“Police, open up.”
Shit. I roll over and look at my phone. Early. Sun hasn’t come up yet, early. The police pound on the door again. One more hit and it may just fall off the duct taped hinges that hold this aluminum house on wheels together.
“Hang on. I’m coming.” The best part of working nights is coming home and passing out in my clothes. Makes answering the door at five in the morning that much quicker. The pounding comes again just as I swing open the door. A piece of it falls off when it hits the side of the RV. “Man, I know you heard me, this thing is half cardboard,” I say.
“Dave, you gotta move. You know you can’t be here overnight,” the shorter of the two cops says. LAPD, the men in blue—I hate that they know me by name, but they all look like the same person, maybe this one is Kevin. Aside from their height they could be the same guy. The crisp uniform, the military style cut, the sun-kissed skin. Central casting would love to book them for every cop show filmed in this town. Too many cop shows if you ask me.
“Sorry guys.” I pull a cigarette from my pocket and light it. “I just got off. Thought I could catch a few first.”
“Not today. You able to get her going?” The tall one still hasn’t said a word. He looks around the parking lot of the empty grocery store. The street is quiet — commuters aren’t up for another hour. It’s as peaceful as Highland Park gets.
The air is chilly this early and I wish I could bottle the chill. Make it last through this day but I know the temps will hit the nineties and I’ll either be stuck in this fish can sweating it out or day-laboring it up for some privileged shithead that doesn’t want to spend the money on a contractor or a permit to put in his second bathroom. He’ll ask the right questions, “Can you install tile? Know anything about plumbing?” I’ll figure it out on the job and if I can’t, I’ll still get enough cash for a few meals.
“Give me an hour. I promise I’ll be out before the first customer.”
“Not today. Gotta get her outta here. I’m sorry, man, but you’ve over-stayed your welcome. You can take her up along Griffin for now.”
“You got it, will do.” I salute the short one. They’ll leave, I’ll go back to sleep, and they’ll be back with a ticket in an hour. The problem, and they know it, I can’t get the engine started when it’s cold. This death trap of a home is on her last breath and I’m not wasting it to move a few blocks away. I’ll add the ticket to the stack Officers Kevin-or-whatever has already written because no one is going to pay to tow her away.
TAKE HART
Series: A Corey in Los Angeles Mystery, Book 2
Genre: Domestic Thriller
Release: August 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Between her LAPD consulting gig, fledgling indie news blog, and postpartum panic disorder, former TV journalist Corey Tracey-Lieberman is barely keeping it together. Then a mother named Sonja Hart vanishes in her Highland Park neighborhood, and the case is all but ignored. Sparked by maternal fury, Corey’s investigative instincts come roaring back to life.
To see the truth clearly, Corey must stop taking the meds that keep her anxiety at bay. Forced to confront her own failing marriage, she struggles with her growing feelings for her crime-fighting partner. Strapping her fifteen-month-old son to her chest, she follows a trail that leads from a suspicious house fire to the furtive activities of new neighbors.
The more she digs, the more she uncovers about the secret toll of gentrification—and the closer she comes to the verge of a breakdown. And the horror dawns that the killer she’s been chasing has been watching her all along…
About the author
Jaime Parker Stickle is the author of Vicious Cycle and Take Hart, books one and two of the Corey in Los Angeles series. A professor of film and television at Montclair State University, she is also a writer, actor, and podcaster. Jaime is the creator and cohost of The Girl with the Same Name, a true crime podcast, as well as Make That Paper, a hilarious podcast about side hustles. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son. Website: www.jaimeparkerstickle.com.