1
Harry
It’s not like I don’t care.
I tried to make a difference, tried to save everyone for twenty years when I was a cop.
Started walking the beat the day after I left the academy.
And once the crime rate went down whenever I was around, it made sense that it could advance my career.
And it did.
Detective for eleven of those years and solved every case I was assigned, and a bunch I wasn’t.
Trouble is, I couldn’t save ‘em all.
I couldn’t be there for everyone all the time. Solving a case doesn’t raise the dead.
After a few rough cases. Things I can’t unsee, I knew it was time for me to get out before all the shit stains I put in jail did the same.
Because I knew oncetheywere out, there was only one guy they would ever wanna call on.
Me.
And not to reminisce about good times or thank me for their ‘rehabilitation’ into honest, upstanding citizens.
That and being shot at or almost stabbed every second day wasn’t my idea of fun anymore.
So I cashed in my chips and after climbing the walls of my own internal prison for three months trying to act ‘retired’, I went private.
Private eye, independent investigator, gumshoe. That huge guy that’s always asking too many questions… Whatever you wanna call it.
I’m aprivatedetective now. Private dick in the vernacular, which is funny because the only thing I never excelled at was the fairer sex.
My job always took all my time and it also showed me the worst side of people. So I’ve never been a real people person.
My instinct is to protect. But beyond that, I dunno…
Guess I’ve just seen too much of the ugly side of people to ever wanna get close.
Never thought I’d find someone and settle down because even if I did I’d be looking over my shoulder.
Waiting for them to turn, or for someone from my past to come along. Wanting to repay the favor for me helping them into a jail cell for years at a time.
Nah. If I’ve gotta live with a target on my back, it’s for me to bear.
Alone.
I couldn’t drag anyone else into the world I thought I could escape from.
Really, all I did was take off the uniform. Waived a few rights and lost some authority.
But being a cop, a detective. It’s in my veins. One of those things you either are or aren’t.
And like it or not, that’s what I am.
So something as simple as grabbing stale convenience store coffee at 3 a.m. while I work an insurance surveillance case is nothing out of the ordinary.