Short Story Wednesday: "Lucky Dip" by Liza Cody

A few weeks ago I transferred a group of books from one wire cube to a new improved one. In the back of the cube, I discovered some books I had forgotten I had. One of them was A Woman's Eye, an anthology of short stories published in 1991 and edited by Sara Paretsky. That book consists of 21 short stories by women; the stories all feature female sleuths. The first story in the book is "Lucky Dip" by Liza Cody."Lucky Dip" by Liza CodyThe primary character in this story is a homeless young woman, Crystal, eighteen years old, who supports herself by begging for handouts or looking for food in dumpsters. One night she happens upon the body of dead man. He is dressed well; she quickly takes his wallet and his watch and leaves the area. When she discovers that the wallet has a lot of money in it she is pleased, but there is a downside, because the bills are too large for her to spend without getting into trouble. The other downside is that now she has people looking for her, thinking that…