I Never Thought I'd See You Again: A Novelists Inc. Anthology by Unknown

car are all shot up?”
    “My car? They messed with my car?”
    “Shot it up, burned it out. Cops just want to ask you questions.”
    “So they know Angel’s my kid?” Better his car than his daughter. But damn, why’d they have to destroy the Charger?
    “I don’t think they’ve made the connection.”
    “You don’t sound confident.”
    “Shit, Jake, I don’t know. The cops didn’t ask me about her. They just wanted to know where you were.”
    “And what’d you tell them?”
    “You’re on a job, I don’t know where the hell you are. It’s the truth, right?”
    “What’s the theory about the group home shooting?”
    “She’s wanted as an accomplice. They haven’t ID’d an your help.”d fasy of the shooters, but they have her name.”
    “That’s bullshit.”
    “Maybe you should call Burke.”
    Jake’s blood ran hot, then cold. “No.”
    “She lives for this shit.”
    “No.”
    “Just saying, she got you out of a couple jams, she can help your kid.”
    No way was Jake calling in defense attorney Madeleine Burke unless he absolutely had to. “Did you find out anything on Larson?”
    “Not much. Born and bred in the Valley. Rising star in the DA’s office.”
    “That’s it?”
    “That’s all I could find in the middle of the fucking night, Morrison.”
    “Find out what she does in her off hours. If she has vices she doesn’t want her boss to know about. Background. Everything.”
    “If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking — ”
    “Don’t think, just do.” Jake hung up.
    Lucky said, “Do you read the papers?”
    Jake glanced around at the tidy mess of newspaper. “Not if I can avoid it.”
    Lucky grabbed one near the top. “Saturday’s Times .” He flipped through most of it, then folded it over and pointed to a small box on the crime page. No photos, just two paragraphs.

Two bodies found in canal

Los Angeles — Late Thursday, a routine patrol found two bodies, an unidentified male and female, in a wash south of the Orange Line overcross. The coroner released a preliminary report Friday afternoon asking for help in identifying the victims, made more difficult by time spent underwater. He did not release the cause of death, and the murders are currently under investigation by the LAPD.

The female, Hispanic, approximately fifteen, has an elaborate cross tattoo down the center of her back. She was four months pregnant. The male, also Hispanic, approximately seventeen, had no distinguishing marks, but wore a gold chain around his neck and has three fingers on his left hand, possibly a birth defect. If anyone has information about this case, please contact the LAPD hotline, or the LA Medical Examiner’s Office.

    “Shit,” he muttered.
    “You think it’s her friend,” Lucky said.
    “Why would the gang kill one of their own? Family?”
    “Betrayal. Or it wasn’t the G-5 gang.”
    “Rivals? War? This is why I never worked the gang task force.”
    Lucky got up and stared at his bookshelf near the front door. He frowned. “Something’s missing.” He walked over and looked under papers. “My .22.”
    Jake saw five guns of all makes and models in his line of sight, without turning his head. “You sure?” said, stepping into the room">
“ma
    “It was right here on the bookshelf.”
    Jake glanced down the hall. Angel had gone to the bedroom an hour ago. He walked down the hall, knocked on the door. No answer. Opened it.
    The window was open. Angel was gone.

Chapter Nine

    Angel had slipped out through the sliding glass door in Lucky’s bedroom, next to the room where she’d been resting and quickly walked away from the house, in case Jake was watching from the front window.
    Leaving Lucky’s house was the hardest decision Angel had made in the last week. Everything else she seemed to just know . She knew she had to go to the police about Raul Garcia. She knew she had to run when she was being shot at. But for the first time since this entire ordeal