Pimps make the best librarians. Psycho killers, the worst. Ditto con men.
Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back.
As I took my first steps on a patrol as a New York City police officer, heading out from the precinct onto East 156 Street toward the projects on Courtlandt Avenue in the South Bronx, a deep voice called out, “There’s a new sherrif in town!” We had been told that people would know we were rookies by the shine on our leather gear and the dim, soft expressions on our faces—people can smell new cop like they smell new paint.
The minute you die you start to fade from the world and from the memories of the people who knew you. In a generation or two you’re an old picture your great-grandchildren can no longer identify.
I have insomnia … and I drink a little. I might as well tell you. In the middle of the night, I drink scotch when I can’t sleep. Actually, I can’t sleep most nights; actually, every night. Even before I stopped delivering babies, I wanted to write about the women. Now I have time.
Thirst is deadlier than hunger. Deprived of food, you might survive for a few weeks, but deprived of liquid refreshment, you would be lucky to last more than a few days. Only breathing matters more.
All he could see, in every direction, was water.
It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.
I was never so frightened as I am now. They have left me sitting in the dark, with only the light from the window to write by.
She sits huddled on the dirt floor in near darkness, her knees drawn up to her chin, her arms clasped around her legs to keep them from trembling.
To the rocket scientist, you are a problem. You are the most irritating piece of machinery he or she will ever have to deal with.
High in the sky, apartment windows were smudges of grimy yellow, and this passed for starlight in New York City.
The first time daddy found out about me, it was from behind glass during a routine visit to prison, when Ma lifted her shirt, teary-eyed, exposing her pregnant belly for emphasis.
“Either erase the story, or we’ll erase you. And maybe your family. But we’ll do them first, so you learn your lesson before you die.”
The freeze-up on Black Bear Lake is a prelude to winter. The freeze-up is a prelude to hardship. The freeze-up is a prelude to loneliness.
Take my hand, she said. He did. Lifted his small hand to Mommy’s hand. This was maybe five minutes before the abduction.
The syllabus says, “Week One—5 P.M. pick up bone boxes.”
Good and evil have always existed. They always will. It’s only our stories about them that ever change.
John Laroche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth.
There are some men who enter a woman’s life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me—not forever, but periodically.
Harry locked his mother in the closet.
Today they will find her body. I know how it will happen. I can picture, quite vividly, the sequence of events that will lead to the discovery.
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.