“Lucky Dip.” First appeared in A Woman’s Eye, edited by Sara Paretsky (Delacorte Press, 1991). Reprinted in Bad Behavior, edited by Mary Higgins Clark (Gulliver Books, 1995). Collected in Lucky Dip and Other Stories (Crippen & Landru, 2003). Winner of an Anthony for Best Short Story of the Year.

   As the leading protagonist of “Lucky Dip,” Crystal, who is merely eighteen, lives as much on the street and using her wits as anywhere else. But when she robs a dead man she finds in a bad section of town called the Trenches, she learns that fortune may actually have turned against her as quickly as her new gains have boosted her spirits.

   But only for the moment. Someone was responsible for the man’s death, and what she has taken from him they want very badly. And of course, on the other side are the police, and she knows better to take any chances with them.

   She is caught in a trap, in other words, one of her own making. But she is only eighteen and while the trap is truly and honestly a desperate one, she — who tells her own story — is not one to despair.

   She comes close, though.

   What struck me the most after finishing this one was not that the ending was not yet paved out for her, but that the story as it was told rang true all the way through. Crystal’s world is not an easy world to live in, but she’s used to it, and she’s a survivor.