Read Online Pasadena by Sherri L. Smith - Free Book Online Page A

door. “May I help you?” He’s polite and looks like a professor, with his rolled-up shirtsleeves and rimless glasses. He speaks with a careful Mandarin accent. I wonder if he knows his son is a Class-A stalker.
    â€œIs Luke home?” I ask. “We’ve got a photo project we’re working on. He said to come by and he’d show usthe contact sheet.” Luke takes photography classes every summer. It’s as good a cover as any.
    Joey blinks at me but says nothing. Mr. Liu calls over his shoulder in Chinese. The distant sound of dishes being washed by hand stops and a woman responds. It must have been a very late lunch.
    â€œFine,” a girl sighs in English. Amanda Liu, Luke’s younger sister, appears in the doorway behind her father. He disappears into the house.
    Amanda wipes her soapy hands on a kitchen towel. “Hey.” She knows us from school, a freshman who’s learned our faces the way a tourist learns major streets in a new town. “Luke had a thing. He should be back soon, though.”
    â€œMind if we wait?” I ask. She hesitates, looks over her shoulder.
    â€œHow’d you like Shelstein’s history class?” Joey says out of the blue. Amanda blushes and gives Joey a full metal smile. Her braces and her desire make me cringe.
    â€œIt was cool,” she says. “Especially the Rome stuff.”
    â€œI remember that,” Joey says, smiling a smile I’ve never seen. A confident smile. He leans into the doorway, posing pompously. “And that is why Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he says, mimicking Shelstein’s gruff tones.
    Amanda laughs and steps away from the door. We take the unspoken invitation and follow her inside. Chiming an explanation to her parents in Mandarin, she leads us back to Luke’s room. The narrow bed is all but dwarfed by a desk with a giant computer monitor and a deep bookcase stacked high with photo albums and archival boxes.
    â€œYou guys want something to drink?” she asks, wiping her palms on her jeans.
    â€œThat’d be great,” Joey says. He manages to make it sound intimate.
    Christ, if this girl had a tail, it’d be wagging.
    â€œWater,” I reply.
    She nods and scurries away. I drop down at the computer and start searching the photo files. Joey sidles up behind me. There’s a stack of DVDs labeled for the past month on the desk, but none for the week Maggie died. It must still be on the hard drive somewhere.
    Amanda comes back with two glasses.
    â€œOh,” she says when she sees me on the computer.
    â€œNo, it’s okay,” I tell her. “Luke called my cell. He’s running late and told me where to find the stuff. We’ll just take a look and talk to him later.”
    Joey steps up and takes a water glass from Amanda, closing his hand over hers. As if that was necessary. I let him handle it and go back to scanning the files.
    Suddenly, there it is. I pull a flash drive out of my bag and download what I need—Thursday, Friday, Saturday’s photos. I shut off the computer and turn around. Amanda is drinking my water and giggling at something Joey said. Jesus, he’s fast. It must have something to do with lowerclassmen. They’re not immune to him yet. His brown eyes and that damned smile.
    â€œDone,” I say.
    Amanda is reluctant to see us go, but she perks up when Joey says he’ll look for her at school. Just a hello in the hallway would boost her street cred. If it led to an actual date with a senior, it would change the entire landscape of her social life. Joey just threw her a bone. Or maybe he’s scratching an itch and he wants me to know it.
    â€œHome, Jeeves,” I say when we’re back in the car.
    â€œQuite,” Joey says. “Quite.”
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    The living room is empty when we get back to my place, but I can hear the TV on in my mom’s room. She doesn’t say anything