Page 3 of Nightcrawler

“Did you kill him?” Cassidy asked with a laugh.

Mathis turned and looked at me, grinning widely before hooking a thumb in my direction. “Huerta thinks he’s a linebacker, I guess.”

Cassidy chuckled as Mike walked over and bent to roll Trench to his back before checking the pulse in his neck.

“Why’d you go and do a thing like that, Miguel?” Cassidy asked, reaching out to squeeze me on the bicep.

“Name’s Trigg,” I grumbled.

“The fuck it is, Miguel,” Cassidy said. “Don’t forget, Iknowyou.” He slung an arm over my shoulder.

I nodded. I couldn’t have forgotten how he knew me or what I owed Cassidy if I’d wanted to. He and I had a long history born of blood, fear, and respect, and I would always be grateful that he’d taken me under his wing after the horrible night when my life had ended.

“It wasn’t on purpose, Cassidy,” I explained, not liking the fact that these two detectives—whom I considered friends—had clearly been called by Mathis prior to his arrival. I really hated the fact that they all seemed so friendly and that I was the one who looked like a jerk here. I dragged my gaze away from Cassidy’s beautiful Kelly-green eyes who saw everything and kicked at the ground. “I didn’t see him,” I said, gesturing in Mathis’ direction. “Came out of nowhere and before I could take Trench down, he had two darts in his stomach. I…ah…kinda tackled ‘em both.”

Cassidy squeezed my shoulder again and let go. We both turned and watched Mike hand Trench off to two patrol officers who’d driven up in a black and white. Cassidy turned to look over at Mathis who stood talking to Mike before glancing back at me. “You wanna grab breakfast? Mike’s on some kind of keto diet and I’m loving it since all Zack wants to feed me is vegetables since he turned fifty.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, he probably wants to keep you around for a few years and old guys have to watch what they eat…oatmeal and all that.”

“Shut up,” Cassidy said, poking me in the rib and making me laugh.

“I’m just saying, dentures and all, Cass. Pretty soon you’ll have to gum all your food, so enjoy keto while you can.”

“Oh, my God, I’m gonna kill you.” He fake punched at me, and I laughed, holding up both fists as I feinted back, feeling oddlyhappy. He and Mike were the only two people other than Jamie who managed to drag out that elusive of all emotions in me. “So, you coming for breakfast?”

I glanced at Raven Mathis, noticing how he and Mike were looking in our direction as the patrolmen put their detainee in the back of their patrol car. If there was a chance the man was going to be joining us, I wasn’t into that. Besides, I’d just lost out on the possibility of getting that ten grand reward and had to face Jamie when I got back to the office. I’d have to convince him I’d get another shot at recovering the diamond. But that supposed he wasn’t carrying it on his person…because if he was, Mathis was going to claim the bounty.

I shook my head. “No, I have things to do, Cass,” I said, watching Mike and Mathis walking over.

“Breakfast?” Mike asked, sounding hopeful as he hooked both thumbs in the built-in waistband of his Haggar Expandomatic slacks and hoisting them up over his paunch before they rolled right back down to where they’d been a second ago.

“Not today, Mike,” I said, reaching out and shaking his hand before looking at Mathis. I frowned. “And thanks for fucking up my recovery, Mathis.” Before he could answer, I spun on my heel and headed back across Hollywood Boulevard to my truck, climbed in, and drove away, cursing the handsome, black-haired devil who’d stolen my bounty.

Present day

I sighed, staring up at the ceiling, remembering the way Raven Mathis had flashed that wide grin at me as I drove away, showing me a set of twin dimples on his handsome face. I never had recovered the diamond—nor had anyone else—and poor Lyle Trench had met his end a mere few weeks later froman overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl. The reward was still out there but Jamie had long ago given up on the diamond’s recovery, along with all the other bounty hunters on the streets.

It was easy for me to hate Mathis all over again for costing me a small fortune—one I’d desperately needed at the time. I hadn’t run into him again, but I still thought of him.

It was hard to get a man like him out of my mind. At nearly my height of six-four with hair as dark and shiny as a raven’s wing—and no doubt the source of what I figured was Mathis’ nickname—I still wished he was ugly and not the grinning movie star, dashing, blue-eyed man he was.

My luck was totally shit.

I rolled over and stared at my alarm clock’s red LED digits but the display only reminded me of sitting there, waiting in my truck on Vine and staring at the spire on top of the Capitol Records building with its flashing red light. I remembered thinking there was a pattern to the blinking light and then almost smiled to myself when I realized someone had programed the light to blink outHollywoodin Morse Code. I should have been paying more attention to the street.

That night, after losing out on my bounty and after enduring Jamie’s fifteen-minute tirade, I’d gone home to research the light out of sheer curiosity. I’d learned that in 1992, Capitol Records’ fiftieth anniversary year, the light had been changed to blink out “Capitol 50” and then again in 2013 to spell out Katy Perry prior to her album release.

I pushed thoughts of Raven Mathis out of my head, knowing I might be coming face to face with him again in the morning and really hoped I wouldn’t.

In any case, this time I promised myself I’d beat him to my bounty…and this time, it would bemybounty.

Chapter Two

RAVEN

Book title: Mobile Dick

Author: Anna Groves

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