One Step Ahead

Righteous Indignation

      Turning slowly toward the sound, Ashley and Briar saw a large, muscular man, still wearing the ski mask she had noted earlier, aiming a pistol in their direction. "Looks like your lucky streak has run out, folks," he declared, sounding quite pleased with the idea. "Somehow I doubt that you've got another Hail Mary pass up your sleeves this time, so I finally have you where I want you. Well, almost."

      "Well, if you're so sure of that, why don't you take your damn mask off and pull up enough balls to actually face us?" Briar challenged him, as Ashley gaped at her in astonishment. "Since you're so sure you've got us over a barrel, what difference will it make, anyway?"

      Surprisingly, instead of reacting angrily, the gunman threw back his head and laughed, sounding genuinely amused. When his mirth subsided a bit, he nodded, almost approvingly, and announced, "I'm impressed, Ms. Malveaux. Most people in your position would be groveling on their knees in the mud, but it seems that you have some backbone, and I respect that. It's actually rather unfortunate that you've been such a giant pain in my ass, because under different circumstances, I think I might actually like you."

      "Well, you'll have to excuse me if I don't turn handsprings over that particular announcement," she snarled. "Since you're the worthless fucker who murdered my cousin, I don't give a rats ass whether you like me or not!"

      "Oh, please spare me the righteous indignation, Briar," he snorted. "Your cousin was a worthless junkie whore, a drain on society just like the others, and if you would have just accepted that fact and gone on with your life, you wouldn't be here right now."

      "So just because someone has some rough breaks, and their lives get a little off track, you think that gives you the right to decide whether or not they get to live?" Ashley cut in. "The right to appoint yourself judge, jury, and executioner?"

      "Oh, I'm hardly that unreasonable, Mr. Purdy," their captor replied. "Or that uncompassionate. I realize that there are young men and women, children, even, who are forced into prostitution unwillingly. And that there are people who are duped into addiction by quack doctors who care more about financing their next island vacation than the well-being of their patients, or forced into it by lowlifes who want to take advantage of them.  And if we take them off the streets, and they make use of the opportunity we give them to change their situation, then I'm quite happy to let them go on about their mundane little lives."

      The utter lack of emotion in his voice was even more chilling than the gun he aimed at them, and they both shivered slightly as he continued his speech. "It's the ones who refuse to learn their lesson that I have an issue with. The ones who repeat the cycle over and over again, without any regard for their families, or the people they rip off, and pass their diseases on to. They're the ones who have to be taught, the ones who should serve as an example to the rest of their kind. You understand that, don't you?"

      "The ones like the guy who killed your sister, you mean," Ashley said quietly, earning looks of surprise from both Briar and the gunman. "And I suppose I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that your problem with the hookers has something to do with what you said about your mother."

      "Well done! You have an excellent memory, Ashley," the other man responded, before reaching up to pull off his mask, revealing the face of Detective Keith Harris. "My mother walked out on her family, and left my dad to take care of three small children by himself, and work full-time and then some while he did it," he snarled, anger creeping into his voice. "Just so she could be free to drink and get high, to act like a goddamn teenager instead of a grown woman with responsibilities and people who needed her! Just to end up spending most of her time on her back to pay for her fucking poison, and getting herself killed when she tried to pull a fast one on her dealer."