Market Price by Jessica Slee
from Seven Deadly Sins: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
I noticed the detective at the corner, hesitating. The crosswalk blinked and turned red, but he stayed. Looking for someone.
I stopped arranging the sports t-shirts clipped into the front of my merchandise stand to shout. “Hey! You’re blocking the way for my customers!”
The game wasn’t for another few hours, but it got him to walk over.
I knew what he was going to say. He described a man—dark hair, short, wearing a hoodie. “Seen anyone like that come by just now?”
“I dunno, man, my memory’s not all it used to be. I’ve got a lot of things to think about, you know. These hats don’t sell themselves.”
“How much?”
I plucked a baseball cap next to a gap in the row and held it out. “Fifteen bucks.”
He took his wallet out and handed me a twenty. Giving him the hat, I said, “Yeah, I saw him. Running like the devil. That way.” I waved towards the now-open crosswalk.
I paused. “You want your change?”
As he ran off I moved more hats to fill in the gap. Shame the detective was going the wrong way. After all, the other guy had paid me better.
This story appears as part of Seven Deadly Sins, a PUNK NOIR Magazine series, originally published July 2025.
Bio
Jessica Slee studied English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a Claymore Award Winner, and in 2022 she was longlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger and the First Pages Prize. She was recognized in the Honor Roll of The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024 and her work appears in Shotgun Honey Presents: Thicker Than Water and Punk Noir.
PUNK NOIR, the online literary and arts magazine that looks at the world at its most askew, casting a bloodshot eye over the written word, film, music, television and more.
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Nice
"Ah, what you got? I got the skills to pay the bills"
Skills to Pay the Bills by The Beastie Boys.
Loved it.