Read Online PsyCop 1: Among the Living by Jordan Castillo Price - Free Book Online Page B

it.”
    Maybe in his world. He was a big, strapping guy with a deep voice and a piercing gaze that could nail you to the wall. I just talked to dead people.
    But Jacob didn’t see me that way. Psychs were like shiny new toys to him, endlessly fascinating and inspiring. If he felt cheated that he only had access to five senses, he didn’t let it slow him down much. And why should it if he could demand the services of two federally licensed Psychs and a suspended cop with the elusive gift of sí-no ?
    “Someone told Warwick I was talking to Gutierrez,” I reminded him as he speed-dialed Carolyn.
    “And?”
    “And he said he’d suspend me if….”
    “Carolyn? Hey. Let’s get together at my place today for some brainstorming. No, you don’t have to bring anything. Mmm hm. Yeah, I do have some ideas, but it’ll be easier to just show you when you get here. Right. Bye bye.”
    I got Lisa’s number from the Fifth Precinct and convinced her to take a cab over to Jacob’s. She insisted that there wasn’t much she could do without her gun and badge, but I reminded her that she’d been at the Blakewood scene and seen the victim with her own eyes. We’d just bat some ideas around, I told her. I hung up and looked at Jacob. He had that grin on. Okay, and maybe I was also a little curious about how far sí-no could actually be taken.
    The girls arrived at Jacob’s around noon and we convened around a table full of salty Chinese take-out. “So you’ve played the sí-no game most of your life,” Carolyn said, “but haven’t had any formal training.”
    Lisa nodded. I think Carolyn intimidated her. Heck, Carolyn intimidated me a little.
    “We’ll need to be careful how we phrase our reports,” Carolyn said. “You’re not officially part of this investigation at this time.” She looked at me. “Unless you think you can convince Sergeant Warwick…?”
    “Not a chance. I thought he was gonna have an aneurysm.”
    “Fine. Then we’ll just need to be aware that anything Lisa says is unofficial. Nothing appears in the report. If her talents lead us to the murderer, fine. But we’ll have to scrape together some kind of evidence that could’ve plausibly led us there besides the sí-no game. Got it?”
    “Carolyn can’t simply lie,” Jacob winked at her. “The downside to her talent.”
    Carolyn ignored him and consulted her notepad. “Let’s establish some boundaries first.” She fired off a series of questions about current events and other factual things to establish a baseline.
    “Does Lawrence Avenue run North-South?”
    “No.”
    “Do I have an aunt named Mabel?”
    “Yes.”
    “Has Jacob ever owned a dog?”
    “No.”
    Carolyn looked to Jacob, and he nodded. “Poor baby,” she said, the corner of her mouth twitching. He smiled. Carolyn turned her attention back to Lisa. “Am I happy?”
    Lisa stared.
    “Well?”
    “I—I dunno.”
    “Too broad,” Carolyn said, scribbling notes. “Do I like my job?”
    “Y-yes.”
    “You just let me unnerve you—don’t worry about it. Not everything can be answered yes or no. Sometimes it’s both. Sometimes it’s neither. And sometimes the question is just too vague.”
    It occurred to me that Carolyn would make a good Psych Coach. She was just so nonchalant about it all, and yet you could see she had all eight cylinders firing. Plus, she knew if you were lying. Okay, maybe that part was a little bit scary.
    “All right. Let’s look at the case. You understand you are here in an unofficial capacity.”
    “Yes.”
    “Good. Let’s focus on the killer. Is the killer male?”
    “Yes.”
    I thought about the anal penetration and blushed. Lisa knew I was with Jacob. And Carolyn? Jacob said he was out to her. So she probably knew, too, because if the subject had come up at all, it wasn’t as if he could hedge. I blushed harder and drank some soda, tilting the huge cup back to hide my face.
    “Is he Caucasian?”
    “He….” Lisa stared off as if