Bobby Byrd - Lone Star Noir

She screwed up her face. She knew what the word “dead” meant. This worried her. She didn’t want him to be one of the strange men. She knew the stories about the dead women. But she knew he had more money. She always needed more money. She stepped into her black skirt and pulled it over her hips. She watched him while she did this. It was her performance. Then she put on her black blouse. She left all the buttons except one undone.

He looked at her. He could feel his sex moving inside him. And he felt ashamed.

He said: “Hay que tener cuidado. You must be careful.”

“¿Cuidado?” she asked. She was sneering at him. “Soy cuidado. Todo el tiempo.” And she shut the door in his face. He could hear her pissing into the toilet. It flushed, and she washed her hands. She was very careful. She opened the door. She was ready to go. The night was over.

He said: “¿Tienes hambre? ¿Quieres algo para comer?”

“¿Porque no?” she said with a little laugh. “Pero no estas listo. Ponga tu ropa, viejo.” He still had on only his boxer shorts. His stomach was hanging over his legs. The hair on his chest was gray.

He said: “Okay. Okay. Dame un momento.”

He started searching around for his clothes. She opened the door, and let the heat and light fill the room. He looked out the door and he wanted to go home. A man his own age with a belly protruding over his belt walked slowly past the window and by the door. He was wearing a cowboy hat and boots and a clean white shirt with gold cuff links. He looked at Arcia who was leaning against the doorjamb in her black clothes and high heels. The man peered inside the room like he was looking inside a refrigerator. He saw Alex in his boxers.

The man turned back for his wife who followed behind him. At least Alex assumed it was his wife. She was wearing slacks and a shirt. A straw hat was perched on her head to protect her from the sun. The man in the cowboy hat said: “Come on, honey. Hurry yourself along.” He grabbed the woman’s hand. The two women looked at each other, they were looking across a distance they couldn’t comprehend, and then the man pulled his wife away.

Alex said: “Go on downstairs. Wait for me outside. Baja. Baja. El taxi está in the parking lot.” He had lost all of his words and his jaw hurt. He was tired. Arcia glanced at him over her shoulder and moved outside to the railing of the concrete overhang. He pulled on his pants. He walked out the door where she was standing. He was barefooted and with only his pants on. He was very white. His hair was gray. The green taxi was downstairs in the parking lot. Number 107. Pete waved at him, and Alex waved back. He had known either Pete or Tony would be there because he owed them fifty dollars. That was part of the deal. Arcia saw the taxi too. She hung her purse on her shoulder and walked toward the stairs, her hips casually moving back and forth. She was very young and very beautiful in the desert’s morning light.

M ILTON T. B URTONis a fifth-generation Texan, born in Jacksonville, Cherokee County. He has been variously a cattleman, college history teacher, political consultant, and an assistant to the dean of the Texas House of Representatives. His third crime novel is Nights of the Red Moon .

B OBBY B YRD-publisher, poet, and essayist-is the copublisher of Cinco Puntos Press in El Paso. Byrd is the recipient of the Lannan Fellowship for Cultural Freedom, an NEA Fellowship, the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship awarded by the University of New Mexico, and an International Residency Fellowship (NEA/Instituto de Belles Artes de México). He is also the coeditor of the nonfiction anthology Puro Border:

Dispatches , Snapshots, & Graffiti from La Frontera.

J OHNNY B YRDis copublisher of Cinco Puntos Press in El Paso, and the coeditor of the anthology Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots, & Graffiti from La Frontera. As a Spanish-to-English translator, he translated the novel Out of Their Minds: The Incredible and (Sometimes) Sad Story of Ramon and Cornelio by Luis Humberto Crosthwaite. Byrd is also a freelance essayist, writing articles for online publications about culture and music.

D AVID C ORBETTis the author of four acclaimed novels:

The Devil’s Redhead , Done for a Dime (a New York Times Notable Book), Blood of Paradise (nominated for an Edgar Award, named a Top 10 Mystery & Thriller of 2007 by the Washington Post; and a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book), and Do They Know I’m Running? Corbett’s story “Pretty Little Parasite” (from Las Vegas Noir ) was published in Best American Mystery Stories 2009 .

S ARAH C ORTEZwas born and lives in Houston, where she is a police officer. Of Mexican, French, Comanche, and Spanish descent, her roots inform her poetry, fiction, and essays. Edward Hirsch described her award-winning collection How to Undress a Cop as “nervy, quick-hitting, street-smart, sexual.” She is the editor of Windows into My World: Latino Youth Write Their Lives, Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery , and Indian Country Noir .

J AMES C RUMLEY(1939-2008) has been described as “one of modern crime writing’s best practitioners” and “a patron saint of the post-Vietnam private eye novel.” His characters Milo Milodragovitch and C.W. Sughrue have become part of the pantheon of the hard-boiled heroes of the noir genre. Do yourself a favor and read The Last Good Kiss, one of “the most influential crime novels of the last 50 years.”

D EAN J AMES ,a Mississippian long transplanted to Texas, has published numerous mystery short stories and has coauthored a number of award-winning works of mystery nonfiction. Writing under his own name and three pseudonyms-Miranda James, Jimmie Ruth Evans, and Honor Hartman-he has published fifteen mystery novels. He’s earned a PhD in medieval history and an MS in library science. He currently works as a librarian in the Texas Medical Center in Houston.

J OE R. L ANSDALEis the author of thirty novels and twenty short story collections, and has won an Edgar Award, seven Bram Stoker Awards, the British Fantasy Award, and the Grinzoni Cavour Prize for Literature. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep has been made into a cult movie directed by Don Coscrelli. His latest novel is Vanilla Ride .