Honour Among Men (45 page)

September 10, 1995
.

I haven't looked at this diary in two years. Got home from Croatia, stuck it in the bottom drawer, and tried to forget about it. Just like I tried to forget about Croatia
.

Dad's really proud of my medal, and everybody down home
wants to talk to me about it. But what the hell can I say? It's a lie. I'm an imposter, and I can hardly stand to listen to praise of what I did, let alone talk about it. The army paraded me in front of the other units and the press, but the guys who really mattered—Blakeley, the Hammer—were never there
.

So my medal sits with this diary in the bottom of the drawer, and I thought today would be a good day to look at them. Two years to the day since I rescued those Serbs. Almost two years since we beat the shit out of the Croats and moved into Medak, only to find they'd already destroyed the place. Three hundred Serbs killed without a trace
.

Almost two years since I made those Croat soldiers pay the price. These past two years, I've hoped that maybe some good came of what we did. That maybe we'd helped them all feel more secure and find a better way to get along. Yesterday I read an article in the paper about Srebrenica, a village in Bosnia that the Serbs invaded while the Dutch
UN
peacekeepers stood by and watched. Over eight thousand Muslim boys and men have vanished without a trace
.

Fuck it
.

Barbara Fradkin
was born in Montreal and obtained her PhD in psychology. Her work as a child psychologist has provided ample inspiration and insight for plotting murders.

Barbara has an affinity for the dark side, and her compelling short stories haunt several anthologies and magazines.

All of her novels feature the exasperating Ottawa Police Inspector Green, whose love of the hunt often interferes with family, friends and police protocol. The four other novels in the series are
Do or Die
(2000),
Once Upon a Time
(2002),
Mist Walker
(2003) and
Fifth Son
(2004).
Once Upon a Time
was shortlisted for Best Novel at the Arthur Ellis Awards, Canada's most prestigious crime writing awards.
Fifth Son
and
Honour Among Men
both won the top prize, in 2005 and 2007.