Free The Night Monster by James Swain

been a cop, I would have strung yellow crime-scene tape across the door, the place was such a disaster. Along with ruining my bed, plus the dresser and night table,Buster had chewed a hole in the wall through which the ocean air was now blowing. All of the furniture would have to be replaced, the wall fixed, and the room repainted.
    “How much do you think this is going to cost?” I asked.
    “A couple of grand, easy,” Sonny replied.
    “I’ve got nine hundred bucks to my name. Can you lend me the rest? I’ll pay you back. You know I’m good for it.”
    Sonny shook his head from side to side. “I’d give you the money if I thought it would do any good.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “It’s over, Jack.”
    “What’s over?”
    “Ralph’s in town for his monthly visit. He’s coming by later to check up on things. He’s going to see this and go ape shit.”
    Ralph was the Sunset’s long-distance owner, a nasty New York banker who enjoyed yanking Sonny’s chain. Ralph had not wanted to rent me the room because of Buster, but had decided that having an ex-cop living above the bar was a good insurance policy.
    “Can’t you hide the damage from him?” I asked.
    “How am I going to do that?”
    “I don’t know, say you’re having the room fumigated.”
    “Ralph always checks the building, Jack. He’s going to see this, and then he’ll explode. You know how he is.”
    “There must be something we can do.”
    “Like what? Join the Foreign Legion?”
    My cell phone chimed. It was Black Cloud calling me back. I answered.
    “I’ve gotten clearance for you to visit the Hard Rock’s surveillance control room,” Black Cloud said. “The surveillance director said you can come in, and he’ll help you find the guy who was stalking the college students. How soon can you get over here?”
    I hesitated. I needed to clean up Buster’s mess, and salvage my situation with the Sunset. But at the same time, if I didn’t get over to the Hard Rock, I’d lose my chance to learn the identity of one of Sara Long’s abductors.
    “I’m on my way,” I said.
    “Call me when you’re near, and I’ll come downstairs to greet you.”
    “I will. Thanks, Chief.”
    I said good-bye and folded my phone. Sonny had grabbed the mattress and was struggling to pull it back onto the bed. I went to the doorway and saw him glare at me.
    “Don’t tell me you’re leaving,” Sonny said.
    “I have to. I’m on a case.”
    “You’re not going to help me clean this place up?”
    “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
    Sonny pulled the mattress onto the bed and began shoving the stuffing back into it.
    “Take your stuff,” he said.
    I froze in the doorway. “Are you evicting me?”
    “No, but Ralph will, and then you’ll have to come back and get your things. Take them now, Jack. It will be easier.”
    “You don’t know what Ralph will do. He might just laugh it off.”
    “Fat chance. Take your stuff, or Ralph will throw it in the Dumpster.”
    The finality in his voice was unmistakable, and I realized that this was the end. I had lived above the Sunset for over a year. Sonny and the good-natured drunks who supported the bar had always been there for me. The Sunset was my home, and they were my friends, and it had just gone up in flames. I grabbed my clothes out of the closet along with a cardboard box that contained my old cop stuff and headed for the stairwell.
    “Wait,” Sonny said.
    From the night table he picked up the stack of missing person files that had been my bedtime reading. Then he went into the bathroom and grabbed my shaving kit.
    “Don’t forget these,” he said.
    Sonny crossed the room and handed the items to me. His eyes mirrored the pain that I was feeling. I wasn’t just losing a friend; I was losing one of my best friends. Sonny patted Buster, then gave me a bear hug.
    “Good luck, man,” he said.

CHAPTER 14
    threw my worldly possessions into my car and drove to the Hard Rock. Traffic on 595 was the