Kurt Stevens's Blog, page 8

Week 9 In Review – Finding Daryl

Kurt thinks he’s a half block from Daryl. He’s got a gun, a Taser and a newly acquired switchblade, and he’s ready to get some answers. Thanks for sticking around for another week of Capital Offense, we really appreciate your readership and your continued support of our project in alternative publishing.

In case you missed a chapter this week, here’s what we released to the web:

Chapter 41: Capital S

Chapter 42: New Friends

Chapter 43: Daryl Who?

Chapter 44: A Little More Get-Up

Chapter 45: A Bird...

Chapter 45: A Bird in the Hand

Daryl had all of the hallmarks of a lobbyist: well-groomed, short hair, strong chin. In the picture that Greg sent me, Daryl held his head at a slight angle and his smirk said, “I’m better than you, but we can still pretend to be friends.”

It was getting late enough that I figured any hoity-toity event that Daryl was attending would have ended. He would be home now unless he found some floozy. I headed back to his place, moseying along. I developed a concept of a plan while I walked, and it wo...

Chapter 44: A Little More Get-Up

I trotted out of the cornfield and walked back to the bus stop. In the distance, the bus’s headlights shone along the lonely road. Its brakes squealed to a stop.

I tried to relax as I rode back into the city, stop by annoying stop. My leg jittered incessantly the entire ten miles from the edge of town back to the city center. More than once I found myself thumbing the butt of the gun behind my back.

I hopped off the bus just north of downtown, less than a mile from where I’d caused a massive ca...

Chapter 43: Daryl Who?

I jumped on the bus and headed south. I needed to leave the city, let the noise and kerfuffle die down. I knew I-270 and the surrounding farmland were only a few miles away.

Once the fields were in view, I got off the bus at the next stop. I walked about a mile away from the gas station where the bus let off and wandered into a cornfield. I sat down, invisible from the roadway and hidden from the light of the full moon.

I only had a phone number and a first name, not exactly enough ingredients...

Chapter 42: New Friends

After driving away from Dough Boy and Flash Gordon, I slipped into downtown traffic. Finding a specific black, four-door BMW sedan at 6:00 p.m. in downtown Columbus is about as impossible as finding a specific woman in a trailer park when all you’ve got to work with is a verbal description of a Tweety Bird tattoo.

But still, I was paranoid. The Beemer had live emergency assistance, and God knows what else. It would be my luck that it would have a LoJack or some OnStar type system that could sh...

Chapter 41: Capital S

Car or no car, I was screwed. I was accused of murdering my wife, but that was the least of my worries. I had killed Martin Dawes, run away from a cop, or more accurately, half the Columbus police force, hijacked a bus and stolen two cars. I had never been a criminal before, never committed a crime beyond a minor speeding ticket, but I was making up for it now.

Several inmates, when their time was up and they were done with the platitudes of innocence, told me how they always knew it was only...

Week 8 In Review – Grand Theft Auto

Week 8 is now complete. Spoiler alert – Kurt stole a city bus and a car.

In case you missed a chapter, here’s what was released this week:

Chapter 36: Change of Plans

Chapter 37: Risky Business

Chapter 38: Clandestine Meeting

Chapter 39: Public Transportation

Chapter 40: New Wheels

And of course, you can always start at the beginning, or check out the Table of Contents for a complete list of all the content we’ve released.

If you’re keeping track on Goodreads, you are now 42% complete!

If you’re looki...

Chapter 40: New Wheels

I ran for a few blocks, moving against the flow of people as they approached the scene of the accident. The cops must have been everywhere but in the midst of so much turmoil it was hard for anyone to tell what was happening. I walked straight into one of the nicer buildings in the area, through the lobby. There were people sipping coffee without any idea that something crazy was happening outside. I casually walked out of the door on the other side.

Ahead, a young woman, maybe 30 years old, p...

Chapter 39: Public Transportation

I took a quick inventory: my phone, Tonya’s contact list, my cash, and some clothes were in the duffel bag in my hand. The gun was still in its holster under my shirt. Everything else in the car I could live without.

I looked back and the cops from inside of the Y weren’t behind me. I turned and ducked into an alley, pulling off the sweat-stained, button-down shirt I’d been wearing all day. I untucked my t-shirt so it would cover the gun. I ran in the opposite direction from my car, trying to...

Chapter 38: Clandestine Meeting

The cop stood and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. I didn’t dare break pace on my way out of the locker room door but headed directly toward the stairs. I heard the door to the men’s locker room open. I continued up the stairs without looking back. I stopped halfway up the first flight, just out of sight of the cop, and waited.

Suddenly there he was, at the bottom, staring up. Neither of us spoke. He walked up the stairs. I grabbed him, pressing his head into my chest.

“You saw her?” he asked s...