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Denial by Kathleen Ryan

The convenience store clerk recognized the voice of the ski-masked robber as one of his regulars.

“Leon, why are you robbing me? Why would you do such a thing?” he asked.

The criminal insisted, “It ain’t me! It ain’t me!” as he held the gun pointed towards his friend.





Kathleen Ryan is a retired police officer, currently working on a true crime memoir. She studied Memoir with Frank McCourt at the 2007 Southampton Writers Conference. He suggested she write about a 911 call she handled in 1989; her essay, "The Watcher," placed third in the Creative Nonfiction category of the Public Safety Writers Association's 2009 Writing Competition and will appear in an upcoming issue of The Southampton Review. Kathleen recently placed in the Top 20 with her 25-word story, "Playing With Matches," which will appear in a Hint Fiction Anthology, edited by Robert Swartwood, to be published by W.W. Norton in Fall of 2010. Kathleen blogs at www.womenofmystery.net with fellow members of the NYC/Tristate chapter of Sisters in Crime.