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

the attendees started to file
out. Jason and Miranda came and sat down next to me, as I was sure they would. They
were the only people I really thought of as friends here, although I was still
kind of pissed at Jason. He’d been the one who had brought the Anita Collins
case to me, and that had been a debacle. It wasn’t really his fault, but I’d
still been pretty mad at him about it. “So,” Jason said. “Your face.”
    “Jumped
through a window,” I said. “Long story.” I told them about it.
    Jason shook
his head while Miranda chuckled. “That’s so you ,” Miranda said.
    “I guess
it is,” I said. It wasn’t like I could argue with them. Jumping through a
window wasn’t anywhere close to the most insane thing I’d ever done. I looked
around. “Where’s Paul today? He never misses a meeting.”
    Jason
looked away. “He’s in the hospital,” Miranda said.
    “Oh?” I
asked. “Is everything all right?”
    “It’s
his liver,” Jason said. He shook his head. “Things don’t look good.”
    My heart
sank. “He’s been sober for twenty years,” I said. “More than that.”
    “Yeah.”
Miranda sighed. “The damage was done. It just took a long time to catch up with
him.”
    I looked
at the floor. What was I supposed to say? That Paul was living through my worst
fear? “I guess it gets all of us in the end,” I said.
    “Some of
us, anyway,” Miranda said. “He’s a candidate for  a transplant, though, so
there’s hope.”
    “At
least there’s that,” Jason said. “I have to tell you, I hope I never end up
like that. Have you ever seen someone die of liver failure?”
    “No,” I said.
“I’m guessing it’s pretty rough, though. You?”
    “My
uncle.” Jason shook his head. “It took a long time. Your liver dies and then you
have to wait for your body to catch up to it. It’s terrible. If it was me I
think I’d just put a gun in my mouth.”
    Truth be
told, I’d probably do the same thing. I guessed I’d be finding out in a few
years. Or whenever the hospital called with my test results. That could only be
bad news, after all.
    “You
should go see him,” Miranda said.
    “I’m not
much for hospitals,” I said. Besides that, I couldn’t imagine what I’d be able
to say that would have made him feel better. I was pretty damn far from a ray
of sunshine, and that was on my best day. It had been a while since I’d had a
best day.
    “He’s in
good spirits,” Jason said. “He was cracking jokes when I was in there last week.”
    I nodded
half-heartedly, hoping that would be taken as a sign of my acquiescence and that
the conversation would be over. “Let me ask you something,” I said. “Do either
of you have three unsolved murders on your desks? They might be linked, or
maybe they wouldn’t, but there’s just something off about them?”
    “Here we
go,” Jason said. “Nevada’s back on the job again.”
    “I’m
just looking into something,” I said. “And I’d rather Dan Evans didn’t find out
about it.”
    “What
are you into, Nevada?” Miranda asked.
    I told
them about what had happened with Krystal. It wasn’t a pleasant story, but it
was a good excuse to stop talking about Paul being in the hospital. When I was
done Miranda bit her lip. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll mention this to Dan if I
see him.”
    “Why
not?” Jason asked. “It’s not a secret that he wants you back in the department.”
    “Well,
I’m not going back,” I said. “And he’ll be pretty pissed if he finds out I’m
running around working cases behind his back.”
    “Fair
enough,” Jason said. “Well, sorry, but I don’t have anything like that.”
    “Me,
neither,” Miranda said. “I haven’t even heard of anything that fits your
description. Do you think Krystal was on the level?”
    “I
don’t  know,” I said. “I think so, but it’s hard to say for sure.”
    “Could
have been trying to scam you,” Jason said. He put a hand on my forearm. The
violation