Tribes

ALSO BY JOHN CLARKSON The James Beck Novels Among Thieves Bronx Requiem Death Comes Due The One Series And Justice for One One Way Out One Man’s Law New Lots Reed’s Promise Tribes Copyright @2023 by John Clarkson All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright laws. First Edition published 2023 by John Clarkson Inc. www.johnclarkson.com ISBN 978-1-7356335-2-7 softcover ISBN 978-1-7356335-3-4 e-book Subject of this book: Crime – Fiction Ex-convicts – Fiction Class war – Fiction White Supremacy – Fiction Upstate Rural New York – Fiction Cover and interior design: Design for Writers For the divided Contents ALSO BY JOHN CLARKSON 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 AUTHOR’S NOTE: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: 1 Somewhere in the back of his mind James Beck knew that drinking alone outside at night in December wasn’t the best thing he could be doing. Particularly at an isolated hangout in upstate New York patronized by blue collar working types, half of them members of a rural gang referred to as the Kin. Beck was familiar with the type – lots of beards, tattoos, and threatening glares. They reminded him of white Aryan gang members he’d run across during his eight years in New York State prisons. The Kin boys annoyed Beck, but they didn’t intimidate him. He either ignored them or stared back, daring them to say something. Beck’s size and demeanor, salt-and-pepper Covid beard, and dark hair grown past his collar made him look like someone best left alone. Particularly hunkered down in an Adirondack 2 Andy Miller stood in the shadows watching Beck. Andy didn’t know Beck’s name. He knew him by his drink order – a double Redbreast Irish whiskey in a four-ounce tumbler when they had it, Jameson when they didn’t. Guinness chaser in a 14.2-ounce can. Miller carried drinks from the barn to customers scattered around the Field, along with enough free chicken wings and chili to keep the drinkers drinking. Andy had been waiting to see if the bearded guy wanted another round. He usually nursed one round but sometimes ordered a second. Miller kept track because Mr. Redbreast was a good tipper. Then Andy saw Irene Allen step into the firelight surrounding Mr. Redbreast. The odds on a second round went up. Irene approached Beck with her usual conspiratorial smile. She was one person at the Field Beck