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Authors: Jordan Castillo Price
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matter to you if she used to be Mrs. Dreyfuss?” I asked. “Since when do you care what either of them think?”
“You two weren’t the only ones who came out to Santa Barbara to help me when I was in a bind. Con was there too.”
“Oh sure,” I scoffed, “out of the kindness of his heart.”
Lisa gave me a warning look. “I’ll ruin my own credibility if I go around accusing people that close to him, especially if the sí-no isn’t clear and I could be completely wrong.”
She zipped up her tent while Jacob stared at her like a drunk who’d missed last call by ten seconds. I took him by the elbow and steered him toward the stairs. Lisa might be unwilling to play the psychic game tonight, at least not with us. Still, I had no doubt she was sí-noing herself to sleep, whether she would admit it to Jacob or not. As someone who’s accustomed to having a handle on things, she must’ve been irked by her talent’s non-responsiveness. I was sure she’d keep picking at it. And when she came up with something definitive, we’d be the first ones to know.
Chapter 7
The bundle of twigs that hung above our front door was stale and cobwebby, since Crash’s monthly cleansing ritual was coming up any day now. Even so, Jacob and I bent together, whispering a few last minute plans beneath it. He put two fingers to my forearm—a little reminder we’d developed to keep one another from getting carried away when talking plainly wasn’t safe—but that was fine. I’d be able to get my point across while keeping what I said uselessly vague. “Don’t worry. I can do this.”
He pressed his forehead into my temple. “Just…be careful.”
“Believe me, I know how to bullshit. I’ve been practicing my whole life.” With the sí-no holding out on us, somebody needed to start scrutinizing Laura Kim. Since I didn’t really know her, it would sound less fishy if I was the one to ask the questions…even though it was killing Jacob to turn over this critical piece of his investigation to anyone else. Even me. In my fantasies, I would come up with a question that bowled her over to the point where she readily admitted exactly what she’d been doing that day, then signed an affidavit to seal the deal. But since Laura was no slouch in the brains department, it was doubtful I’d stun her with my clever interrogation skills.
We’d cooked up a plan that had seemed plausible when it was whispered beneath the comforter in the dead of night. Now, though, I was getting cold feet. Jacob climbed into the big black Crown Vic and pulled away, and there was nothing else I could do other than follow through.
I took my own car, once I’d smeared off the words WASH ME with a handful of gray snow. My unimpressive compact was a critical part of our plan. I fidgeted in my seat all the way there, and followed Jacob into the underground parking garage with a death-grip on my steering wheel. He pulled into a numbered spot, and I slotted my car into visitor parking and cut the engine.
Pulling the keys from the ignition was so automatic for me, I did so despite the fact that I’d been planning to deliberately lock them in. As I put them back, I tried to recall ever having locked my keys anywhere and came up blank. Maybe the part of my brain that’s responsible for lock awareness was more highly developed than your average Joe’s. Probably so—the sight of the keyring dangling from the ignition made me uneasy. But according to Jacob, this would be the best way for me to get Laura Kim alone. So I opened my door, powered the locks down, made a silent apology to my keys, and slammed the door shut behind me.
Jacob and I got on the elevator, and I said, “Shit, I left my keys behind.” I thought it sounded reasonably natural.
“Check your pockets,” Jacob said, which we hadn’t planned, and damn if it didn’t sound even twice as natural as my remark. He was good.
I patted them all down, locating a couple of aspirin, a few
“You two weren’t the only ones who came out to Santa Barbara to help me when I was in a bind. Con was there too.”
“Oh sure,” I scoffed, “out of the kindness of his heart.”
Lisa gave me a warning look. “I’ll ruin my own credibility if I go around accusing people that close to him, especially if the sí-no isn’t clear and I could be completely wrong.”
She zipped up her tent while Jacob stared at her like a drunk who’d missed last call by ten seconds. I took him by the elbow and steered him toward the stairs. Lisa might be unwilling to play the psychic game tonight, at least not with us. Still, I had no doubt she was sí-noing herself to sleep, whether she would admit it to Jacob or not. As someone who’s accustomed to having a handle on things, she must’ve been irked by her talent’s non-responsiveness. I was sure she’d keep picking at it. And when she came up with something definitive, we’d be the first ones to know.
Chapter 7
The bundle of twigs that hung above our front door was stale and cobwebby, since Crash’s monthly cleansing ritual was coming up any day now. Even so, Jacob and I bent together, whispering a few last minute plans beneath it. He put two fingers to my forearm—a little reminder we’d developed to keep one another from getting carried away when talking plainly wasn’t safe—but that was fine. I’d be able to get my point across while keeping what I said uselessly vague. “Don’t worry. I can do this.”
He pressed his forehead into my temple. “Just…be careful.”
“Believe me, I know how to bullshit. I’ve been practicing my whole life.” With the sí-no holding out on us, somebody needed to start scrutinizing Laura Kim. Since I didn’t really know her, it would sound less fishy if I was the one to ask the questions…even though it was killing Jacob to turn over this critical piece of his investigation to anyone else. Even me. In my fantasies, I would come up with a question that bowled her over to the point where she readily admitted exactly what she’d been doing that day, then signed an affidavit to seal the deal. But since Laura was no slouch in the brains department, it was doubtful I’d stun her with my clever interrogation skills.
We’d cooked up a plan that had seemed plausible when it was whispered beneath the comforter in the dead of night. Now, though, I was getting cold feet. Jacob climbed into the big black Crown Vic and pulled away, and there was nothing else I could do other than follow through.
I took my own car, once I’d smeared off the words WASH ME with a handful of gray snow. My unimpressive compact was a critical part of our plan. I fidgeted in my seat all the way there, and followed Jacob into the underground parking garage with a death-grip on my steering wheel. He pulled into a numbered spot, and I slotted my car into visitor parking and cut the engine.
Pulling the keys from the ignition was so automatic for me, I did so despite the fact that I’d been planning to deliberately lock them in. As I put them back, I tried to recall ever having locked my keys anywhere and came up blank. Maybe the part of my brain that’s responsible for lock awareness was more highly developed than your average Joe’s. Probably so—the sight of the keyring dangling from the ignition made me uneasy. But according to Jacob, this would be the best way for me to get Laura Kim alone. So I opened my door, powered the locks down, made a silent apology to my keys, and slammed the door shut behind me.
Jacob and I got on the elevator, and I said, “Shit, I left my keys behind.” I thought it sounded reasonably natural.
“Check your pockets,” Jacob said, which we hadn’t planned, and damn if it didn’t sound even twice as natural as my remark. He was good.
I patted them all down, locating a couple of aspirin, a few
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