The Christmas Kid (22 page)

Carmody thought:
Oh, God. Oh, yes, God. Oh, yes. Do it.

She shot him four times in the chest, while women screamed and men shouted and many simply ran. She dropped the revolver on the floor beside Carmody and began to weep. One of the collectors said later that as the bullets tore into Carmody, he smiled and looked relieved.

Acknowledgment is made to the following publications, in which the stories in this collection first appeared, some with different titles or in slightly different form. New York
Daily News:
“The Christmas Kid,” “The Price of Love,” “A Death in the Family,” “A Christmas Wish,” “The Love of His Life,” “Good-bye,” “Changing of the Guard,” “Footsteps,” “A Poet Long Ago,” “The Car,” “Just the Facts, Ma’am,” “6/6/44,” “The Trial of Red Dano,” “Leaving Paradise,” “Lullaby of Birdland,” “The Boarder,” “The Radio Doctor,” “The Challenge,” “A Hero of the War,” “The Final Score,” “Gone,” “You Say Tomato, and…” “’S Wonderful,” “The Warrior’s Son,” “The Second Summer,” “The Sunset Pool,” “The Lasting Gift of Art,” “The Man with the Blue Guitar,” “The Hitter Bag,” “Trouble,” “Home Country,” “The Waiting Game,” “The Home Run.”
Brooklyn Noir,
edited by Tim McLoughlin: “The Book Signing.”
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine:
“The Men in Black Raincoats” (reprinted in
Brooklyn Noir 2,
edited by Tim McLoughlin).

PETE HAMILL
is a novelist, journalist, editor, and screenwriter. He is the author of twenty-one previous books, including the bestselling novels
Tabloid City, Forever,
and
Snow in August
and the bestselling memoir
A Drinking Life.
He lives in New York City.

A Killing for Christ

The Gift

Dirty Laundry

Flesh and Blood

The Deadly Piece

The Guns of Heaven

Loving Women

Snow in August

Forever

North River

Tabloid City

The Invisible City

Tokyo Sketches

Irrational Ravings

Tools as Art

Piecework

News Is a Verb

A Drinking Life

Downtown: My Manhattan

Diego Rivera

Why Sinatra Matters