Eye of the Burning Man: A Mick Callahan Novel (The Mick Callahan Series) Read Online Free Page B

us and see some mug shots."
    "You see too much television, Bobby," Donato said. "Besides, they said he was wearing a mask, didn't they?"
    "Oh. Right."
    I was watching the death throes of my love life.
    Leyna went grim. "You really think this might have been something personal, Officer Donato?"
    "I'd say it's more than possible. This is the parking lot of a radio station, lady. Not a lot of cars around here, so we sure can't rule that out."
    They filled out the rest of the paperwork in a hurry. "You guys don't need to come down to the station," Donato said. "It's not like I don't know where to find you if I need you."
    "Thanks." I tucked the business card into the pocket of my jeans. "And thanks for this, too."
    "Don't mention it. Thanks for not laughing at me when I asked for your autograph."
    "I never laugh at people with guns."
    We were both numb and exhausted, but I followed Leyna home, over Benedict Canyon and down below Sunset. When we parked, I approached her car and tried to lighten the mood with a joke. She got out in silence. I walked her to her apartment building, but she stayed two feet ahead on the pavement, head down. She would not kiss me goodnight.
    "You act like that was my fault," I protested. "What the hell did I do wrong?"
    "I don't know." Leyna looked down again and far away, into some other reality. "You had an expression on your face, something I'd never seen before. You scared me."
    "He was going to kill us."
    "I know. And I thank you for fighting back." Leyna punched her code into the keypad. The gate buzzed open. She stepped through and let it close behind her. Her apartment was the first in the row. For a long moment, I thought she was going to go in without looking back. Finally she turned.
    "I can't see you any more," she said.
    "What?"
    "I'm sorry."
    "You're kidding, because I fought the guy?"
    "No, Mick," Leyna said, as she entered her apartment. "It's not that. It's because you looked like you enjoyed it."
    She closed her door. I waited until I heard the series of clicks from her deadbolts. I waited until her porch light went off. I waited until I finally got the message, and then went back out into the night alone.
    This sucked. I drove the long way home, watched the city lights from the top of the canyon until my eyes grew weary.
    At home, I tossed for an hour, consumed by guilt about having not called Jerry back and some vivid sexual frustration. I finally slept heavily, dreamed feverishly; became lost in a pastiche of fantasy and memory . . .
    Snapshots: A boy, fist-fighting other kids for money; a Seal jumping from a hovering black chopper; one lost weekend and an explosion of random, meaningless violence; a tall, hellish fire cackling up a wooden skeleton towards the unforgiving stars, until it finally burned a ragged hole in the fabric of the universe.
     
     

TWO
     
    I came to face down on a damp bed feeling rode hard and put up wet. The knuckles of one hand were raw. I had a sharp pain in one rib and a sore lower back. My forehead was throbbing and a small lump had formed above my right eye. I moaned into the pillow and rolled carefully over onto my left side. The day was already scorching.
    I slipped my legs out from under the damp, twisted sheets and swung my feet to the wooden floor. I got down, rolled over and pulled my knees up to my chest to stretch the lumbar muscles, then twisted the rib back into place and popped the lower back.
    "You looked like you enjoyed it," I muttered. "What a bitch."
    I sat up, crossed my legs and did some meditation. I've never had enough patience for Zen, but have gradually become comfortable with a brisk form of visualization. I followed my breath, rode the dragon, and opened my eyes again.
    The modest house wasn't much, but it was mine. I'd purchased the 1950s-style, three-bedroom, one and a half bath, North Hollywood property only a few months before. The down payment had come from my first signing bonus in three years. I had a cozy, fenced front