Fight Card Presents: Battling Mahoney & Other Stories Read online

  FIGHT CARD PRESENTS:

  BATTLING MAHONEY

  AND OTHER STORIES

  A CHARITY ANTHOLOGY

  FEATURING FIFTEEN ROUNDS

  OF TWO-FISTED

  FIGHT FICTION

  FIGHT CARD PRESENTS:

  BATTLING MAHONEY

  AND OTHER STORIES

  E-book edition – First Published August 2014

  Battling Mahoney © 2014 by Len Levinson/Bandera Brawl © 2014 James Reasoner/Flash © 2014 Loren D. Estleman/Abbott & Costello Meet the Brown Bomber © 2014 by James Hopwood/Gator Joe © 2014 Jeremy L. C. Jones/Sailor Tom Sharkey & the Electric Gorilla © 2014 by Mark Finn/The Broken Man © 2014 by Michael Zimmer/Rock, Paper, Scissors © 2014 by Marc Cameron/Cowboy in the Ring © 2014 by Nik Morton/Bloodied Leather © 2014 by Marsha Ward/Heat of Battle© 2014 by Clay More/Fight Day in Diablo © 2014 by Chuck Tyrell/Song of the Cornerman © 2014 by Bowie V. Ibarra/Hero © 2014 Art Bowshire/On Boxing © 2014 by Willis Gordon/Cover © 2014 Carl Yonder

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, corporations, institutions and organizations mentioned in this novel are either the product of the author's imagination or, if real, used fictitiously without any intent to describe actual conduct.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher.

  Fight Card, Fight Card Now, Fight Card MMA, Fight Card Romance, Fight Card Sherlock Holmes, Fight Card Presents, and the Fight Card logo © 2010 Paul Bishop and Mel Odom

  NOTE:

  100% of proceeds from this anthology,

  Battling Mahoney and Other Stories,

  will go directly to an author-in-need

  or literary charity.

  CONTENTS

  FOREWORD ~ PAUL BISHOP

  ROUND1: BATTLING MAHONEY

  LEN LEVINSON

  ROUND 2: BANDERA BRAWL

  JAMES REASONER

  ROUND 3: FLASH

  LOREN D. ESTLEMAN

  ROUND 4: ABBOTT & COSTELLO

  MEET THE BROWN BOMBER

  JAMES HOPWOOD

  ROUND 5: GATOR JOE

  JEREMY L. C. JONES

  ROUND 6: SAILOR TOM SHARKEY II

  MARK FINN

  ROUND 7: THE BROKEN MAN

  MICHAEL ZIMMER

  ROUND 8: ROCK, PAPER, SISSORS

  MARK CAMERON

  ROUND 9: COWBODY IN RING

  NIK MORTON

  ROUND 10: BLOODIED LEATHER

  MARSHA WARD

  ROUND 11: HEAT OF BATTLE

  CLAY MORE

  ROUND 12: FIGHT DAY IN DIABLO

  CHUCK TYRELL

  ROUND 13: SONG OF THE CORNERMAN

  BOWIE V. IBARRA

  ROUND 14: MR. HERO

  ART BOWSHIRE

  ROUND 15: ON BOXING ~ AN ESSAY

  WILLIS GORDON

  FOREWORD

  PAUL BISHOP

  Welcome to the world of Fight Card. Published as e-books under the shared pseudonym of Jack Tunney (via Amazon.com), all Fight Card brand books are also available as paperbacks published under the individual authors’ actual names (also via Amazon.com). As the Fight Card novels strive to capture the essence of the two-fisted pulp magazine fight stories from the ‘40s and ‘50s, the Fight Card MMA and Fight Card Now brands bring the genre up to date with stories for a new generation of fight fans. Romance readers have been knocked out by our first Fight Card Romance title, Ladies Night, and Sherlockians everywhere have been delighted with our first Fight Card Sherlock Holmes title, Work Capitol. Whatever your choice, you’ll find plenty of fistic action waiting for you within our pages.

  Far too much of today’s fiction output is bloated filler designed to turn books into 700 page doorstops under the false assumption more is better. If you’re like me, you don’t have the time or patience to plow through 700 pages to read a story better served in 300 pages – or less. The writers who wrote for the pulp magazines from back in the day understood this. Their audience wanted stripped down yarns filled with action, twists and turns, all with the point of providing reader satisfaction.

  Hero pulps from the ‘30s and ‘40s, such as The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Avenger, pull major collector’s prices today. To a lesser extent so do the weird menace and aviation pulps. Western pulps can still be had for bargain prices as can many of the romance and sports pulps.

  However, the best of the sports pulps, Fight Stories Magazine, demands the same high collector’s prices as the popular hero pulps. The tales in Fight Stories Magazine were a definite cut above the stories in the multitude of other sports pulps. The most collectible issue of Fight Stories Magazine contain the two-fisted tales of Sailor Steve Costigan written by the creator of Conan, Robert E. Howard.

  It was Howard’s boxing tales along with many others from Fight Stories Magazine that are among my pulp favorites. They have long held sway in my imagination, yet there was no modern home for their novelette length – until now. The advent of e-publishing has not only provided a viable publishing platform for the 25,000 word novelette, but also a way to reach the specific niche audiences hungry for these types of tales.

  The Fight Card series, created by myself and prolific writer Mel Odom, is inspired by the boxing tales from the best of the sports pulps. Told in the straightforward, hard-driving, two-fisted pulp style, the yarns spun under the Fight Card banner are designed to be read in one or two sittings while still providing major bang and satisfaction for your reading dollars

  This year Fight Card has been proud to publish a number of tales with an ethnic focus, including Fight Card MMA: Fists of Africa from Balogun Ojetade (Nigerian wrestlers and martial artists), and Jason Ridler’s Fight Card: Rise of the Luchador (masked Mexican wrestlers). Other recent titles from Fight Card include Mark Finn’s brilliant collection of ‘weird boxing’ tales, Fight Card: The Adventures of Tom Sharkey, the poignant Fight Card: Monster Man from Jason Chirevas, and the thrilling Fight Card MMA: Rosie the Ripper from award winning author Sam Hawken. Upcoming 2014 titles include Fight Card: Bareknuckle Barbarian – featuring Robert E. Howard himself as imagined by fantasist Teel James Glenn – and a new Fight Card Sherlock Holmes tale for the holidays from Pulp Factory award winner, Andrew Salmon.

  We are also excited to publish the collection you now hold in your hands – our second Fight Card charity anthology – Fight Card Presents: Battling Mahoney and Other Stories. This time we’ve upped the ante from ten rounds of two-fisted fight fiction to a full fifteen rounds – with 100% of the proceeds going to help the family of western writing legend, the late Jory Sherman – a mentor and friend to so many in the literary community.

  Writers helping writers as part of the Fight Card publishing collective.

  Battling Mahoney and Other Stories is filled with action delivered by many writers new to the Fight Card ring as well as many of Fight Card’s top contributors. Legendary pulp writer Len Levinson provides the title story – featuring characters from his popular The Sergeant series of WWII thrillers. Bestselling author James Reasoner provides a brand new short story, Bandera Brawl, featuring his popular western character, Judge Earl Stark, while iconic wordsmith Loren D. Estleman sets fists flying in Flash. Meanwhile, Fight Card favorite James Hopwood (Fight Card: King of the Outback and Fight Card: Rumble in the Jungle) gives us a Hollywood Hits tale featuring Abbott & Costello along with The Brown Bomber himself, Joe Louis, and Jeremy L. C. Jones checks in with Gator Joe – a two-fisted tale from the tundra.

  Robert E.
Howard scholar Mark Finn (Fight Card: The Adventures of Sailor Tom Sharkey) gives us another top notch ‘weird boxing’ tale, featuring Sailor Tom Sharkey & the Electric Gorilla. Bowie V. Ibarra returns to the Fight Card team singing The Song of the Cornerman, while Michael Zimmerman gives us one of the hardest hitting stories in the collection, The Broken Man.

  New writers climbing into the ring with Fight Card also include Nik Morton (Cowboy in the Ring), Marc Cameron (Rock, Paper, Scissors), Marcia Ward (Bloodied Leather), Clay More (Heat of Battle), Chuck Tyrell (Fight Day in Diablo), and Art Bowshire (Mr. Hero), with Willis Gordon’s extensive essay, On Boxing, delivering the collection’s knockout punch.

  This new anthology also sports another beautiful cover from Fight Card’s resident artist/illustrator, the brilliant and talented Carl Yonder (Pirate Eye).

  It’s all happening in Fight Card Presents: Battling Mahoney and Other Stories…

  So, keep calm and keep your guard up...

  Paul Bishop ~ Los Angeles, 2014

  PAUL BISHOP ~ EDITOR

  A thirty-five year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, Paul Bishop’s career has included a three year tour with his department's Anti-Terrorist Division and over twenty-five years’ experience in the investigation of sex crimes. His Special Assaults Units regularly produced the highest number of detective initiated arrests and highest crime clearance rates in the city. Twice honored as Detective of the Year, Paul also received the Quality and Productivity Commission Award from the City of Los Angeles.

  As a nationally recognized interrogator, Paul starred as the lead interrogator and driving force behind the ABC TV reality show Take the Money and Run from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Based on his expertise in deception detection, he currently conducts interrogation seminars for law enforcement, military, and human resource organizations.

  Paul has published twelve novels, including five in his L.A.P.D. Detective Fey Croaker series. He has also written numerous scripts for episodic television and feature films. He currently writes and edits the Fight Card series of hardboiled boxing novels under the pseudonym Jack Tunney.

  ON THE WEB:

  www.bishsbeat.blogspot.com

  www.fightcardbooks.com

  https://www.facebook.com/Bishsbeat

  Twitter @Bishsbeat

  ROUND 1

  BATTLING MAHONEY

  LEN LEVINSON

  It was a hot August day and the sunbaked the boxing ring. In the middle of the ring, two men stood toe-to-toe and tried to punch each other into oblivion while thousands of soldiers cheered them on. The soldiers smoked cigarettes and waved dollar bills as they placed their bets. Some wore their steel helmets and others sat on them. They shouted their approval whenever one of the boxers landed a solid punch.

  At opposite edges of the crowd were two O.D. tents used as dressing rooms for the fighters. In one of the tents, sitting on a bench, was Master Sergeant Clarence J. Mahoney, and bending over him, taping up his hands, was Sergeant William “Shoeface” McGhee. Watching sternly nearby was Lieutenant Frank Grissom from Special Services. He was making sure McGhee didn’t put brass knuckles or razor blades underneath the tape.

  Mahoney was broad-shouldered with black hair recently shorn close to his scalp. His outfit, the 33rd Division, known as the Hammerhead Division, had just been pulled off the line after forty-five days of continuous fighting and sent to the rear for Rest and Recuperation. In addition to the haircuts, all the troops got new uniforms and boots, three hot meals a day, their back pay, and organized athletics. Today’s boxing matches were part of the athletic program devised by high-ranking officers to keep the men happy and out of trouble. But from Mahoney’s point of view they were keeping him from his bunk and the sleep that he wanted to catch up on.

  McGhee finished tying up the gloves and looked at Lieutenant Grissom, who stepped forward and scrutinized Mahoney suspiciously. “Stand up,” Grissom said.

  Mahoney wore black trunks with white stripes down their sides and an O.D. towel around his neck. When he stood, he was a foot taller than the officer and his stomach was rippled with muscles.

  “Hold out your hands.”

  Mahoney held out his hands, and the officer took out a pen and wrote his name across the tape on each hand, certifying that the tape had been applied legally. Later, in the ring, the gloves would be put on under the watchful eye of the referee; and if Grissom’s signature on the tape appeared strange, there would be grounds to suspect the tape had been tampered with.

  Grissom returned the pen to his shirt pocket and slapped Mahoney on the bicep. “Give us a good clean fight, Mahoney,” he said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Grissom turned and walked out of the tent, and Mahoney sat on the bench again. It was hot inside the tent and it smelled like rotting canvas. Mahoney’s fight would be the last of the afternoon, and the other fighters were putting on their clothes or having bruises and cuts attended to by a doctor and some medics. On a cot in the corner lay a fighter who’d been knocked cold in the last fight and still hadn’t come to. An ambulance was supposed to be on the way to take him to the hospital.

  McGhee pulled up a spindly wooden chair and sat opposite Mahoney. “How d’ya feel, buddy?”

  Mahoney wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Too hot in here.”

  “That’s good for you,” McGhee said. “It’ll keep you loose.”

  “I’m so loose I think I’m gonna pass out.”

  “You won’t pass out – don’t worry about it.” McGhee chuckled confidently, as though he was Joe Louis’s trainer, instead of the mess sergeant for Charlie Company of the 15th Regiment. Like Mahoney he was a career soldier who had been busted up and down the ranks many times. He had an enormous potbelly like many mess sergeants.

  “Gimme a cigarette, McGhee,” Mahoney said.

  McGhee wrinkled his pug nose. “You know athletes aren’t supposed to smoke!”

  “I said gimme a cigarette, you little punk!”

  Grumbling, McGhee took out his package of Chesterfields and offered it to Mahoney, who took one clumsily in his taped hands and placed it in his mouth. McGhee gave him a light and Mahoney puffed the cigarette, wondering if he was going to get the crap kicked out of him in the next fight.

  “How did I ever get into this mess?’’ Mahoney said grumpily.

  “Somebody had to fight the cocksucker,” McGhee replied.

  Mahoney wanted to say “why me?” but he knew the answer. He’d been railroaded into the fight by the commanding officer of the 15th Regiment, Colonel Simmons. The heavyweight champion of the Hammerhead Division was a sergeant from the 27th Regiment named Kowalski. He was a big mean son of a bitch who had ten professional fights in civilian life, winning six of them by knockouts and the rest by unanimous decisions. Nobody wanted to fight him, and Colonel Simmons decided that the 15th Regiment would be disgraced unless somebody stepped forward to challenge Kowalski, so he made Mahoney step forward. Mahoney had a reputation for being a nasty bastard, and Simmons told him that if he didn’t fight Kowalski, he’d give him every crap detail he could find and bust him at the least provocation, but if he fought he’d see to it that Mahoney would get a cushy desk job behind the lines, where Mahoney would have a reasonable chance of surviving the war. Mahoney wanted to survive the war, and he’d had some semi-professional fights in New York before joining the army. They’d all been club fights – five bucks if you won and three if you lost – and he’d trained in Gleason’s Gym on West Thirtieth Street, so he wasn’t entirely ignorant of what to do in a boxing ring. However, he’d heard that Kowalski was a killer, so he wasn’t exactly optimistic about the outcome of his big fight.

  The only illumination in the tent came from sunlight streaming in through the open tent flaps. Mahoney could hear the crowd screaming and cheering, and he wondered if Kowalski would break his nose or maybe put out one of his eyes. He’d been fighting the Germans since 1942, and now, far from the front, he had to fight Kowalski. There seemed to be
no way he could escape fighting.

  The interior of the tent darkened momentarily as a figure entered through one of the flaps. It was Corporal Edward Cranepool of Ottumwa, Iowa, who moved toward Mahoney with both of his fists filled with greenbacks.

  “Hiya, Sarge,” Cranepool said happily, sitting down on the bench beside Mahoney.

  “How’d you do out there?”

  “I bet all the money – three hundred of yours, two hundred of mine, and three-fifty of McGhee’s.”

  “Crap,” Mahoney said, certain they’d all lose their money; but the odds were ten to one in favor of Kowalski and he hadn’t been able to resist the opportunity to make a bundle. Now, as the time approached for him to go into the ring and fight Kowalski, he thought he’d screwed up again.

  “You okay, Sarge?” Cranepool asked.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.”

  “You look a little green around the gills.”

  “It’s hot in here.”

  “Why don’t you go out and get some fresh air?”

  McGhee frowned. “Mind your own business, butt hair. I don’t want my fighter to get a chill.”

  Cranepool shrugged and counted the money again. He knew Kowalski was supposed to be a fantastic fighter, but he’d been with Mahoney in North Africa and Italy as well as in France and he had seen him fight the Germans. He thought Mahoney was the wildest, toughest man in the army and figured he had a good chance to knock out Kowalski, despite Kowalski’s ten pro fights.

  “I need a drink,” Mahoney said.

  McGhee held out his canteen.

  Mahoney pushed it away. “I said a drink!”