The Chris Cameron Series by Tyler Cynthia

Author:Tyler, Cynthia [Tyler, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Yellow Dog Books
Published: 2012-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

Ten minutes later Linda and I sat facing each other at the kitchen table.

“I’m tired and I feel powerless,” I said.

She nodded and then got up and filled the tea kettle with water and set it on the stove. She was wearing a white muscle tee shirt, black sweat pants with an aqua stripe down the side, and gray Nike running shoes. She’d been working out a lot lately, and the curves in her upper arms were tight and hard.

I shook my head and said, “I can’t protect anybody. Not you, not Robyn, not Tim, not anybody.”

“That’s right. None of us have that kind of power. No matter how much we love or care for someone.”

“It’s hard to believe he’s just gone.” I watched her take a couple of ceramic mugs out of the kitchen cabinet. Then she got two tea bags out of a box in the drawer and dropped the bags in, looping the string around each handle.

“It’s very final, I know.” She poured the steaming water. “I remember the first time I saw a dead body on the job. Two-year-old girl beaten to death by her mother’s boyfriend.” She came back with the tea and sat down. “That was just the first one, of course, and it was a long time ago. After you’ve seen enough of it you start to feel like you’re losing touch with reality. I don’t mean psychosis. I mean you feel like there is no God.”

“I’m sorry, that must have been horrible.”

“The police get in on the end of things, when it’s already too late and there’s nothing you can do about it.” She sipped the tea. “And then half the time when you do catch the bad guys they walk out of court over some minor infraction.”

“That would enrage me.”

“It happens all the time. There are a lot more bad guys out there than there are cops. And they just keep coming.” She got back up and opened a cabinet and took out a box of almond cookies. Mo trotted in from the living room and sat at her feet, steadily watching her remove a cookie from the box. Linda broke off a piece and handed it to her, and said, “What I want and what I think you already have is the sense that you can still make a difference. You do make a difference, you know.”

I drank some tea. The mug was printed with a faded lavender women’s symbol from the local lesbian bookstore that had closed about five years ago. I ran my thumb over the vanishing logo on the warm mug.

“They expanded too fast I guess,” I said.

“Huh?”

“They say that’s the main reason why most small businesses like this bookstore fail. Because they expand too fast.”

Linda nodded. “I think there might have been some other factors in play. I don’t think it was their fault that they had to close.”

“No, of course not,” I said. “I just miss them.”

“Are you okay, Chris?”

“Yeah. But everything seems to be…going.”

“I’m going to stay here tonight, all right?”

I nodded.

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