by Adan Ramie
"Spoiled?"
He snorted. "He had it better than I did, that's for sure."
Harry knew the type, and she always wondered what it would have been like to grow up with choices. "I guess he's right, though," she said.
David looked at her with a sympathetic smile. "They'll know you're a cop, but I don't think as many will run out as he thinks. The youth are high-risk for drugs, prostitution, and worse, but they know where they get a good night's sleep. And they know me." He gestured at the boy in front of the television. "At least, the regulars do. Keaton is new. He's still healthy enough to be mad at his parents. Mad at his mother for leaving, and his father for not being able to do what she used to do."
"I don't want to make it worse on them." She lovingly ran her fingers over the cigarette pack in her pocket. She wanted one again already. Talking so openly about having her badge taken had reopened the fresh wounds and brought up feelings she had been working hard to repress. "I just wanted to help."
Her cell phone buzzed in her pocket, and she excused herself to take the call. Outside in front of the building, she lit a cigarette and sucked in the first puff slowly, savoring the flavor. "Thresher."
"Man, you know you shouldn't be smoking," Cal said in lieu of a greeting. "I thought you were quit. I thought you cared about your health."
"I don't need a lecture today, Gafferty."
Former detective Calvin Gafferty had been her partner for a year, long enough for him to learn about and harass her out of most of her bad habits. It was also long enough for her to drag him down and have his badge taken, too.
"All right. Listen, I know you don't do this kind of thing, but Little Bear wants to know if you'll come to dinner." She tried to interrupt, but kept talking over her. "It's no big deal. Just Little Bear, me, and Baby Bear.”
"I don't do dinner," she said. She blew a smoke ring and glanced around her. A couple of kids lingered at the end of the building, watching her. She walked a few feet away in hopes that they would sneak inside while she wasn't looking. "I'm not domesticated."
"Neither was I, until the baby was born," he shot back. She could hear the irritation in his voice. In over a year of knowing each other, she had only once met a member of his family, his sister, who he called Little Bear. The meeting had been unintentional. "Come on, Thresher. Be a real person for once."
She groaned and stubbed out her cigarette on a metal trash can in the alley beside the shelter. She tossed it into the trash can, then hovered over it to make sure it didn't catch fire. She glanced over her shoulder to find that the kids had gone. She swore under her breath.
"Fine, but don't expect me to be guest of the year. I'll make my appearance, have a few bites, then be unavoidably called out."
Silence answered her, and for a second, she thought Cal had hung up. Finally, with a sigh, he grunted his agreement.
"You owe me one," she told him, not meaning it. They both knew she already owed him so big that she would never be able to pay him back.
"I know," he answered. "Six o'clock."
She repeated the time to him, they said their goodbyes, and hung up. She walked back to the door, then paused with her fingertips just brushing the handle. What was wrong with her? Volunteering, and now going to dinner with Cal and his brood? She shook her head and pulled open the door. Sure enough, a couple of extra kids were inside, and as she walked in, their eyes glowed with recognition like deer caught in traffic.
"Everyone, I want to introduce you to Harry." David didn't miss a beat. Harry tried to put on a convincing smile, but wasn't sure if she managed. "She's not a cop. She's a volunteer."
He didn’t sound as confident as he looked, and his eyes kept darting at her warily. She understood his reluctance. A shelter’s job is to shelter, and if the kids wouldn’t stay under the same roof as someone who looked like they owned a badge and a gun...
"Looks like a cop," one teen piped in.
The other, a teenage girl with short hair who hid her body under heavy clothes, only stared suspiciously at her. Harry remembered being that girl. Once upon a time, Harry had been unsure, abused, downtrodden, exploited, and let down by the system sworn to protect her. She gave the girl a nod. The teen's eyebrows furrowed deeper as she shoved her fists into her pockets.
"You don't remember me, do you, Detective?"
MORE BY ADAN RAMIE
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Deviant Behaviors series (Thriller)
Maladaptation: A drug deal gone wrong. The murder of an old friend. A stolen ride turned kidnapping. The lives of three women collide as drugs, murder, and lust drive them to unexpected extremes. Three follow the same path on a map plotted by murder. Who will survive?
Take-Out: (Romantic side-story) She’s a rollercoaster ride, and you never know if you’re going to get hot or cold. Harry Thresher is more than a little rough around the edges. The first time she meets Busy Biznicki, she smooth talks her into a crush; the second time, she lashes out over a case. Busy thinks she’s over Harry’s fickle affections, but a decision made of relief and whimsy leaves her wondering what could bloom between them.
Cluster B: Stripped of her badge and reputation, Detective Thresher goes to the local youth shelter and stumbles onto something ominous. When a missing boy comes back with a bloody surprise, she knows she must risk losing her badge forever to save the kids — and the woman — she has come to love.
Eager Observer: She’s got her badge back, but Harry Thresher hasn’t given up on her own brand of detective work just yet. Her new partner might be a stickler for the rules, but Harry knows that the way she’s stopped killers in the past is the best way – even if it gets her in hot water. So when a serial killer rises from the swamps of southeast Texas again, she’s back to her old tricks, and no new partner – or nosy blogger – is going to stop her before she finds him.
A World of Deviant Behaviors #1 – Lee Barsten: Orphaned, abused, and addicted, Malena "Lee" Barsten has had a hard life. From her earliest memories until just before her appearance in the novel Maladaptation, this is her progression from bad to worse in five short stories.
A World of Deviant Behaviors #2 – Harry Thresher: Detective Harry Thresher is the protector of the downtrodden and the champion of the abused. She will put her life on the line for yours without the blink of an eye. But there's more to her than meets the eye, and in these six stories, you'll find out what makes her tick - and twitch.
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