Gathering Dark by Candice Fox (best life changing books txt) 📕

“Let me see your hands right now!”

“Turn your body cams off!”

“Ma’am, I won’t ask you again!”

“I’m a cop, you assholes! Turn your body cams off!”

She heard the sound of a stun gun being pulled from its holster. The distinctive snap and flick of the safety. Devastatingly clear images whirled through her mind, of her body twitching and writhing under the electric pulse of the Taser, all of it recorded on the patrol officer’s body camera. Being naked on video was better than being Tasered and naked. She let go of the floor, released the cradle she’d made for her naked chest, and rose up slowly. She wasn’t going to put her arms up. That would be an indignity she couldn’t bear. She stood there, strapped in place, finally turning her face to meet the men she didn’t recognize standing in the doorway with their Tasers out.

“I’m a cop, you complete—fucking—assholes,” she said.

One of them was staring at her crotch. The other, her breasts. They both looked at her eyes at once. Jessica could see the two little red lights of their body cams still blazing in the glowing mood lighting of the room. Somewhere downstairs, other officers were dealing with Goren. Doors were slamming open and drawers were being pulled out. She could hear him yelling in protest.

“If you’re a cop, what the hell are you doing here?” one of the men in the doorway asked, a tall, young patrolman with a thick black beard.

“It’s none of your business what I’m doing here,” Jessica said.

“We have reason to believe there are drugs and activities involving prostitution occurring on these premises,” the officer said. He paused, looked at his partner, and the faintest hint of a smile played at the corner of his mouth. “You’ll be placed under arrest pending further investigations. Ma’am, would you please, uh … free yourself from…” He pointed at the straps. “Or maybe you need help—”

“I don’t need any goddamn help,” Jessica said. She bent to undo the buckles at her ankles. Her whole body was submitting to trembling waves of humiliation, the stinging sensation of the cameras, their eyes, recording her every move. When she rose again she caught them smiling, laughing silently, the smaller one turning away. More officers were arriving in the hallway. She cupped a hand over her crotch and covered her breasts with the other arm.

“Can I retrieve my clothes from the other room?” she asked.

“Of course.” The tall officer finally had a hold of himself, his face barely straight. “Guys, let her through.”

The officers in the hall parted. She couldn’t look at their faces. She dressed alone in the bedroom, listening to their laughter.

BLAIR

“Hello?”

“Hi. I’m so, so sorry to call you at this late hour. I just … I need … I’m really, really sorry, but—”

“Well, for god’s sake, tell me who it is.”

“My name is Blair. You don’t know me.”

“Are you calling from a pay phone?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, sir. I just need someone to talk to. I feel so bad for waking you up.”

“Hell, you didn’t wake me up, darlin’. I don’t never sleep these days. My house is full of gremlins every second week. Are you okay? You sound all puffed out.”

“I’m fine. I’m okay. I’m … Did you say gremlins?”

“My sister’s kids. She got a second job workin’ night shift at a sawmill. Place runs all day and all night. That’s why I’m talkin’ quiet. I only just got them little bastards to sleep. Kids don’t know what’s good in the world. They don’t like sleep. They don’t like food. They don’t know what great skin and hair they got. I went bald at fifteen. Smooth as an egg. Took me two weeks. Like somethin’ scared it right out of me.”

“How old are the kids?”

“John’s seven and Maggie’s three and a half. So what is this? Is this like one of them survey calls where you win a prize?”

“No, no. I’m sorry. I don’t have anything—”

“My aunt got a call in the night like this once. Said she won a four-day cruise. She told everybody. Turned out it was a whole lot of bullshit. They just wanted her credit card numbers. Oh, Lord. Oh, shit. Go back to bed, Johnny.”

“Oh, no.”

“It’s nothin’. Nothin’. Just one of them survey calls. Go back to bed or … Ah, shit. You woke the baby. Now it’s a party.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right. Don’t worry about it. Hell, it’s always a party at Uncle Shane’s place. Ain’t that right, Mags, huh? Who wants milk?”

JESSICA

Diggy was signing forms at the front desk of the Wilshire Community Police Station when Jessica was brought out from the cells. This morning’s Fibonacci golden spiral shirt was a vibrant blue and covered in pictures of tiny men in top hats curling their villainous mustaches. The female officer behind the counter was examining it closely. Jessica imagined that having to stand at the counter enduring Diggy’s ultimate encounter with true love might be more than she could bear, so she caught his arm and turned him away from the woman’s gaze.

“I have a question,” he said, his finger raised.

“What?”

“Where do you get three gallons of human piss at short notice?”

“Was it really three gallons?”

“According to the bottles that remained at the scene, assuming each was full or close to.”

“Hobos,” Jessica said.

“Ah.” Diggy nodded. “That was my guess. A colleague at the lab said they must have been yours, but I did not concur. You seem sensible about hydration, and it smelled like whoever provided those samples was distinctly otherwise.”

“You smelled the car?”

“Everybody did. It stank up both floors of the parking lot. Some people went down to look when Wallert came into the office shouting and making a commotion about what had happened, but I deemed a viewing unnecessary.”

Jessica smiled. Her face felt stiff from the dread of the past few hours sitting in a holding cell.

“He’ll have to dispose of the whole vehicle,” Diggy said as they walked to the