspaper. His first car was a jet-black 1967 Mustang convertible, which he bought in 1978 for five hundred dollars and wishes he still owned. These days, he drives a more sedate (but still jet-black) Toyota Scion TC.
Luis Alberto Urrea is the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of sixteen books, including The Hummingbird’s Daughter and Into the Beautiful North. His most recent book, The Water Museum, a collection of short stories, was a finalist for the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award and contains the Edgar Award–winning “Amapola.” The Devil’s Highway, his 2004 nonfiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His work is taught in universities throughout the country. Urrea lives in Chicago with his wife, Cindy, and drives a Ford Escape but imagines he’s driving a ’67 Mustang fastback in metal-flake blue with mag wheels and glasspack mufflers.
Willy Vlautin is the author of four novels, The Motel Life, Northline, Lean On Pete, and The Free. In addition to being a writer, he is a musician, a singer-songwriter, and a founding member of Richmond Fontaine, whose latest album, You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing to Go Back To, was released in March of 2016. Vlautin also writes and records with the Delines, whose debut album, Colfax, has earned worldwide critical acclaim. The Motel Life, Vlautin’s first novel, was adapted for the big screen in 2013. Vlautin lives in Portland, Oregon, and is at work on his fifth novel. Sadly, he says, he had to sell his prized derelict red 1968 Le Mans to a hesher. But even now he still dreams of her, and he rates the sale at number fourteen in his top one hundred biggest mistakes.
Ben H. Winters is the award-winning author of nine novels, most recently Underground Airlines (Mulholland, 2016). World of Trouble (Quirk), the concluding book in the Last Policeman trilogy, was nominated for the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Countdown City was an NPR Best Book of 2013 and the winner of the Philip K. Dick Award for Distinguished Science Fiction. The Last Policeman was the recipient of the 2012 Edgar Award. Winters has also written extensively for the stage and has published several books for young readers. He recently moved to Los Angeles, where he drives his second Honda Odyssey in a row.
COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Test Drive” copyright © 2016 by Ben H. Winters
“Power Wagon” copyright © 2016 by C. J. Box
“Burnt Matches” copyright © 2016 by Michael Connelly
“Runs Good” copyright © 2016 by Kelly Braffet
“Night Run” copyright © 2016 by Wallace Stroby
“What You Were Fighting For” copyright © 2016 by James Sallis
“The Triple Black ’Cuda” copyright © 2016 by George Pelecanos
“Fogmeister” copyright © 2016 by Diana Gabaldon
“Whipperwill and Back” copyright © 2016 by Patterson Hood
“Driving to Geronimo’s Gr
ave” copyright © 2016 by Joe R. Lansdale
“Hannah Martinez” copyright © 2016 by Sara Gran
“Apache Youth” copyright © 2016 by Ace Atkins
“The Two Falcons” copyright © 2016 by Gary Phillips
“The Kill Switch” copyright © 2016 by Willy Vlautin
“The Pleasure of God” copyright © 2016 by Luis Alberto Urrea
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Epigraph
Preface by Patrick Millikin
Test Drive by Ben H. Winters
Power Wagon by C. J. Box
Burnt Matches by Michael Connelly
Runs Good by Kelly Braffet
Night Run by Wallace Stroby
What You Were Fighting For by James Sallis
The Triple Black ’Cuda by George Pelecanos
Fogmeister by Diana Gabaldon
Whipperwill and Back by Patterson Hood
Driving to Geronimo’s Grave by Joe R. Lansdale
Hannah Martinez by Sara Gran
Apache Youth by Ace Atkins
The Two Falcons by Gary Phillips
The Kill Switch by Willy Vlautin
The Pleasure of God by Luis Alberto Urrea
Acknowledgments
About the Editor
Contributors
Copyright Acknowledgments
Newsletters
Copyright
The Highway Kind Page 28