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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence’s Mate

by Paul D. Brazill

Oliver Peacock had often thought that there was an art to being in the right place at the right time and that life was more than simply a matter of chance, of luck. He supposed he put it down to his late father repeatedly telling him that people made their own luck in the world or perhaps he put it down to experience. After all, Oliver was well aware that the few movers and shakers that he’d encountered over the years had been complete and utter bastards, rather than passive mellow fellows. Robert ‘Liberty’ Valance fit into the former category of course which was one of the reasons that Oliver decided to kill him. Dark clouds spread across the granite grey sky like a cancer as Liberty Valance left Duffy’s Bar, as drunk as a skunk and holding onto Big Barry - one of his regular drinking cronies - for support. Indeed, the inebriated Liberty Valance was the proverbial sitting duck and it really was unfortunate then that a loud thunder crack startled Oliver who accidently shot Big Barry in the buttocks although, as he reasoned to himself later that night, the fat man was a complete and utter bastard, too.

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Paul D. Brazill is English and lives in Poland. (And online here.) His books include Gumshoe Blues and The Last Laugh. He’s had stories published in anthologies alongside Neil Gaiman, Ian Rankin, and Lee Child. He’s also had writing translated into German, Italian, Finnish, Slovenian, and Polish.