Throwback Thursday: ‘The Big Con’

In All Confidence

Head way back in time to the Summer of 2014 … and then farther still to the Dustbowl with ‘The Big Con’ by Laird Long. Enjoy this excerpt from ‘The Big Con’ from Pulp Literature Issue 3, Summer 2014. These rare print copies are on sale for the throwback price of $8 this month, so get them while you can!

The Big Con

by Laird Long

“You flipped over the bottom card, mister, not the top one.  You been flim-flammin’ us all along!”

The red-faced farmer set his mouth harder than the Dust Bowl land all around, his fists balling in rage.  He and the crowd closed in on the confidence man, shills bleeding out and away.

“Say now, fellas, just a little card trick I was showing you, is all,” Lester buttered, holding up his hands and flashing a thousand watt grin.  “No need for anyone to get upset.  You don’t think I was going to keep any of the money, do you?  Now, here, let me –”

“We’re gettin’ our money back, all right,” the farmer grated, grabbing Lester by the lapels and shaking his spiel loose.  “With interest!” someone roared from the rear of the surging mob.

“You boys just interested in men … or women, too?”  A female voice broke through the rumble.

The mob turned, everyone jostling for an eyeful of the small, dark-haired woman in the filmy gown.  She was backlit against the raging carny playing between two tents, and they could see all she had to offer.  Her chest heaved in rhythm to their eyes.

Retribution was forgotten just long enough for Lester to gather up his cards and their cash and disappear off into the night.

Find out what happens next in Issue 3, Summer 2014, ON SALE now until October 31st!

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Laird Long pounds out fiction in all genres.  Big guy, sense of humour; been freelancing for twenty years, free-styling for more.  Tends to speak in short clips, write in long-hand.  His penned credits included in the magazines Albedo One, Baen’s Universe, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Mammoth Book of New Comic Fantasy, The Mammoth Book of Jacobean Whodunits, The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries, and the action-accounting adventure novel No Accounting for Danger.