Nooses Give

"The bodies had fallen around the table like three cards from a spent deck. Jeremy Mike, the jack of spades. Sally Jorgenson, queen of hearts. Ted Muktoyuk, the king of diamonds."
A person has to be pretty drunk to play Russian roulette. And usually a person has to work pretty hard to get drunk in a dry Native village. Most of the words Kate has for “bootlegger” are unprintable. A short story.
"THE BODIES HAD FALLEN around the table like three cards from a spent deck. Jeremy Mike, the jack of spades. Sally Jorgenson, queen of hearts. Ted Muktoyuk, the king of diamonds. The King of the Key, they called him from the bleachers, at five feet ten the tallest center Bernie Koslowski had ever had the privilege of coaching.
Bernie’s mouth was set in a grim line. “What happened?” Billy Mike had a mobile moon face, usually beaming with good nature and content. This morning it was grim and tired. The jack of spades had been a nephew, his youngest sister’s only child. She didn’t know yet, and he didn’t know how he was going to tell her. He told Bernie instead. “They were drunk. It’s Jeremy’s pistol.”