The West Texas Rookie

by Vicki Weisfeld

About the Author: Four of Vicki Weisfeld’s short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine; “Breadcrumbs” (Betty Fedora, Issue 3) won a 2017 Derringer Award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Her stories have been published in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine and the anthologies Busted: Arresting Stories from the Beat, Murder Among Friends, Passport to Murder, Best Laid Plans and Quoth the Raven, contemporary stories inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Excerpt

A few Junes back, when I was a rookie reporter in Sweetwater, Texas—a town flatter and hotter than a pancake griddle—we had a quadruple homicide. Four murders sounded like a big deal to me, but the crime captured hardly anyone’s attention once the police decided the victims all killed each other. If there’s a murderer on the loose, everybody jumps into their trucks fast and takes their time answering the doorbell. The bloodbath in Winston McDaid’s “living” room elicited little more than a “Damn shame.”

I took the job in March, just in time for the annual rattlesnake round-up and some serious second thoughts. So far, taking pictures of those snakes had been my most interesting assignment.

Thursday morning, two days after the murders, the city editor dropped a thin folder on my desk and said, “Yamato. See what you can make of this crap.”

I pushed my glasses up my nose and brushed aside some zoning board notes. “What crap is it?”

“The quadricide,” which is what we called it, time being precious in The Sweetwater Register newsroom.

“Why isn’t Reid taking it?” I asked, referring to Max Reid, the paper’s crusty crime reporter.

“Says it’s not worth his time.”

“OK if I do some digging?”

“Have at it. The funerals are Monday. Whatever you can find out between now and then. But wrap it up.”

Story Comments