Page 53 of Nightcrawler

He tapped the yellow pad a couple of times. “Make sure you mention that he came on to you multiple times as well.”

I nodded, feeling the tears welling up again. “I’ll try to remember, Cassidy. He was a good nurse for my nana which is why I never reported him. I thought they were harmless flirtations but now, I’m not so sure.”

“Okay.” He stood up and patted my shoulder as I looked up at him. “I’m going to go and talk to Mike and the lieutenant, just like I said. Everything will be okay, Raven. Just tell the truth, try and be comprehensive in everything you say, and what words were exchanged between you and Jeffries. I’ll be back.”

“Okay, Cassidy.” I looked up at him. “This is going to be all right? If I get arrested, I’ll lose my security clearance with GMS and they’ll fire me…and Miguel…he’s homeless now which is why he stayed over.” I thought of something. “Oh! He moved some boxes to my garage yesterday, but I couldn’t help him with the footlocker for obvious reasons.” I waved in the vicinity of my midsection.

“Sure,” Cassidy said. “What can I do?”

“I can tell it’s incredibly important to him but it’s not secure.”

“Where is it?” Cassidy asked with a frown.

“In the bed of his pickup which is parked in front of my house. He was going to put it in the garage with the help of my gardener, Jesus, when he came to do the yard this morning, but then the police came, and I guess you know the rest.”

Cassidy smiled, patting my shoulder again. “I’ll make a call and have someone take care of it.” He thought for a second. “You have a nurse at the house to answer the door to give them access to the garage, right?”

“Yes, her name is Dolly, but she might be skittish. She just started as Ned’s replacement this morning only to see me being locked in the back of a police cruiser, so she might not let anyonein. I tried to tell her but once she got to the house, those cops were assholes and barely let me say goodbye to my nana, much less give Dolly any instructions about her care. They’re terrible people.”

“Some of ‘em can be jerks, that’s true. Write a note to her and tell her a couple of friends of yours will be coming by to move Miguel’s footlocker into the garage. We’ll take care of it or have friends with badges do that for you.”

I smiled, thankful that Cassidy was a wonderful friend. “I can’t tell you how much your help means to me, Cassidy.” I paused for a second. “You and Mike have helped me so many times over the years and I know I’ve been remiss in our friendship.” I felt the tears again. “I should have treasured you so much more.”

He smiled. “That’s okay, Raven. We never felt like you or your work with GMS was an imposition to us, and we kind of like you too. Don’t say anything more about it, okay?” At my nod, he pointed at the yellow pad. “Go ahead. Write the note.”

I scribbled quickly, signing the bottom of it, and then handed it to Cassidy who folded it up. I’d managed to tell Dolly what my nana liked to eat and that I’d try and be in touch later in the day, though, it might not be until tonight. I was embarrassed all over again as I watched Cassidy walk out the door and lock it behind him. I spared a moment to glance around the stinky room one more second before tucking into my task with gusto, trying not to leave out a single thing.

MIGUEL

I was fuming as I sat in the room writing out the statement Mike Williams had asked me to put on paper. After I’d told him what happened, Mike had instructed me to write it alldown, including elaborating on why I’d threatened to “end” Ned Jeffries. As I accounted for all my time since meeting Ned, I realized there was only one period of time in which I had been alone all day. It had been the time between seeing my landlord, and Vonne a few hours later.

During that gap in time, I had no alibi, and unfortunately, it had been plenty of time to find Ned and beat him. I knew any good prosecutor would argue that due to the fact that I worked for a skip tracer, tracking Ned wouldn’t have been an arduous task on my part. That meant if I wasn’t believed, I’d be fucked and could go to prison. I felt a lot better every time I remembered Cassidy and Mike were my friends and that they’d go to extraordinary lengths to get to the truth, hopefully, making a fool out of Ned when they found out who had really beaten him. Personally, I’d come out of torture dens in the Mideast looking a lot better than that fucker had in the photos I’d finally been shown.

I’d been in the room the better part of two hours when the door opened and Mike returned, this time with Cassidy. They held some paperwork in their hands. “Finish your statement?” Mike asked.

“Right here.” I pushed the yellow pad and pen toward him. I’d used seven pages to write everything out longhand.

“Good,” he said, picking up the pad and looking it over before passing it to Cassidy. He read through it before looking up.

“There’s some time when you were alone.”

“Right. I used it to pack up my place.” I looked at Mike. “You told Cass about being evicted which is why I’m staying at Raven’s place?”

Mike nodded. “Yep.”

“So, you packed up boxes and then your friend, Vonne showed up to help you load them and the footlocker in your truck.”

“Yes.” I’d been totally truthful. I knew I was in trouble if they decided to question me further about it. When Cassidy smiled, it felt like all the breath left my body.

“Okay then,” he said. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“Just like that?” I asked, feeling shell shocked. “I thought someone was going to interview me?”

“The chief of detectives and my lieutenant read the statement Raven wrote out and agreed that if yours matched his except for the time when you were apart, of course, then, you could go,” Cassidy said.

“They can still bring you and Raven back for questions if our interview with this Ned dude turns out to be the least bit credible,” Mike added. “He won’t be in for his interview until tomorrow, so you can go home and come back if we think that’s merited. Personally, we don’t even think that will be necessary.”

I felt the breath whoosh out of my body. I’d gone numb with worry and if I didn’t have to pee as badly as I did, I wouldn’t have known I was human at all. “I can go home just like that?” I asked again.

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