Fancy Car Lover, by Ed Teja

 "Fancy Car Lover," by Ed Teja, in Crimeucopia: A Load of Balls, edited by John Connor, Murderous Ink Press, 2025.

This is Ed Teja's second appearance in this blog.

Jimmy just got out of the army and he knows just where to look for work: a garage that used to pay his brother to steal cars to order, for parts.   

 But let's take a moment to enjoy the language here.

"I went in [the army] and they taught me how to fight and then kicked me out for using what they taught me. Go figure." 

"I think the issue was probably it matters who you fight," Eddie said.

"Yeah, well, they could have said that earlier." 

Nice. 

Jimmy has a strategy for finding and swiping those cars and  it works fine, although not so fine for the car owners who sometimes get a bit damaged in the process.  His sweet deal with crooked Eddie gets complicated when  he meets Kathy, who gets interested in his job.  Maybe a little too interested...

A lovely noir tale with a nice twist.