Stray Bullets Killers #3

Stray Bullets Killers #3
Released by: Image Comics
Released on: May 14th, 2014.
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This third issue of David Lapham's Stray Bullets: Killers, entitled “The Five Fingers,” begins in Baltimore, Maryland in September 1986 where Virginia sits on the couch in an apartment living room while a couple, Dez Finger and a woman named Marisol, are having a fight. She's just found out that not only is he married but he's got three kids. They work together, she's 'the Pete in Pete's Electronics. We specialize in selling shit that falls off trucks.' Here we learn a bit more about Virginia in that it turns out Marisol took her in when she found her on the street. Before Finger takes off, he talks Virginia into babysitting for him.

Later that night he picks Virginia up and lets her in on his ulterior motive. He's been running around on his wife, Pam, for some time now and hasn't seen her in three months. When he takes her out for the night Virginia is to snoop around the house and find where Pam keeps the emergency cash. So Dez and his dim witted wife, who really seems oblivious to the lie she's living, head out for the night while Virginia skulks around the house only to find the youngest kids, Lee Lee and Desmond, playing 'Super Finger' with a doll and a G.I. Joe - it's a pretty twisted game, pretty heavy on the sex and violence for kids that age, they've obviously picked up on their dad's personality. Virginia distracts the kids with cookies and cartoons and starts to snoop around only to find the oldest of the three kids, Bev, in her room smoking weed and playing with a lighter. Virginia introduces herself and Bev promptly accuses her of fucking her father.

When the phone rings and it's Dez, he tells Virginia that the stash is in cash and that he knows she could find it, keep it and not tell him but that he wouldn't want her to do that, because killing kids is never fun. This puts a bit of fear into the babysitter who gets the younger kids to help out, unwittingly at least, by watching them put their toys in their favorite hiding spot. Bev, however, is older and smarter and well aware of what Virginia is up to and not afraid to call her on it. The phone rings again, Dez is getting impatient and Virginia knows she could be in serious trouble but there's more to all of this than she realizes. She's a smart kid though, and when she finds out about two unmentioned little surprises in the house, she puts two and two together. And then the phone rings again, Dez tells Virginia that Marisol is on the way… and, well… no spoilers.

Heavy on dialogue as this series often is, again Lapham puts character development first so that the action that will inevitably come later will have more impact. We learn more about Virginia's background here and about her character, her moral code, her sense of right and wrong and how all of this will tie into what's going to happen in her future and how it stems from her past. She's an interesting character, not afraid to get her hands a bit dirty but she's got a conscience and that makes her likeable even when she's cussing out kids who aren't quite able to understand why they can't have the ice cream she promised them or trying to prove to Bev who's the bigger psycho. The circle of abuse that the kids in the Finger household have been through has obviously shaped their young psyches and Virginia knows this, she is not without the sort of sympathy that could wind up being her undoing.

There's a lot of dark humor in this issue but under all of that there's a sense of tragedy, of pathos, the kind that makes you feel sorry for what Dez has put his family through out of nothing more than base selfishness. He's not a nice man and while he seems to have a certain sort of affection for Virginia, she knows not to trust him because he is who he is. Lapham's writing and art are as solid and reliable as ever, the black and white illustrations offering up enough detail to ground the series in reality which is complimented perfectly by the way in which the characters speak to and interact with one another. This one ends on a pretty serious cliff hanger, it's another super solid slice of pulp fiction and hardboiled crime writing, the sort that comes from the underbelly of American society and that sucks you in and keeps you riveted. The next issue is out in June, only a month away at the time of this writing, but right now that seems like an awfully long time to wait!