They Always Took Longer

by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

About the Author: Andrew Welsh-Huggins is the Shamus, Derringer, and ITW-award-nominated author of the Andy Hayes Private Eye series, including the eighth Hayes adventure, "Sick To Death," coming in September 2024. He is also the editor of the "Columbus Noir" anthology and author of the standalone crime novel, "The End of The Road," which Kirkus called, “A crackerjack crime yarn chockablock with miscreants and a supersonic pace.” His stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies.

Excerpt

Carter didn’t mind long-distance driving. Sure, he disliked bad weather—rain more than snow—as much as the next guy. But there was something about the rhythm of the road, the passage of miles, the morphing of landscapes from rural to suburban to urban to whatever, that calmed him. This was true before the shot that changed everything, the one that passed through his right frontal lobe, just missing brain tissue and major blood vessels on its way in and out. Even more so, afterward. His neurologist’s studied opinion—“Sometimes weird shit happens after TBI”—was good enough for Carter. Also, highway monotony tended to mitigate the headaches. So there was that.

Even so, he was looking forward to pulling over for the night. Richmond to St. Louis was a certified schlepp, and it wasn’t like the second half of the trip the next day, onto Boulder, was going to drive itself.

“Twenty minutes,” he said over his shoulder.

“Thank God,” the reply came.

Carter rolled his eyes. He didn’t care how annoyed Heiser was, though he sympathized—a bit—with his situation. Carter had a strict rule prohibiting the use of electronic devices when he transported people, which came as a shock to most. Because he wasn’t talking airplane mode. He was talking batteries pulled and everything stored in a lead-lined container in the Suburban’s trunk. It was too easy to track the darn things otherwise.

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