Read While the Savage Sleeps for Free Online Page A

Ryan’s parents?”
    “ My daughter?” she said, then snorted. “Haven’t seen hide nor hair of her in years. Heard she’s living somewhere in Arizona. As for the father, well, we never figured out who he even was.”
    “ Why did your daughter leave?”
    “ She didn’t leave—not really. County took him away.” Bobbi pulled another drag from her cigarette, rolled her eyes, then forced the smoke out through her mouth. Her tone was singsong. “It’s a long story. If ya got a few hours, I’ll tell ya ‘bout it. Otherwise, I’ll just give you the short version and say she wasn’t fit to raise a canary, let alone a child.”
    “ Drugs?”
    “ Ha!” she said with a deep cackle that morphed into a wet cough. “Drugs, drinking, gambling, men, you name it, she had her hands full of it. A real winner, my daughter.”
    “ How old was Ryan?”
    Bobbi looked toward the ceiling and moved her lips as if counting. “I wanna say … yeah, when Ryan was ten. She tried to make a go at parenting. Failed miserably, of course.”
    “ What happened?”
    “ Went out to get stoned one night—or whatever she was into at the time—and left Ryan at home all by himself.” She took another quick drag, then spoke, exhaling simultaneously. “Used to do it all the time. Well, that time it was one too many. Ryan got into some kinda trouble—can’t remember what—and a neighbor called the cops. When she finally came home, the boy was gone, and there was a nice little letter from the county stuck to her front door.
    “ And then you got him?” Cameron asked.
    “ Not right away. There were hearings in front of the judge. Don’t think she even showed up. Pathetic. I was there, of course, just like always. It was the least I could do. Poor kid. Wasn’t his fault his mother was such a screw-up. Anyway, surprise, surprise, they deemed her an unfit mother. And guess who they awarded custody to?”
    Cameron mindlessly watched the end of her cigarette; it was becoming long, the ash about to fall off. He nodded toward it. She looked down, flicked, sucked twice, and then put it out in a plate that looked like it had once accommodated something with mustard. A thick, creamy puff of smoke jumped from her mouth, then two thinner jets rushed from her nostrils.
    “ You didn’t want to take the boy?” he asked.
    “ Well, not at first. I hadn’t raised a kid in years.” She looked at him with a deadpan expression. “I wasn’t exactly up for Mother of The Year after my first tour of duty. I sure as hell wasn’t thrilled about having to do it all over again.”
    Cameron attempted a sympathetic smile.
    She reflected for a few seconds eyeing the pack of cigarettes as if contemplating another. “But Ryan, he was different. Kid’ll grow on ya if ya let him. Cute, too. Real sweet. And smart? Oh, you shoulda seen him. Don’t know where that came from. Sure didn’t get it from this side of the family.”
    “ Did his learning disability cause him much trouble?”
    “ Oh, I knew it hadda be somethin’. He was too smart to be pullin’ the kind of shitty…” she stopped, smiled, then corrected herself, “… bad marks he was gettin’. I figgered either he was goofin’ off too much, or there was somethin’ else wrong.”
    “ The dyslexia,” Cameron suggested.
    She moved her index finger around in circles beside her head. “Head problems. They finally figgered it out … the geniuses .”
    “ And that’s how he met Alma Gutierrez.”
    Bobbi grew quiet all of a sudden, and her eyes began to glisten. She reached for another cigarette, lit it fast—something to comfort herself. “Yeah, that’s when everything went all wrong. He liked her. Talked about her all the time. I just don’t understand how he could—”
    “ He never displayed any sort of violent behavior?”
    “ Ryan?” She looked at him as if the question were absurd. “Never. He was a pussycat. Wouldn’t think of hurting a soul.”
    A pussycat who sliced his