1. What is your name? Do you have a nickname?

Hi, I’m Will Mansion. And I have a sort of nickname. Frankly, I find it embarrassing but if you hang around our bullpen you’ll hear Grady, one of the other detectives, call me Chick Magnet.

2. Who is your best friend? What kinds of things do you do when you’re together?

It’s difficult to make friends when you’re a cop. I work such irregular hours it’s hard to get together with anyone except the other detectives. If I can catch a break I grab some time at the Kaffeteria coffeehouse. Dunk—that’s Duncan Phyffe, the owner—he’s a good guy. He’s been supportive of me. I’d say he’s the closest I’ve got to a civilian friend.

3. If you have a family, how do you get along with them? If you don’t, are there people in your life that you consider family? How do you get along with them?

I’d have to say my “family” is other cops. They understand the pressure we’re under. They have your back and you have theirs. Can’t get much closer than that.

4. Do you have a birthmark? Scars? Where is it? How did you get it?

It’s not a scar, exactly. It’s a tattoo. A lotus blossom. It’s, uh, below my navel. The artist was a suspect. I was high at the time. Oh, jeez, I’d rather not recall how I got it. I don’t like to think about that or talk about it.

5. When you’re angry, what do you do? Where do you go? How do you deal with your anger?

These days I’m trying hard to get on top of my emotions by meditating. I began the exercise thinking it would help me to manage my PTSD. It doesn’t much but that’s my fault. I need more practice.

6. If you had to make me a meal right now, without going to the store, what would you find in your refrigerator to feed us?

Do I have a refrigerator? We’d go out. Paradise City has a lot of eateries.

7. What’s the one thing you’re afraid of losing?

My life. Because I did, once. I was shot in the line of duty and I did die. The EMTs resuscitated me and a surgeon got me back on my feet. I do NOT want to go through that again.

8. What makes you laugh out loud?

Some of the people we run into. The things they try to get away with. I admit, it’s a sardonic laugh. And life played a big trick on me. When I realized what a fool I’d been, I laughed out loud. At myself.

9. Has anyone broken your heart? Who was she?

I do dream about a different life, with a wife, a house out in the country, kids. If I could find the right girl. I’m embarrassed to say that yeah, I fell hard for a gal once. She turned out to be not at all who I thought she was. How’s that go? Burned once, twice shy.

10. What’s the one thing you want out of life that you don’t think you can have? Why can’t you have it?

I’d like to be free of this PTSD. When I have a flashback … Ugh. I’ve tried counseling, medication. Counseling didn’t accomplish a thing and the meds left me all drugged up. Now I’m trying Zen meditation. But I dunno. It may not be curable. I may have to learn to live with it.

About Author Devorah Fox…

It’s said of Devorah Fox that she writes outside the box. Its feelings hurt, the box gets up and stomps off. So she writes about that, too.A multi-genre author, she has written a best-selling epic fantasy series, “The Bewildering Adventures of King Bewilliam,” as well as an acclaimed mystery and a popular thriller, and co-authored a contemporary thriller with Jed Donellie. She contributed short stories to a variety of anthologies, penned several Mystery and Fantasy Short Reads, and has several five-star ghostwriting projects to her name. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she now lives on the Texas Gulf Coast with rescued tabby cats … and a dragon named Inky.