Read Online Scars (Nevada James #2) (Nevada James Mysteries) by Matthew Storm - Free Book Online Page A

the Glock again. “You know something funny, Nevada? That looks like a
Glock, and I can’t seem to remember giving you a Glock.”
    “You
didn’t. The Glock fits my hand better. The .45 you gave me is in the
nightstand.”
    “You
don’t like the .45?”
    “I never
said I didn’t like it, but it’s huge. You might as well have gotten me a
shotgun.”
    “You’re
getting a shotgun when you move into your house,” he said.
    “Funny
man.”
    “You
think I was kidding?” he asked. He picked up the Glock and looked it over. “This
one of the new 19’s?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Is it
legal for you to have it?”
    “Possession
is nine tenths of the law.”
    Dan
looked up at me. “Do I even want to know where you got this thing?”
    “No.”
    He
sighed and put it back down, then sat on the bed next to it. “We should talk.”
    I took
one of the motel chairs near the window. “Dan, you know I love you, but you are
getting very close to pissing me off with this watchdog shit.”
    He
looked at me for a long moment, probably trying to size me up. “Sarah told me
she had you come out to the crime scene.”
    “Yeah.
You mad about that? It was a possible Laughing Man case, and I’m more or less
the expert on those. It was the right call.”
    “That
much I know.”
    “Then
what? You thought I’d see the dead guy’s face and start having flashbacks? I
don’t have PTSD.”
    “You
absolutely have PTSD,” Dan said. “You have so much PTSD they should name a new
variety of it for you.”
    I
shrugged. The point wasn’t worth arguing, and he was probably right, anyway.
“Well, I didn’t have any flashbacks. I don’t wake up in cold sweats. I have
been having these recurring nightmares, though…”
    Dan
leaned forward. “About him?”
    “No,” I
said. “I keep dreaming that California gets invaded by these robot people from
another dimension and I have to lead a resistance movement to fight them. And I
make friends with a werewolf.” I shook my head. “I can’t imagine what it
means.”
    “For
god’s sake,” Dan sighed. “Can’t you be serious for five seconds?”
    “Nope.”
    “Of
course not,” he said. “Well, at least you’re sober.”
    “I am.
Want to ask me how much I’m enjoying it?”
    “I don’t
care how much you’re enjoying it.”
    I kind
of wanted to get on Dan’s case for barging in here this way, but the truth was
I deserved it. I’d put him through a lot. Dan was one of the only people that
had never given up on me, and I was a person who actually deserved to have been
given up on.
    “Anyway,”
he said, “I didn’t really think you were drinking.”
    “Then
what were you so worried about? Oh, of course. You were afraid you’d forget to
give me the souvenir you brought me from Santa Fe.” I looked at his suitcase.
“You are going to tell me there’s a souvenir in there, right? Is it a t-shirt?”
    “No.”
    “Is it a
mug?”
    “I
didn’t get you a souvenir, Nevada.”
    I
clucked my tongue at him. “It’s like you don’t care about me anymore,” I said.
“If I went to Santa Fe, I’d get you a souvenir.”
    “No, you
wouldn’t. Anyway, Sarah told me you looked over the crime scene.”
    “Of
course I looked over the crime scene. She didn’t ask me over there to perform
musical theater with them.”
    He
ignored my clever remark. “She said you told them it wasn’t the Laughing Man.”
    “It
wasn’t,” I said. “She knew it, too. I think she just wanted me to confirm it
before she made the call.”
    “And
when she called me afterward, she was worried about you. She said you were
completely emotionless about it. Like you didn’t give a shit. You looked at a
dead body and called it trash .”
    I tried
to resist the urge to roll my eyes. “Okay, that wasn’t my best choice of words
ever.”
    “She
said you were like a robot.”
    “Now
that’s just mean ,” I pouted. “I don’t know how I’m going to get to sleep
tonight after hearing