Dead Man's Hand by P X Duke
were on ended and we went our separate ways yet again.
I lost touch with Jean-Marc after our African adventures. Occasionally I would end up in some of the places he had been, and I would be approached by someone or another as to his whereabouts. I didn't know, of course. We were still being dispatched wherever the company saw fit to send us in the far-flung outposts of the world of helicopter aviation.
It was during one of those assignments that I learned Jean-Marc had been killed while on a flight in mountainous terrain. It seems that he had run out of airspeed, altitude and ideas, all at the same time.
I didn't get many of the details right away. Eventually, they trickled down to me via phone calls to the company and the various people I knew in the business. He hadn't stood a chance, and ended up smacking the ground with a substantial thud.
I did learn one thing though, and that was Bill—no longer young—had been his swamper on that job.
Many years later I decided that I needed something different in my life to maintain my sanity. I retired from active flying and tied myself to a desk. I was still involved in aviation, but I was finished with the flying.
Occasionally I'd see one or two of the old crew who came to town to do a job. Sometimes someone passing through wanted to touch base and we’d tell lies about old times.
Then, to my complete surprise, half a dozen of them showed up on an aircraft headed west. Their charter flight had stopped for fuel and maintenance. To kill some time they all wandered across the field to my office.
Bill was one of them, standing in the background. Finally he walked up and we shook hands. To my surprise and discomfort, I noticed that he was wearing Jean-Marc's ring. Without blinking an eye, I now sized him up for the man that he was: A thief. A liar.
And finally: a grave-robber.
I wondered. Had he removed the ring from a dead man’s hand? Or, had he merely put it in his pocket when he collected Jean-Marc's personal effects?
The former would be no surprise to me. The latter was unlikely, because Bill told me himself that he had been the first man to arrive at the accident site.
For me there was no doubt that Bill removed the ring from a dead man’s hand and claimed it as his own.
###
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Twisted Sisters
Detective Jim Nash has a problem. He has a murder victim in an alley and a dead woman in his bed. His own homicide division wants to charge him with murder. To say he’s got serious commitment problems would be an understatement. He's on the lookout for twins, but he doesn't want to date them. He wants to know who murdered them. A modern pulp short story.
Dreams Die Fast
Frank is headed home after spending a long winter on the Baja. When his motorcycle breaks down, he’s trapped in an old ghost town on the west side of the Salton Sea. A woman takes pity on Frank and invites him over for a home-cooked meal. Before he knows it, Frank is knee-deep in cartel drugs with a woman itching to pull the trigger on the gun she’s pointing at his back. Dreams Die #1.
Dreams Die Hard
Frank is back on the road with a reformed junkie on the run from a cartel hit squad riding bitch on the back of his motorcycle. When the duo end up working at a strip club, the seedy edge of the city finally catches up, forcing Frank to dig deep within to triumph over drugs, greed, arson and murder. Some adult content. Dreams Die #2.
Fast Food Slow Waitress
A biker hits all the high spots (or the low spots, depending on your point of view). These short stories find him at a peeler bar off the 15 in Montana; encountering a hitch-hiker off the 10 in New Mexico; being sweet-talked by his landlady; romancing a truck-driving sweetheart in a sleeper at a California truck stop; flirting with a waitress in a restaurant in the high desert. This is an updated and revised version of First Time and other stories previously published.
Dead Reckoning
During a well-deserved R&R on mainland Mexico, Harry picks up something he doesn’t own that forces him to flee across the Sea of Cortez to the Baja. While hiding out on an isolated beach, two mysterious gringas show up to complicate Harry’s life by attempting to implicate him in their own scheme, resulting in a mad dash up the Baja to escape the consequences of their actions. First short novel in the series.
Long Way Home
When Harry’s ex-wife, Sasha, and their daughter accompany her oil-company boyfriend on a working vacation to Africa, the trio goes missing. They get out a call for help that will lead Harry on an air and ground chase across the Horn of Africa to rescue his family before kidnappers can move them to their den on the Indian Ocean. Second short novel in the Dead Reckoning series.
Payback
Harry’s comfortable family life is turned upside down when he gets a phone call from a former comrade he thought long dead. When the second call comes in an hour later, the caller asks for his help. He knows his life will never be the same until he can learn what happened to the woman who launched a rescue mission to save his life after his plane was destroyed during a firefight on a bush landing strip in East Africa. Third short novel in the Dead Reckoning series.
About
Aviator. Motorcycle rider. Vagabond. Drifter. Trouble-maker. Jack of all trades and master of none. Peter Duke has been riding and writing about the places he’s been and the people he’s seen for a few years now. Some of his writing is factual; some of it isn't. He leaves it up to his readers to decide for themselves which lies are the truth.
https://pxduke.com
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Contact the author: [email protected]
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I lost touch with Jean-Marc after our African adventures. Occasionally I would end up in some of the places he had been, and I would be approached by someone or another as to his whereabouts. I didn't know, of course. We were still being dispatched wherever the company saw fit to send us in the far-flung outposts of the world of helicopter aviation.
It was during one of those assignments that I learned Jean-Marc had been killed while on a flight in mountainous terrain. It seems that he had run out of airspeed, altitude and ideas, all at the same time.
I didn't get many of the details right away. Eventually, they trickled down to me via phone calls to the company and the various people I knew in the business. He hadn't stood a chance, and ended up smacking the ground with a substantial thud.
I did learn one thing though, and that was Bill—no longer young—had been his swamper on that job.
Many years later I decided that I needed something different in my life to maintain my sanity. I retired from active flying and tied myself to a desk. I was still involved in aviation, but I was finished with the flying.
Occasionally I'd see one or two of the old crew who came to town to do a job. Sometimes someone passing through wanted to touch base and we’d tell lies about old times.
Then, to my complete surprise, half a dozen of them showed up on an aircraft headed west. Their charter flight had stopped for fuel and maintenance. To kill some time they all wandered across the field to my office.
Bill was one of them, standing in the background. Finally he walked up and we shook hands. To my surprise and discomfort, I noticed that he was wearing Jean-Marc's ring. Without blinking an eye, I now sized him up for the man that he was: A thief. A liar.
And finally: a grave-robber.
I wondered. Had he removed the ring from a dead man’s hand? Or, had he merely put it in his pocket when he collected Jean-Marc's personal effects?
The former would be no surprise to me. The latter was unlikely, because Bill told me himself that he had been the first man to arrive at the accident site.
For me there was no doubt that Bill removed the ring from a dead man’s hand and claimed it as his own.
###
Would you like to sign up to P X Duke’s mailing list to receive notifications on new releases?
P X Duke email signup
More
Twisted Sisters
Detective Jim Nash has a problem. He has a murder victim in an alley and a dead woman in his bed. His own homicide division wants to charge him with murder. To say he’s got serious commitment problems would be an understatement. He's on the lookout for twins, but he doesn't want to date them. He wants to know who murdered them. A modern pulp short story.
Dreams Die Fast
Frank is headed home after spending a long winter on the Baja. When his motorcycle breaks down, he’s trapped in an old ghost town on the west side of the Salton Sea. A woman takes pity on Frank and invites him over for a home-cooked meal. Before he knows it, Frank is knee-deep in cartel drugs with a woman itching to pull the trigger on the gun she’s pointing at his back. Dreams Die #1.
Dreams Die Hard
Frank is back on the road with a reformed junkie on the run from a cartel hit squad riding bitch on the back of his motorcycle. When the duo end up working at a strip club, the seedy edge of the city finally catches up, forcing Frank to dig deep within to triumph over drugs, greed, arson and murder. Some adult content. Dreams Die #2.
Fast Food Slow Waitress
A biker hits all the high spots (or the low spots, depending on your point of view). These short stories find him at a peeler bar off the 15 in Montana; encountering a hitch-hiker off the 10 in New Mexico; being sweet-talked by his landlady; romancing a truck-driving sweetheart in a sleeper at a California truck stop; flirting with a waitress in a restaurant in the high desert. This is an updated and revised version of First Time and other stories previously published.
Dead Reckoning
During a well-deserved R&R on mainland Mexico, Harry picks up something he doesn’t own that forces him to flee across the Sea of Cortez to the Baja. While hiding out on an isolated beach, two mysterious gringas show up to complicate Harry’s life by attempting to implicate him in their own scheme, resulting in a mad dash up the Baja to escape the consequences of their actions. First short novel in the series.
Long Way Home
When Harry’s ex-wife, Sasha, and their daughter accompany her oil-company boyfriend on a working vacation to Africa, the trio goes missing. They get out a call for help that will lead Harry on an air and ground chase across the Horn of Africa to rescue his family before kidnappers can move them to their den on the Indian Ocean. Second short novel in the Dead Reckoning series.
Payback
Harry’s comfortable family life is turned upside down when he gets a phone call from a former comrade he thought long dead. When the second call comes in an hour later, the caller asks for his help. He knows his life will never be the same until he can learn what happened to the woman who launched a rescue mission to save his life after his plane was destroyed during a firefight on a bush landing strip in East Africa. Third short novel in the Dead Reckoning series.
About
Aviator. Motorcycle rider. Vagabond. Drifter. Trouble-maker. Jack of all trades and master of none. Peter Duke has been riding and writing about the places he’s been and the people he’s seen for a few years now. Some of his writing is factual; some of it isn't. He leaves it up to his readers to decide for themselves which lies are the truth.
https://pxduke.com
Would you like to sign up to P X Duke’s mailing list to receive notifications on new releases?
P X Duke email signup
Contact the author: [email protected]