Welcome to the Game

by Craig Henderson

Genres: Hard-Boiled; Thrillers

Synopsis

From a brilliant new voice, Welcome to the Game is a gripping thriller that races through Motor City at a heart-stopping pace as its protagonists swerve to avoid danger at every turn Craig Henderson screeches onto the scene with this fast-paced debut starring ex-rally driver Spencer Burnham.

Having moved his family from England to Detroit and opened a foreign car dealership, Spencer’s life was derailed by the death of his beloved wife. Now disconnected from his young daughter and losing control of the cocktail of drugs and alcohol that gets him through the day, he only just keeps Child Protective Services at bay while his business teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. Then he has a seemingly chance encounter with a charismatic but lethal gangster, Dominic McGrath.

Feeling the squeeze from informants, the rise of tech surveillance, and a hotshot detective who’s made busting him a personal crusade, McGrath’s been planning the last heist that would allow a comfortable retirement, provided he can find a very special type of driver—one who’s capable, trustworthy . . . and naïve.

Spencer quickly proves himself behind the wheel, with his innate sense of timing and precise, high-speed maneuvers. And McGrath even pays cash, lots of it. But it comes at a price; Spencer finds himself playing in an arena where rookies don’t last long. Wising up to the ruthlessness behind McGrath’s charming façade, he tries to break free, but McGrath has too much invested to allow him to leave.

As the city swelters in a heat wave, the two men apply their considerable talents to besting each other, while mistakenly assuming they have only each other to beat.

Release date: November 15, 2022

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press

Print pages: 349

Sample

1

SPENCER

Spencer winced as his potential buyer made a rough shift. He tried to think of something else to say about the car. He had a feeling the guy wasn’t for real but hadn’t figured out what his deal was. Did he want a more unusual choice of car, or was he just flirting so he could tell the guys at work he tried all options before doing what everyone did these days: go German or prancing pony.

Spencer watched him in his expensively distressed jeans and tightly fitted T-shirt, wondering how long girlfriends had to wait before learning the meaning of the Chinese character tattoos adorning his forearms. He fancied himself a real Detroiter but said he lived downtown in Riverfront Towers, and that was luxury living for the hipsters moving in.

“So, what brought you to America?” the guy asked. The question had long been irksome.

“My wife’s from Detroit, born and raised.” He couldn’t resist dropping the insinuation.

They turned back toward Woodward. The guy had obviously decided he’d gotten the measure of the car.

“This is what confused me when I was trying to find you. You said you were in Oakland.”

“Well, we’re on the edge of Oakland so it’s easier just to say—”

“Dude, I get it,” the guy cut in. “I’m a Michigan man. You want to say you’re in the classy part of town, where the money is. I get that. Guy like you, with your accent, probably works better playing it like that. I mean, let’s face it, you’re selling expensive cars no one’s heard of.”

For a moment, Spencer had nothing, because it was true. When he’d set up Winchester Auto Specialists, he couldn’t afford Oakland. But the north edge of Detroit on Winchester, just on the wrong side of 8 Mile, that had been right for the budget. And Winchester had an English ring to it. Anyway, everything had been right then. He and Marielle were happy, and Abby, their seven-year-old daughter, had made the adjustment from European to US schooling without too many tears over left friends. America had seemed new and exciting.

“The cars I sell are for people who like to drive but don’t feel the need to follow the herd. Anyone can go out and buy a Porsche or a Beamer, but a TVR or a GT-R or this Lotus, they’re different.”

“That’s why I came to you. I checked you out. You used to race, yeah?”

“I was a rally driver.”

“Right, rally. That’s racing against the clock, right?”

“Racing against other drivers, against their times, but on narrow roads or forest tracks so you go one at a time. You have to drive to the max because you don’t know whether you’re ahead of the pace or behind. You can’t just ease up when you’ve got a lead like in Indy or F1.”

“Yeah, I knew that. People have told me I have the mind for it.”

“The mind for what?”

“I could race cars. I just need to talk to people with experience.”

You are a time-wasting motherfucker, and I want to kill you.

“So, look, man,” he continued, “we’re coming up on 9 Mile. What would you be thinking if you were in, like, race mode?”

Ask him what he does when people take two hours out of his working day.

You need this sale.

No shit, but he’s not going to buy.

He might.

They pulled up at the intersection. Spencer nodded at the light.

“I know the light on Woodward coming up to 9 Mile will stay yellow for exactly three point four seconds. The average before someone gets moving on 9 Mile will be one point five seconds. That’s the average. If it’s a truck nearer two, but if it’s a guy in a hurry then point seven. Worst-case scenario is a guy in a fast car who’s put himself so he can see my light start to change. He could be moving before my yellow has gone, but he’ll be watching harder for people like me. Power band in this Lotus in third gear at sixty goes from four thousand. That’s where it happens: you’ll get an extra fifty miles per hour in two seconds, fifty yards in one second.”

Michigan Man, hesitant, looked at Spencer. “So, I should go for it if I’ve worked all that out?”

“If you have to work all that out, you should never go for it.”

The Lotus turned the sharp, almost hairpin turn from Conant onto Winchester and then into the Winchester Auto Specialists lot. Spencer made one more last-ditch effort.

“You feel that? Legendary cornering ability. Their suspension won Lotus the Grand Prix right here in Detroit in eighty-six. Only cars that could cope with the bumpy roads.”

“No shit? They’ve been bad that long?”

They parked up next to Michigan Man’s SUV, shook hands over the roof, and he was gone.

Spencer scanned the lot. It was triangular, wedged into the shape created by the diagonal intersection on which it stood. There were a dozen cars. They needed to be spread out a little, so that it wasn’t so obvious stock was low. He needed a run of closing, maybe three or four in a week. Then the bank might be more forthcoming again with credit and he could restock. He felt a tiredness suddenly envelop him and, in cahoots with that, a car at the far end of the lot caught his eye.

He’d taken a deposit on that TVR. The guy was supposed to have come for it with the balance that morning. The TVR stared back at him, its gunport-like headlights glinting insolently in the sun.

The heat made just thinking arduous. He glanced around, checking he didn’t have an audience, before getting back in the passenger side of the Lotus. There was some residual coolness inside but it would be baking in another five minutes.

He opened the glove compartment, found a wrap, and tipped out a line on the owner’s manual. He rummaged around. There’d been a straw in there somewhere. He found Abby’s school report and rolled it tightly.

On the far side of Conant, three men in a silver Merc SUV with smoked windows watched.

2

DOMINIC MCGRATH

Johnny Boy sat at the wheel of the SUV, noting the reaction of the man sitting next to him. Not many people could wear a beautifully tailored suit every day without looking like they were trying too hard, but he’d known a few in his time in the Chicago law offices in which he’d spent the first thirty years of his working life, and Dominic McGrath rocked it as well as the best of them.

Neither Johnny Boy nor McGrath were men who felt the need to fill a silence. McGrath had employed Johnny Boy for moments just like these: a transaction of skills and time. McGrath would come to Johnny Boy with a problem or requirement. Johnny Boy would ponder and research. He’d speculate as to what exactly his employer wanted and then—and this is what put Johnny Boy in his own league—he would speculate what his employer might not even realize he wanted.

The guy in the back wasn’t as cool with silences. His foot began to drum lightly on the floor. Soon his head and hand fell in time, nodding and tapping to some imaginary beat. The movement caught Johnny Boy’s eye in the rearview. It irritated him. People who brought nothing special to the table always irritated him, jittery people even more so. The guy in the back saw Johnny Boy’s look in the mirror but misread it. He thought Johnny Boy was as bored as he was—a kindred spirit. He leaned forward.

“Yo bro, mind if I smoke in here?”

“I don’t mind if you smoke on the sidewalk, Zeb.”

Zeb flopped back with a sniffy huff.

McGrath sat with his elbow on the car’s windowsill, thumb under chin and forefinger lightly against his temple, watching—watching Spencer. He knew that if he was here looking at this man, in this place, then there was a very good chance it was because he needed to be.

“How’d you find him?” he asked Johnny Boy.

“Maintains his listing with the Auto Sport Association.”

“He still race?”

“Nope. Lets him say they’re buying from a real race driver.”

McGrath nodded. He scanned the lot, seeing the gaps where sold cars hadn’t been restocked.

“Foreign, you say?”

“Yep.”

“That was good thinking.”

And that was another thing Johnny Boy liked about McGrath. A man secure enough to praise—, but only when it was due.

McGrath looked around. Not the worst of Detroit but . . .

“So why didn’t he move somewhere better?”

“Other issues demand his attention.”

McGrath nodded again. “Heard from the Yo-Yo?”

“No. But I expect to anytime.” Johnny Boy glanced at the car’s clock. “Imminently, in fact.”

“You sure he’s up to it?”

“When has he not been?”

“I know he’s got no problem with the technical requirements of his job. It’s just, he ain’t no Robert Redford.”

“I made him practice the hell out of two sentences. Even a man of as few words as the Yo-Yo can manage that.”

“And Rosso?” McGrath asked the question quietly. Zeb wasn’t bright, but the last thing they needed was for him to figure out why he’d really been brought along.

“Rosso is coming here. So you need to go make the call on this guy,” said Johnny Boy, pointing across the road at Spencer, who was now heading, at sprightly pace, toward the doors of Winchester Auto Specialists.

Angela looked up from the reception desk as Spencer bounced in with a clap of his hands.

“Angela, I thought that TVR was supposed to have been gone by the time I got back?”

She knew attitude nostrils when she saw them, and she saw them often enough with Spencer these days. She’d decided only the previous night she wasn’t going to stand for them anymore. When he’d interviewed her, Spencer had spoken a bit like that British romantic comedy actor but with less stuttering. He’d said business was on the up after the downturn and he’d seemed really charming. Now, ten months later, she realized those last two selling points should have been considered under advisement.

“I’m not sure if you meant to say that like it’s my fault? The guy hasn’t called yet. But the . . .”

She trailed off as he walked straight past and into his office. He was doing that sort of thing more and more, too, these days, like his mind couldn’t stay focused on one thing for any length of time. No mystery as to why that might be, of course. She heard his seat thump against the filing cabinet after he yanked it out from under the desk.

While debating what to do, she looked around the Winchester Auto Specialists showroom. Floor-to-ceiling glass, a bunch of potted palms, four cars. Angela wasn’t that into cars, but the old Jaguar was beautiful in a feminine kind of way. The way its body flared out and over its wheel arches reminded her of a woman’s hips. It was dark green, officially British racing green. In her time there, she’d picked up stuff like that. Spencer hadn’t insisted on it, hadn’t even asked if she had any interest in cars when he interviewed her, but as his presence had become less dependable of late, she’d found herself talking to potential customers more often. In fact, the last few sales closed at Winchester Auto Specialists were more her doing than his, and no wonder: he went from hot to cold like the weather on Lake Erie.

Last night her husband had said her newfound salesmanship skills should at least have translated into a bonus. She’d laughed. Bonus? What a joke. Her paycheck was nearly two weeks overdue. When she let that slip, her husband had gone ballistic. As she watched him stomping around the room on her behalf, she found herself agreeing with his sentiment. She was being taken for a goddamn sucker.

As she heard the carafe bash back into the coffee machine in Spencer’s office, she realized she’d become scared of giving him bad news, and bad news had been coming in more and more of late. She’d been fending calls off. Not just from the bank, but from people whose cars Spencer was supposed to be selling and even a few debt collectors. Sometimes, when she was on her own at the showroom, because Spencer was God knows where, it felt like being the lone pioneer left behind to guard the campfire. And the lone pioneer left behind to guard the campfire always bought it in the movies. When she tried to tell him, it was as if the bad news were her fault. Angela hadn’t made a stand over anything in her life, but if she didn’t make a stand today, her husband was going to come down here. Her mouth was dry. She rose from her seat.

3

IN THE CIRCLE OF WAGONS

Angela stood in the doorway of Spencer’s office, watching him as he watched the showroom through the office’s internal window. Trophies and pictures from his rallying days filled the wall behind him. Well, they didn’t fill as such—judiciously spaced around the Kentia palm they gave pretty good coverage. But they were dusty and unimpressive to her now. Most of them were from amateur events. No big cash payouts there—just promise. And the sponsors had long moved on in their quest for younger potential.

Angela had never run a business before so she didn’t know what people needed to do when the shit hit the fan. But as she looked at Spencer with his feet up on the desk it occurred to her that surely he should be doing something. Phoning? Tweeting? The needle on her sympathy tank bounced on empty, and more selfish reasoning colored her thoughts. She wasn’t ever going to get a bonus. In fact, something about the calls she’d been fielding that morning told her she should consider herself lucky if she got paid that month.

“As I was saying, Mister TVR Buyer hasn’t called yet. I’ve put one call in. You said not to put more than one reminder call in so we didn’t seem desperate. Ever.”

She saw Spencer give an almost imperceptible eye roll.

“In addition, Ron-at-the-Bank’s called. Twice. He’s not happy. He didn’t go into specifics because he said you’d know. I did get the impression he was pissed. He’s expecting a call today. That was today by the way, did I mention that already?”

Spencer leaned back in his chair and looked at Angela like he was waiting for her to finish so he could go back to doing whatever it was that was so much more important. It was the final straw.

“Good,” she said. “I’m glad you’ve obviously taken all that in stride. Don’t let me keep you from firing up your master plan for the business any longer. I’m outta here.”

And with that, she turned and left. Confused, Spencer checked his watch.

In the showroom, Angela had already picked up her bag and was heading for the exit.

“Where’re you going?” he shouted.

“Home, Spencer,” she yelled back, without even slowing up. “Husband? Kids? I don’t get paid for being there either, but at least it’s got cable.”

She barely acknowledged the well-dressed man with whom she nearly collided as she left.

Back in his office, Spencer reflected on the day’s progress. It had started with promise. The TVR was supposed to have gone and a test drive had been booked with a guy who Angela said had been just peachy on the phone. Both had been duds. And Ron-at-the-Bank seemed to have gone from being a staunch ally of Winchester Auto Specialists to a major-league pain in the ass.

Spencer supposed Ron had reason to take things personally. In their first-ever meeting, he knew within five minutes the guy was just loving Spencer’s play: the British charm, the racing stories, the pretty American wife with her genuine Detroit grit. The farthest Ron had traveled had been over the border to see Niagara. Ron had fought for credit for Winchester and taken genuine satisfaction in its first encouraging figures. But that was then. Now he was just one of the many Spencer had to keep sweet until the luck changed.

He stared at the door out of which Angela had just flounced. She’d calm down when she got paid. His mind began to churn. What the hell should he be doing? Was there a master plan?

Of course there is.

Run it by me.

Borrow more money, until the sales start coming in again.

What if they don’t?

Out of the corner of his eye, Spencer sensed movement in the showroom. He saw a tall guy in a sharp-as-hell suit. Short, tightly curled, mostly gray hair. He was looking at the Jaguar D-Type, the Jaguar D-Type with a ninety-five-grand tag, twenty-five of which would go straight in Spencer’s pocket.

Hah! As I was saying . . .

Well, don’t fuck it up by thinking all that negative shit.

Spencer pulled out the wrap and opened it under his desk without taking his eyes off the suit in the showroom. He dug his car key in the glistening white powder, bent over, felt the cold metal of the key against his open nostril and blam.

“See anything you like?”

McGrath turned from the Jag to see a slim guy in his mid- to late-thirties looking at him. Slim but not necessarily fit-looking. Good-looking—maybe, maybe a little ragged. Warm smile but a salesman’s warm smile; he could have lost his entire family in a plane crash and he’d still manage that smile.

“Spencer Burnham?”

“Yes, that’s me. Mister . . . ?”

“McGrath. Dominic McGrath.” McGrath leaned in slightly, offering his hand. Spencer shook it. Both gripped firmly.

The two men looked at each other, only one of them aware they had different agendas. Spencer sensed something about this potential buyer though. It was as if McGrath’s eyes just happened to have been resting on the Jag as he waited for Spencer. And now those eyes were on him—alert, mischievous, and all the while pulling in information. And if the smile was genuine, as it appeared to be, it wasn’t diverting one iota of dataflow from those eyes. There was a nonclassic type of handsomeness and a ka-ching of the charisma that often goes with it.

“Beautiful car,” said McGrath.

Spencer was about to launch into his spiel.

“What do you drive, Spencer?”

“Uh, at the moment, the Lotus.”

McGrath nodded. His smile both discomforted Spencer and yet welcomed him into something wayward. It was the smile a teenager got from a teacher who knew what had gone down but was going to make it seem like he didn’t—because he’d done worse.

“Then how about you show me what a Lotus can do?”

Moments later, McGrath was sitting in the passenger seat of the Lotus, engine running and air blasting. As Spencer locked up the doors of the dealership, McGrath opened the car’s glove compartment and rummaged through. He’d seen everything he needed to—school report, hip flask, antidepressants—and closed it before Spencer joined him.

“My receptionist had to go to the dentist,” lied Spencer as he put the bunch of showroom keys in the side pocket of the car door. “You sure you don’t want to drive?”

“I’ll learn more from watching you.”