If It Bleeds (10 page)

I just looked at him.

“Okay. That's not what you want to hear. I get it. But it's all I've got right now. Maybe things could have been different, but you and Hartigan don't play well together—”

“It's not my fault!” I interrupted.

“I have no doubt of that at all. I've met him, right? It's just so much more complicated than all of that. Budgets and head counts and so on. Plus they need someone on your beat, right?”

Budgets and head counts and being good at something that wasn't my dream. Still, there were worse fates. Much worse.

I'd turned to head back up to the fifth floor when Brent's voice stopped me.

“Good job, Nic,” he said as he came in.

“Thanks.” And I meant it. But at the same time, I was waiting for the other shoe.

“You never told me how you knew.”

“Pardon?”

“You were so cool about everything. How did you put it together? No one else had a clue.”

“I didn't.”

Now it was his turn to be confused.

“Not really. I mean, I had some hunches. And I asked some questions. Got the right answers.”

Hartigan nodded, grunted something and went on his way. But his question left me thinking. That was really all reporting ever was. At its finest, it was asking the right questions, getting the hoped-for answers. I was good at it. I hadn't achieved my goal of being a reporter—a real reporter. Yet. But I would. I knew that too.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

There is a special kind of natural beauty to the syntax of noir. In writing and then editing
If It Bleeds
, I felt that language pushed beyond the places it normally goes. It felt like a dance and was certainly a challenge, and I'm grateful to Bob Tyrrell, Ruth Linka and the whole team at Orca Books for the important commitment they've made to the Rapid Read series. I'm very proud that they asked me to dance.

Thanks to David Middleton and Michael Karl Richards for their continued support and artistic guidance.

LINDA L. RICHARDS
is a journalist and award-winning author. She is the founding editor of
January Magazine
, one of the Web's most respected voices about books. She is also the author of six novels and several works of nonfiction and is on the faculty of the Simon Fraser University Summer Publishing Workshops. In 2010, Richards's novel
Death Was in the Picture
won the Panik Award for best Los Angeles-based noir. Linda can be found at
lindalrichards.com
and @lindalrichards.