BAD THINGS by Sean Slater

Bad things never leave you.

  It’s a rotten fact that every city cop knows. They fade away, slowly over time, like blood stains on white fabric. But they never completely vanish. Some trace always remains, and whether it comes out in the form of cold sweats, anxiety attacks, or just plain nightmares usually depends on what else you’re dealing with at the time.

  The visually horrific calls – the stabbings, the hangings, or the machinegun hits like the one we dealt with last year where the inside of the cab looked like a dirty butcher’s shop – they hit you in a more superficial way. And how could they not with their meaty injuries, wailing victims, and fetid smells?

  All of that has a rattling effect on even the strongest person.

  But it’s the other calls that wake you in the middle of the night.

  It’s those other calls that leave you feeling desperate and out-of-control – the child that’s been missing for so long you begin to wonder if you’re ever going to find them; the pregnant hostage with a knife against her jugular; or the unsuspecting family who’s about to learn that a loved one has just been killed. Those are the calls that haunt you. That keep you awake at night.

  That leave you with that cold, dark, hollow feeling.

  Those calls are the reasons I write my novels.

  I guess writing is more than an obsession, it’s a compulsion. But a necessary one. Homicide Detective Jacob Striker is my release valve. Without him, my boiler would eventually burst. So thanks, Jacob.

  My fan base sends me a ton of email on him – on whether or not Striker is a collection of cops, one of my former mentors, or just some hero I’ve constructed.

  The truth is simple: Out of all the characters I’ve created, Striker is the most like me, except he handles things the way most cops would like to – immediately, directly, in a no-nonsense fashion.

  And to Hell with the consequences.

  The thought makes me smile. How nice that simplicity would be.

  As I write this feed, I am actually taking a break from my current work. The Guilty is about to be released in the United Kingdom, Monster is in the hands of my editor, and The Burden, is a third done.

  It sounds like a lot of work, especially when piled on top of all the other issues us cops have to endure – the mandatory call-outs, the unwanted court subpoenas, the required upgrade and qualification courses, and of course the never-ending slew of police files that dominate your every waking hour. (Actually it is a lot of work, now that I think of it! Jeez!)

  But in the end, the writing is the one thing I enjoy most. It is my freedom from the cold realities of policing. It is the purest form of escapism. And it is without a doubt the cheapest therapy on the market.

  Hell, it even pays.

  And all that aside, it is simply just…needed. Otherwise something would eventually give in, bend, snap, or burst inside of me. And I would break down.

  Why?

  It’s pretty simple, really.

  It’s the bad things…they never really leave you.

Sean Slater is a real life cop in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. In his line of work he has investigated everything from gang warfare, fraud and extortion to homicide. His Jacob Striker series blisters with authenticity. Read Sean’s latest novel, The Guilty, out now.