Other Half (PsyCop book 12) by Jordan Castillo Price

Author:Jordan Castillo Price [Price, Jordan Castillo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JCP Books LLC
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

21

“WHERE IN THE heck were you two yesterday?” Mild words, but I could tell by the way her neck tendons were starting to pop, Barbara was seriously pissed.

“We had something to do,” Jacob said vaguely, which only made her blood boil more.

“For Pastor Jill,” I added. “You know. The workbook.”

Barbara was a devout woman who’d never go against her pastor…but she’d been so invested in being angry. She even showed up at their folks’ house to berate us on her way to work on a damp Monday morning, so clearly she meant business. “I don’t remember going through all this with Derrick.”

Jacob said, “I’m sure it just seems that way because our lead time is more condensed.”

“Still, we have a schedule. We have a calendar. And when do you expect to do your manicure now?”

“It’s fine, Barb, we’ll fit everything in.” Jacob was using his confident voice. It was pretty convincing. Even though I knew it was all an act, I still bought into it myself.

Barbara didn’t. “You say that now, but believe you me—even with all the planning in the world, a bunch of stuff is bound to crop up. You’ve gotta leave yourself time to put out all the last-minute fires.”

Jacob said (in his calm-down-already voice), “It’s a simple ceremony and a small reception. We have the venues, the pastor, the vows and the rings. Even if everything else fell apart—”

“Don’t go tempting fate,” I muttered.

“—we’d be fine. So you don’t need to worry on our account.”

Jacob’s sister pulled the mulish expression I was accustomed to seeing on him—the one that meant it shouldn’t much matter whether or not she was actually right. I was okay with that face of his. It usually preceded a grudging agreement…and Barb’s was no different.

“Well, if you’re not worried, I’m not gonna lose any sleep over it. Just don’t forget we need to meet with the manager at the supper club after work to sort out all the final details.”

“We’ll be there,” Jacob said with only a minor amount of condescension.

As Barbara stomped off toward her car, I said, “We should probably be paying more attention to the calendar. There’s only so much mileage we can get out of Pastor Jill’s PDF.”

Jacob gave me a look, and I answered with a sigh. Because only a real knucklehead would expect him to prioritize the manicure over digging up dirt on his own past.

Breakfast with his parents would normally have been convivial—despite Shirley getting me to try some appalling flax meal concoction—if not for Kamal’s goddamned notebook. Afterward, I found Jacob in our room, glaring at the satellite photo, which was creased with folds and had blooms of inkjet ink on the back. “How likely is it that the entire tree canopy would regrow over the course of twenty-five years?” he asked.

I suspected that if you knew what you were doing, you could make it happen.

Then again, the same could be said for doctoring a satellite image and putting it online.

“The hospital was there,” he insisted, as if I somehow didn’t believe him.

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