Con Job by keerawa (NC-17)

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Con Job by Keerawa (NC-17)
Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Author's Website: Keerawa's due South Index
Author on LJ: keerawa

Why this must be read:

keerawa is a new-ish face in the due South fandom, and right from the start her work blew me away. She's got a tough, black-as-night hardboiled style that always makes me think of Hammett and Chandler, and I think "Con Job" is one of her finest stories. It's gritty, gripping and asks some tough questions about one of the fandom's most popular characters. Ray Kowalski's gift for undercover work gets him in trouble in this story, and Keerawa explores some tough questions about the way Ray has handled himself on the job in the past, and in his current assignment as Det. Ray Vecchio. Keerawa creates a fabulous original character in Cash, Kowaski's former "in" on an undercover job, a man he manipulated and used and still thinks about from time to time, and Ray's relationship with Fraser is wonderfully troubled, too. I haven't looked quite the same way at Ray Kowalski since I read this story, and I'm still shocked by how effective Keerawa's sharp, punchy pacing and terrific gift for detail is when combined with such an intense character study.

It's a dark story with a bittersweet ending, but like the rest of Keerawa's stuff it's absolutely worth the trip. She has also recorded a podfic version of the story, and if you're so inclined (or even if you're not) I suggest you give it a listen. Still not sold?



Ray grabbed the Zippo out of his coat pocket, opened the window, and stepped out onto the fire escape. Back inside, his phone rang. Ray slammed the window shut; the machine could get it. He sat down, legs dangling over the edge, and tapped a cigarette out of the pack. Ray lit up, then instantly pulled the thing out of his mouth and spat off the side of the fire escape. Stale cigarettes. Great. Still, something was better than nothing.

Just last week, Fraser had protected him from Cahill, from both sides of the law. Fraser said he knew Ray wasn't guilty of killing Volpe. Not 'cause he had proof, or anything. No. Just because Ray was his partner and his friend.

That should feel good, right?

Nah. Felt like shit. It meant Fraser was just another goddamned mark, like all the rest. Ray inhaled a big first lungful of smoke. Christ, he needed that.

'Undercover work is simple enough', Sam Franklin had told him once. 'All you have to do is find out what people want, give it to them until they trust you, and then screw them over.' Sam was right. Undercover was easy, and Ray was good at it. Stella wanted a hero, a tough guy to protect her and piss off her parents, and that's what she got, until she didn't buy his act anymore. Cash wanted a buddy, and he got one. Fraser walked in so desperate for his partner that Ray could taste it. "You set 'em up, I knock 'em down," a little riff about a duet, and he was in.

Ray'd warned Fraser in that crypt. He'd told him he was a con job. But did he listen? No. No he did not. Fraser just reeled off a bunch of citations from Ray's file, and said he was proud to be his partner and friend. So from then on Ray was playing Fraser's partner and his friend. Being whatever Fraser needed. That was his job.

Ray lit a second cigarette from the end of his first. He didn't usually chain-smoke, but this seemed like the night for it.

Con Job by Keerawa.