Crackdown

by DJ Tyrer

About the Author: DJ Tyrer is the person behind Atlantean Publishing, was placed second in the Writing Magazine 'Mid-Story Sentence' competition and has been widely published in anthologies and magazines around the world, such as Disturbance (Laurel Highlands), Mysteries of Suspense (Zimbell House), History and Mystery, Oh My! (Mystery & Horror LLC), and Love ’Em, Shoot ’Em (Wolfsinger), and issues of Awesome Tales, and has a novella, The Yellow House.

Excerpt

It doesn’t say much for the new DA’s much-publicised crackdown on crime and thuggery when a fellow gets jumped by two masked thugs in the Hall of Records.

Luckily, I’d just been about to tear out a page from a volume of land records, so was keeping one ear and one eye out for the officious little weasel who ran the place and had snootily told me “this isn’t a lending library.”

(Why do they always say that? Do they think we don’t know?)

So, anyway, I caught a flash of movement down the aisle and wasn’t caught completely by surprise.

Still, it would’ve been nice to have enough warning to avoid a numbing blow to my arm. I dropped the book I was holding and they promptly trampled over it.

One of the toughs, a nasty little squirt who could’ve been the weasel beneath his mask, came at me with a cosh. The other, a big menace, had a pair of brass-knuckles and knew how to use them, giving me a good sock in the gut that was probably going to have me passing blood in the morning.

I staggered back and managed to fend off a couple of blows, but with my right arm as numb as an Irishman on St. Patrick’s Day, I knew I was in trouble.

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