Free Angels (Nevada James #3) (Nevada James Mysteries) by Matthew Storm Page A

do?”
    She
paused and I heard what might have been a grunt. “Well, I’ve got to finish
filing my nails, and then I’ll probably need another coffee. All right, fine.
Why not? I’ll see if I can dig something up.”
    “I
appreciate it.”
    “This
informant of yours…did you know her well?”
    “Not
really. I hadn’t even thought about her in years. Why?”
    “It’s
just…you seem to be taking it personally, Nevada. If she was just someone you
used to know, I’m wondering why.”
    With
almost any other person I’d have told them to mind their damn business. But
this was different. “Isn’t that what therapy is for, Sarah?”
    She
chuckled. “Yeah.”
    “I’ll
tell you this anyway. Krystal was trying to find me for…I don’t know how long.
If I’d called her back right away, she’d be alive. If I hadn’t…” I felt a lump
in my throat and made myself swallow it down. “If I hadn’t thought she might be
setting me up and met her at her house instead of insisting it be in a public
place, she’d be alive. If I’d gone looking for her maybe fifteen minutes
earlier than I did, she’d be alive. I’d have been there when the killer came
for her and I’d have blown her head off.” Sarah didn’t say anything. “Krystal’s
dead because of shit I didn’t do, Sarah. So I am taking it personally,
yeah.”
    “Yeah,”
Sarah said. “I guess I can understand that.”
    “Like I
said, if you ever want to talk. You aren’t the only person that lives with some
shit, Sarah. But that’s all I’ll say about it right now.”
    She went
quiet again, and then she simply said, “Thanks.”
    “You’re
welcome.”
    “I’ll
get on this as soon as I can. I can’t make any promises about time.”
    “It’s
fine,” I said. “I appreciate you doing anything. I don’t think I’m going to get
much out of anybody else in the department.”
    “You
aren’t.”
    That had
sounded pretty definite. “Oh?”
    “Dan’s
already told everyone you might be nosing around. If you do, we’re supposed to
tell him immediately so he can…I don’t know. Scold you?”
    I
couldn’t honestly have said I was surprised. “But you won’t tell him?”
    “Really,
Nevada? I couldn’t give a shit. I’ll be in touch.” And then she hung up on me.
    I spent
the next ten minutes thinking about what had just happened. Dan’s concerns
about Sarah hadn’t been unfounded. She sounded entirely too much like me. That
wasn’t a good thing. It had the potential to be very, very bad.
    But I
had no idea what to do about it.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8
     
     
    I decided
to head over to the food bank where Krystal had been picking up her groceries.
It wasn’t far from the place where she’d been squatting. I was surprised to see
that it was located in a small strip mall, though. I’d imagined a larger
building. When you think of a grocery store, you think of a place significantly
bigger than the two tiny Mexican restaurants that sat in either side of it. The
food bank couldn’t have been bigger than either of them.
    The
inside of the place was even more baffling. I’d expected aisles filled with
canned goods, but instead all I saw was a single counter and a door that led
into the back. That couldn’t possibly be for customers to go through, could it?
Did they pick out groceries back there?
    A tall
young man with long dark hair in a ponytail smiled at me when I stepped through
the door. He had a nametag that said “Rick” and a waxed handlebar moustache
that wasn’t doing his face any favors. “Welcome,” he said. “What can I help you
with?”
    I looked
around. There were a few generic inspirational posters on the walls that seemed
to promise that things would get better. I almost expected to see one with a
cat clinging to a branch with a caption that read “Hang in There.” I didn’t. I
actually hadn’t seen that poster in years. Did they still print them? Probably.
People loved cats and hanging in