Mystery
author Earl Staggs recently received his second
Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year. His novel MEMORY OF A MURDER earned a long list
of Five Star reviews. SHORT STORIES OF
EARL STAGGS, a collection of 16 Mystery tales, is available in print and
ebook. He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine and as
President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. He’s a contributing blog member
of Murderous Musings and Make Mine Mystery and a
frequent speaker at conferences.
Thank you, Jean,
for hosting this stop on the Mystery We Write Blog Tour. While the tour bus is
being cleaned and fueled, I thought I’d offer up an excerpt from my new novel
called TALL CHAMBERS: JUSTIFIED ACTION. Tall
Chambers is an operative with a secretive agency which tracks terrorists
worldwide. If the agency determines a
terrorist group is an imminent threat to innocent lives, the agency puts them
out of business by whatever means necessary.
In this scene,
Tall has captured the worst of the lot - Anatole Remski, an Iranian with a
Russian father – and has him in an interrogation room at an Army base near
Kabul, Afghanistan.
There are at
least two sides to everything, even if one is completely wrong. In this scene, I wanted to let Remski give
his side of the story and reveal why he is devoted to killing American
soldiers.
* * * * *
Remski’s appearance up close surprised Tall. He’d seen a five-year-old
picture of him taken when he was a high school teacher. At that time, with his smooth features and
short, combed blond hair, he looked more like a mild-mannered accountant than a
ruthless terrorist. The man he’d captured looked twenty years older. His hair
was darker, longer, and hung like strings. His face looked drawn and weathered
like a man who’d been through hell.
Tall smiled when he entered the room and sat across the table from
him. “My name is Chambers, Mr. Remski. I have some questions for you. If you
give me the answers I need, I’ll see that they go easier on you in court.”
Remski grinned, but didn’t speak. He held the grin and his eyes
narrowed. He seemed to be studying Tall, sizing him up. “That’s very kind of
you, Mr. Chambers,” he said in a soft voice with a distinct Arab accent, “but
I’ll do fine without your assistance. I advise you not to waste your time or
mine.”
“I’m not wasting my time. I need the names of your associates. You’re
responsible for bombings which killed many American soldiers. The authorities
will make you pay for that. If you cooperate, I’ll do what I can to help you.”
Remski’s grin faded, and he turned his head away. He sighed, almost as
if bored. “All they have is hearsay with regard to my participation in those
events, Mr. Chambers. As to actual proof, they have nothing. Besides, the
killing of American soldiers in this country is not considered a crime by many
people here. Weigh that against the many thousands you have slaughtered, and it
amounts to very little.”
“You’re wrong,” Tall said. “Regardless of how you feel about our
presence here, those who judge you will be bound by international law to
sentence you in accordance with the crimes you’ve committed. As for the
casualties we’re responsible for, no one regrets them more than I do, but
they’re the unfortunate consequence of war. That’s very different from what you
do.”
Remski turned back to him “Is it, Mr. Chambers? Why is it different?”
His voice was strong and harsh now. His blue eyes had taken on a hardness that
wasn’t there before. “Is it because you shout words like freedom and democracy
while you murder innocent people? You Americans think you have a right to
invade other countries and force them to change. Where is it written that your
way is the way for all people? How do you rationalize killing innocent people
to force other countries to do everything the American way?”
“That’s not what we do. Our goal is to help people gain their freedom
and govern themselves.”
Remski smirked. “You think you’re qualified to tell others how to
govern a country? Your country is bankrupt financially and morally, Mr.
Chambers. Take your soldiers home. Take care of your own problems and let us
take care of ours. Stop waving your red, white and blue flag while you
slaughter our citizens in the name of freedom.”
“We don’t slaughter people. We’re only here to help.”
With fierce anger burning in his eyes, Remski shouted, “Do this for
me, Mr. Chambers. Go to my village in Abuzak. Stand over the graves of my
parents, my wife and my son. Tell them how you marched into their village to
help them by lining them up and shooting them. Tell them they were killed for
their freedom.”
Tall was caught off guard. He knew of the massacre at Abuzak. A squad
of American soldiers marched into the small village looking for subversives and
killed every man, woman and child they found. “I’m sorry about what happened to
your family. That was a terrible tragedy and never should have happened. The
soldiers who went into that village were wrong. They were tried and punished
for what they did.”
Remski leaned over the table. He lowered his voice, but not his
vehement anger. “Tried and punished? The soldiers who slaughtered my family, my
entire village, were discharged and sent home to their own families. Their
leader was sentenced to ten years in prison and was released after three years.
Do you consider that adequate punishment for what they did?”
“No, in all honesty, I do not. Is that why you kill Americans? Because
a small group of them went out of control and committed a horrible act? Nothing
can compensate you for your loss, but what you’re doing is just as wrong. Seventeen
of your associates were killed tonight. Give me the names of the others in your
group. They don’t have to die.”
Remski hung his head and wagged it. When he spoke, he seemed more in
control of himself. “No, Mr. Chambers, I will give you no names. The people you
murdered tonight are in the arms of Allah and will be rewarded for their
sacrifice. Those who remain will continue our war against you as long as you
invade our country and slaughter our families. If they give their lives, they,
too, will be rewarded. You cannot stop them from doing what they were born to
do.” He looked squarely into Tall’s eyes with more hatred and defiance than
Tall had ever seen. “And you can’t stop me.”
“Look around,” Tall said. “We have stopped you.”
Remski leaned back in his chair and sneered. “We’ll see about that,
Mr. Chambers.”
Ben Goldman opened the door and stuck his head in. “They’re here for
him.”
Tall stood and watched two burly policemen place Remski in chains and
lead him from the room.
As he passed by Tall, he stopped. “We’ll meet again someday, Mr.
Chambers, and when that day comes, I assure you, you will die.”
“We’ll see about that, Mr. Remski.”
* * * * *
And that’s how
Remski justifies what he does, the other side of the coin, so to speak. I’d
love to know if anyone who reads this has ever used this technique in a book.
Shortly after
the above scene, Remski escapes to continue his crusade against Americans.
Everything changes for Tall when someone dear to him is killed, and he takes on
a crusade of his own to find who was responsible and set things right.
TALL CHAMBERS – JUSTIFIED ACTION will soon be
available in print and ebook form. Watch for announcements on my website: http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com
Thanks also for everyone who came by.
You’re invited to visit my website now where you can:
. . .read Chapter One of my Mystery
novel, MEMORY OF A MURDER.
. . .read a short story called “The Day I Almost Became a Great Writer.”
Some say it’s the funniest story I’ve ever written.
. . .read “White Hats and Happy Trails,” a story about the day I spent with
my boyhood idol, Roy Rogers. There’s
even a picture of my wife and me with Roy to prove it’s all true.
. . .check out SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS, a collection of 16 of my published
tales of mystery, ranging from hardboiled to humorous. Available in Print and
ebook form.
But don’t go yet. Please leave a comment while you’re here and you may win a free book.
At the end of the tour, I’ll draw two
names from those who left comments. The
first name drawn will receive a signed print copy of MEMORY OF A MURDER, a mystery novel with a long list of Five Star
Reviews. The second name drawn will
receive their choice of a signed print copy or an ebook of SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS, a collection of 16 tales of mystery
from hardboiled to humorous.
Now you can go on to the next stop on
the tour with my appreciation for stopping by.
And thank you again, Jean, for your
hospitality.
Earl Staggs
Email: earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net
Website: http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com
