“That’s the fire sauce.” I nodded to him. I parked in the parking lot of the office building Dr. Marshall’s office was located. Turning the car off, I grabbed the container from Gabriel and popped the top off. I gestured to Gabriel to hand me his burrito. Pouring some of the sauce on the top of it, I handed it back to him.
Gabriel looked at it, his brows furrowed an intense studious look on his face. I bumped the hand holding the burrito toward his mouth. “Go ahead, try it.”
Without questioning me, he put it in his mouth and took a big bite. I reached a hand out to stop him and then covered my mouth, hiding my grin. I’m a horrible, horrible person.
At first, Gabriel didn’t react. He moved the bite around in his mouth, his eyes narrowed as if expecting something. Then it happened. His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. He grabbed at his mouth as if he could stop the burning heat I was sure he was feeling.
“Hot, it’s hot.” Gabriel turned to me his eyes watering.
I grabbed him as he started to flail about. “It’s okay. It’s just the sauce. In a second, it’ll cool off.”
Gabriel waved a hand at his gaping mouth and swallowed repeatedly. Eventually, he calmed down and then looked at me. “You tricked me. You knew that would happen.”
“Sorry.” I gave him a guilty look. “I thought it better to let you figure it out on your own.”
He stared at me for a moment and then down at the burrito. “So, that’s fire sauce.”
“Yes?” I arched a brow, expecting him to get mad at me. When he took another bite, my mouth dropped open.
“It’s not bad.” He shot me a grin, and the sight of his cheeks full of burrito made me laugh.
“Yeah, it’s not bad.”
As we got out of the car and started toward the building, Gabriel said, “We should try this on Lucifer.”
Oh God, I’ve created a monster.
18
Mandy and Detective O’Connor were waiting for us in Dr. Marshall’s office when we arrived. Stepping into the room, it was exactly like every other therapist’s office I’ve ever been in.
He had a wall full of books. I could bet that Dr. Marshall probably hadn’t read most them. He had a globe, that wasn’t surprising, and neither were the random pieces of art on the walls. They all looked like they cost more than I made in a year. My eyes skittered over the leather couch that didn’t look at all comfortable.
Dr. Marshall might seem like a nice guy, but I didn’t see anyone wanting to open up to him. Who could relax on a couch like that?
“What’s he doing here?” Detective O’Connor asked, making me look away from the couch.
I glanced at Gabriel and then back to the detective. I opened my mouth to answer as Mandy answered for me. “That’s her assistant.”
“Assistant?” O’Connor raised a bushy brow. “Psychics have assistants?” He then turned his attention to Gabriel, sizing him up.
Gabriel wasn’t even bothered. His crossed his arms over his chest, his floral Hawaiian shirt stretching across his muscles. While O’Connor was intimidating in his own way, Gabriel had almost a foot on him, which seemed to make O’Connor stand even taller.
“This is Gabriel.” I gestured a hand toward him, giving Mandy a knowing look. “He helps me channel the spirit world.”
O’Connor pursed his lips like he wanted to object to him being there but then didn’t. He turned back to Dr. Marshall, who sat behind his desk looking confused at the whole ordeal. Not wanting to linger on Gabriel’s presence any longer, I stepped up to Dr. Marshall’s desk.
“Andrew, how are you?” I asked, my eyes scanning his desk for some kind of clue I could work with. All that was on his desk was a bunch of papers, nothing I could easily decipher.
“I’m good. It’s nice to see you again, Jane. And your friend too.” Dr. Marshall glanced over at Gabriel who stood against the door jam, his eyes taking in everything around us. Dr. Marshall then looked back at the detective. “I’m not sure how I can be of much more help. I told you everything that I know.”
“Lie.”
I spun around to find Lucifer standing next to Gabriel. Crap. Crap, crappy, crap, crap. Staring at Gabriel hard, I clenched my teeth and tried to mentally tell him not to move. Not to do anything that would give away that he was corporeal now.
Mandy placed a hand on my arm. “Did you see something?”
I stared at Gabriel for a few more seconds before my eyes fluttered closed and I lifted my hand to my head. “I’m feeling something all right. Something isn’t right.”
“Of course not.” O’Connor scoffed. “We’re wasting our time is what we are doing. We should be checking out her usual path home. Seeing what perverts might be living around where she travels. Not bothering this poor man.”
“No, no.” Dr. Marshall shook his head and took his glasses off and then back on. “You’re not a bother at all. I just feel bad that I can’t tell you where Clarissa is.”
“That’s a lie as well.” Lucifer scoffed. “This guy knows more than he’s telling now. I bet last time he didn’t know where she was which was why I couldn’t get a read on him, but now, he knows where this girl is. Don’t you think, Gabe?”
Gabriel opened his mouth to answer, but I jumped in. “Dr. Marshall, you liked Clarissa, didn’t you?”
Cocking his head to the side, so his hair fell over his face, Dr. Marshall gave me a small smile. “I like all my patients, of course.”
“Lie.”
I shot a look at Lucifer and then back to Dr. Marshall. “But you liked Clarissa more than the others?” I was reaching, but I couldn’t think of another angle to go with.
“Well, yes.” Dr. Marshall drew out. “She was a fine young woman. Very smart.”
“And beautiful,” I added, trailing my fingers along the top of his desk. “I’ve seen her pictures. She’s a very pretty girl.”
“Yes?” Dr. Marshall answered his brows furrowed. “It would be hard not to notice.”
“And I bet you noticed her, didn’t you?” I pried, tapping my nails on the surface of the desk. “With how often she came to see you, it would be only natural for you to be drawn to each other.”
“Well, yes,” Dr. Marshall stuttered, flustered by my questions. “She’s a lovely woman. As I told her, anyone would be lucky to be with her.”
“That’s not a lie,” Lucifer said.
“They were sleeping together,” Gabriel said suddenly. I spun around panicking that he’d spoken while Lucifer was here. My eyes darted to Mandy and O’Connor watching in slow motion as they turned as one to Gabriel.
Lucifer’s eyes brows crunched down as he tried to process what was going on. Even worse, Mandy asked, “How do you figure that?”
“They can see you?” Lucifer asked, his mouth gaping open. “And hear you?”
I waved Lucifer off, not able to answer him in front of everyone. Gabriel ignored him as well and answered Mandy, “It’s pretty obvious. The way he lights up a bit every time he talks about her. Plus,” - Gabriel pointed at a pink sweater on a chair in the corner - “I’m pretty sure that’s a woman’s sweater. Unless the good doctor here likes pink?”
Dr. Marshall jumped to his feet grabbing the sweater just as O’Connor started for it.
“Hand it over,” O’Connor demanded, holding his hand out.
“It’s my sister’s.” He held it close to him as if it were the most precious thing in the world. “She must have left it here.”
“Still lying,” Lucifer snapped at my side. “And we need to talk about this ‘Gabriel being seen’ thing. When were you going to tell me? Were you going to tell me at all?”
I pressed my lips into a thin line and gave him an incredulous look. Under my breath, I muttered, “Later.”
During our exchange, O’Connor got the sweater from Dr. Marshall and held it out to Mandy to put in an evidence bag. “If it’s your sister’s, then the hair on this should match her DNA and not Clarissa’s.”
“Okay, fine.” Dr. Marshall sighed. “It’s Clarissa’s. And he’s right. We were sleeping together, but I didn’t take her. I didn’t kidnap her, I swear.”
I glanced over at Lucifer. He glared at me but then grumbled, “He’s telling the truth.”