Page 73 of Nightcrawler

“Only when they have events,” Cassidy said. “You’ve never been to the Ventura County Fair?”

“I have,” Raven said, grinning. He looked so beautiful in the dawning light of day; it took my breath away. When I glanced back at Cassidy and Mike, I could see that they’d recognized the look I gave him and oddly enough, I didn’t care if they knew Raven was mine. I figured they already knew. I was crazy about him, and I wanted to shout my feelings to the whole world.

By six, the parking lot was busy with vendors who were unpacking their crates and boxes filled with whatever treasures they’d be selling. While we’d waited, Cassidy had run a description of Allcott’s vehicle and had been checking every van, car, and truck that had driven onto the lot. He’d relayed it to the others who’d managed to climb the roofs of the pavilions, somehow without any visible climbing gear, at least I hadn’t noticed any bulges in the baggy camouflage jackets they all wore. These guys were good.

Allcott drove a blue Dodge van—the old, big, boxy type—and we’d been watching for it as well as checking out everyone whowalked across to the vendor and fairground entrances, both of which we could see from our vantage point.

At six-thirty, we decided it best to get out of the cruiser and fan out across the front of the building. Since we were all dressed casually, we blended well with the crowd. Raven and I took up positions farthest away from the security officers checking vendor badges and tickets and waited. We were separated by about seventy-five feet, but we could still see each other. Cassidy and Mike were positioned at an equal interval between us, leaving no more than twenty-five feet between any one of us.

When I looked up toward the pavilions themselves, I caught sight of Jarrett’s snow-white head only once. I did wonder how they got this sanctioned and coordinated but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He must have been lying on his belly along with the others because I hadn’t been able to spot either Mac or Thayne.

The event started at eight and by seven forty-five, I was growing very anxious. “No one’s seen this guy?” I asked.

“Negative,” came the responses from everyone in the earwigs.

“This metal roof sucks,” Jarrett drawled. “My balls are icicles.”

I chuckled.

“He must have gotten past us,” Mike grumbled. “It takes time to set up a booth. My daughter sells candles at these things, and it takes her a good hour and a half to wheel her crates in and unpack to set up her tables.”

“Fuck,” Thayne said. “I can see the whole fairgrounds from where I’m at, though. Good call on having us take a position up high, Cassidy.”

“Still haven’t seen anyone matching Allcott’s description enter the East pavilion,” McCallahan said.

“Same here with the West pavilion,” Jarrett drawled.

“Could we have missed him somehow?” Raven asked.

I glanced in his direction and noticed him lift his hands in a “where is he?” gesture.

I shook my head. “Don’t know. Maybe we got this all wrong and Allcott isn’t going to be here,” I said in the earwig. “Fuck!” I watched Cassidy shake his head.

“Stay on task, Marine. This is our best chance,” Cassidy said in a commanding voice. He sounded like my lieutenant.

I nodded back to him. “Will do, SEAL.”

By eight, the general public began pouring into the fairgrounds as attendants in bright orange vests waved cars into parking spaces.

“Let’s go inside,” Mike said in the earwig. “We missed him somehow.”

I glanced at him, standing some fifty feet away from me and nodded. “Let’s go.”

“You keep watching from height,” Cassidy said. Affirmatives from the three men on the roofs came back as the rest of us began walking toward each other, gathering at the front entrance.

“We need to buy tickets to get in,” Mike pointed out. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“We should flash our badges at the vendor entrance,” Cassidy said. “They’ll let us in.”

I walked up to him, reaching into my shirt and pulling out my bounty hunter badge, which hung on a chain. “Do I need to showthis to get in?” I glanced at Raven who had a badge in his wallet on display.

Cassidy smiled. “That’ll work. These security guys won’t know the difference if Mike and I go first.” I nodded and the four of us walked up to one of the security guys at the vendor gate.

“LAPD,” Cassidy announced.

“Go ahead,” the guy said, waving him through. He did the same with the rest of us.

“We’re in, guys,” Cassidy said in the earwigs. “Now, to find Allcott.”

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