“What a load of —”
“What about now?” Mandy interrupted Detective O’Connor which was good because he was being an ass. “What are they telling you now?” I gave her a questioning look. “We hit a dead end with Jack being dead.” Something I had already told you. “Where should we go next?”
I turned away from them and took a deep breath. Stretching my hand out, I moved slowly across the carpeted floor being careful not to trip over the random crap at my feet. I made a humming sound as I searched.
“I’m getting something,” I said, my hands touching along the edge of the couch. I peeked an eye open and found Gabriel near the door.
Gabriel’s eyes glazed over for a moment, too long for Detective O’Connor apparently.
“Come on now, we don’t have all day.” I spun around to see him with his hands on his hips, a scowl on his face.
“My powers can’t be rushed, detective.” I mirrored his posture. “Unless you want some second-hand psychic work? If you want that, I know a good fortune teller who could throw the bones for you.”
“Do you think this is a joke?” Detective O’Connor growled, stepping closer until we were mere inches apart. “We are trying to find an innocent girl, not play your games.”
“Not so innocent,” Gabriel said, coming out of his haze. “She’s not here. I suggest you talk to the therapist again. He wasn’t telling the whole truth.”
I turned my head away from the detective, gazing off into the distance as if seeing something. Detective O’Connor tried to speak to me again, but I put my hand up, cutting him off.
“Not here. Not here.” I gestured down at the ground. “She’s not here. We’ve been sent on a wild goose chase.”
“What do you mean?” Mandy asked, coming up next to us. “You’re the one who told us to come here.”
I shook my head. “No, I didn’t. Dr. Marshall did. He’s the one who said Jack was obsessed with Clarissa. I simply provided my insight which, I might add, was ignored.” I shot her a chastising look. “Now, I am telling you that we were wrong, and we should take another look at the good doctor. See why he accused Jack.”
“This is a waste of time,” Detective O’Connor sneered. “We have real detective work to do, not this nonsense.”
“And what nonsense is that?” I challenged him. “So far, I’m the only one finding anything out about this girl. You didn’t even know her family was keeping her hostage. How were you planning on finding her? If we even should be trying to find her.”
“Why wouldn’t we?” O’Connor countered. “What have your spirits said to make you think we should call this whole thing off?”
“They,” I started, attitude leaking into my voice, “think this whole thing is a bunch of crap. Clarissa isn’t missing, she ran away. And for a good reason.”
O’Connor’s eyes glinted with anger. “And what’s that?”
I opened my mouth and closed it. I didn’t get my answer out fast enough because O’Connor threw his hands up in the air and laughed.
“Speechless, the psychic is speechless. Oh, but don’t worry, I will relay to Clarissa’s parents that they can stop worrying because the spirits say their daughter ran away!”
“O’Connor,” Mandy snapped and reached out to him, but he jerked away.
“This is your fault. You wanted this freak show in our case, and now we are running around chasing our tails.” O’Connor tapped his foot incessantly. Mandy started to protest, but he didn’t give her a chance. He threw his hands up again and stomped out of the room, the manager close on his heels.
“I hope this guy dies soon. He is just begging to be tortured.” Lucifer glared at O’Connor.
“He’s torturing himself enough, I don’t think he needs you to help,” I rolled my eyes. To Mandy, I said, “That guy is going to have a heart attack if he doesn’t watch his blood pressure.”
“Yeah, well.” Mandy sighed and tugged on the ends of her hair. “He does have a point. This does seem like a lot of work for someone to have run away. None of her friends know where she went, even her therapist is concerned for her. Does that sound like a normal college student running away from home?”
She did have a point. Someone should have known where Clarissa was. For no one, not even her friends, to know? That didn’t seem right.
If I planned to run away, I’d have talked to Mandy about it first. Have a backup plan in case, I ended up penniless and stranded on the side of the road. Plus, if I ran away, I’d have to bring her too. Can’t leave her out in the wild. Who knew what would happen to her without me?
“What do your angels say?” Mandy glanced around the room, the dead body of Jack swaying a few feet away.
Wrinkling my nose, I shook my head. “Can we take this discussion outside? It’s just too morbid.” I waved a hand at Dead Jack.
Mandy slid her eyes over to him. “I need to call him in any way. I doubt O’Connor will do it with the wonderful mood he’s in.”
I snorted. “You mean, he’s not always like this?”
Mandy and I moved out of the apartment closing the door behind us. Lucifer and Gabriel didn’t follow. Probably off doing angel things. Maybe a communal bath where they scrub each other’s backs? I shook the fantasy from my head before I started to drool.
“To be honest, he’s actually a pretty cool guy when he’s not being ripped in half by his ex-wife.” Mandy pulled out her phone and dialed a number. Putting it to her ear, she said, “This is Detective Stevenson, I have a ten-fifty-six. We need forensics and a cleanup crew. Make sure the coroner is called too. Yeah, okay.” Mandy rambled off the address and then hung up. “You can go on home, I’m going to wait for the others to get here. Don’t want someone to mess with the crime scene before forensics gets to it.”
“Why?” I peeked back at the door to Dead Jack’s apartment. “Don’t you think it was a suicide?”
Mandy nodded. “It looks like it, but we have to cover everything.” She let out a frustrated sigh. “Just what I needed though, adding a suicide on top of a missing person’s case. With my luck, it’s murder, and I’m going to have overtime coming out of my ass.”
“Can’t someone else take the case?”
“No, because it’s tied in with my missing person. Why waste resources?” she sounded like she was quoting someone, probably the captain.
“Well, I’m going to the bar. I need a drink after all this.” I waved a hand back at the apartment. “You come by if you get off?”
“If I can, but don’t hold your breath.”
I waved her off and started toward the parking lot. I got halfway there and stopped in my tracks. Turning back, I walked back over to Mandy who was playing on her phone. “I just remembered, you drove.”
Leaning off the wall, Mandy dug her keys out of her pocket. “Fine. I’m sure manager can make sure no one touches the room. I’ll be right back.”
It only took a few minutes before Mandy was back. She gestured toward her car with her hand. “Come on, mooch. Let’s get you home so you can get drunk.”
“Thanks, you’re the best!” I looped my arm through hers and skipped to the car.
“You have problems, you know that?” She angled her head toward me.
I shrugged. “No one’s perfect.”
Mandy and I drove back to my house, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I wasn’t sure what Mandy was thinking about, probably the case. She was the definition of a workaholic. Her longest relationship was with her job - or well me, but I wasn’t sleeping with her. I mean not that I wouldn’t if I was into women. She’s hot. You know for someone with a vagina.
I chuckled to myself, earning me a curious look from Mandy.
“What’s so funny?”
“If you were gay, would you date me?” I asked, suddenly wanting to know.
“No.”
I mock gasped. “What? What do you mean no? I’m a freaking catch.”
Mandy shook her head. “You’re too high maintenance.”
“What?”
“And you are a pig,” Mandy continued. “Not to mention, your obsession with naked mole rats.”
I scowled. “Hey, they are adorable.”