Deputy, The

Coyote Crossing is a dusty little sh*thole town in western Oklahoma. A sleepy little pit stop for truckers, not a lot going on. So a dead body in the middle of the street at midnight is quite an event. The chief of police wants all hands on deck, so he calls Toby Sawyer to come babysit the body.

Toby doesn't have a lot going for him. Twenty-five, a couple of years of junior college, married to a girl he got pregnant, and living in a trailer on the edge of town. He's working part time for the police department, hoping the budget comes through and they can put him on full time, so he can get health benefits. His wife is a waitress at a little crap diner near the railroad tracks. When he gets the call about the dead body, he pins his tin star to his Weezer t-shirt, slips into a pair of sweatpants and grabs his revolver.

Victor Gischler is the author of five novels, including Gun Monkeys, Shotgun Opera, and Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse.