“Thanks for the sandwich, Hannah,” Jessie said.
“Earn it,” her sister muttered dramatically under her breath.
“Kat says she’s got news,” Ryan said, diverting Jessie’s attention.
“Oh yeah?”
“I left your textbook in the living room,” Kat said. “Thanks for letting me borrow it, though it was pretty dry stuff.”
“That’s your news?” Jessie asked, “That Behavioral Criminology textbooks are boring? What else have you got for me? That the sun is burn-y?”
“I’m getting to it, Jessie Hurts—er, Hunt,” she said, feigning bruised feelings. “Before I share my news, how are things going on the teaching front? Does the UCLA student body still adore you?”
“I actually had my first seminar since the whole Night Hunter thing,” Jessie said, unable to hide her excitement. “It was the best-attended one so far, although I have a sneaking suspicion that was a result of that very same Night Hunter thing. I thought I saw some students checking me for visible scars.”
“Silly kids,” Kat chuckled, “Don’t they know all the really impressive scars are on the inside? What about the other big event? How are things going on the wedding front? Choose a date yet? Got a venue? Picked out a pastor? Where’s the reception? Most importantly, who are your bridesmaids?”
“Ugh, my blood pressure just went up listening to you,” Jessie said.
“We’re taking it slow,” Ryan added. “Right now, we’re in the ‘tell our co-workers about it’ stage. That’s been interesting enough.”
“Yeah,” Jessie said. “Callum Reid already told me that he wants to give me away. He says now that he’s off the force he needs something to focus on.”
Jessie didn’t mention the other reason the recently retired detective was probably offering: all her other father figures had been murdered.
“We figure we’ll linger in the joy of engagement-hood for a little while before getting into the stressful stuff,” Ryan said, interrupting her thoughts. “Remember, I’ve been to this wedding rodeo once before and the planning part was definitely not my favorite.”
“See,” Jessie said. “That’s why he’s the guy for me. We’re simpatico on this. Enjoy now. Stress later.”
She flashed back to the proposal: up in the snowy mountain town of Wildpines, just after finally stopping the Night Hunter, with Ryan down on one knee in the snow, a small black ring box in his hand on a gorgeous, sunny morning. He really was the guy for her.
“I’m glad to hear no crucial decisions are imminent,” Kat said, pulling her back into the present, “because I wouldn’t be able to help with any of them.”
“Why not?” Hannah asked, expressing interest in the conversation for the first time.
“That’s the news I wanted to tell you about. I’m going to be out of town for a bit.”
“Why?” Hannah asked.
“For how long?” Jessie added.
“Whoa,” Kat said, taken aback, “it’s nice to be wanted but settle down. I’m just going up to Lake Arrowhead.”
“To see your boyfriend?” Hannah teased.
Kat’s long distance boyfriend, Mitch Connor, was a sheriff’s deputy up in the mountain town of Lake Arrowhead, about two hours northeast of Los Angeles. They’d met when she assisted Jessie on a case last year and visited the town while following a lead. He helped her out; they hit it off and had been going back and forth to see each other every few weeks for months now.
“That’s part of it,” Kat said evenly, not taking the bait, “but I’ve also got a case. Mitch said some guy he knows who runs a ski resort in Big Bear thinks his wife is cheating on him and wants her tailed by someone who’s good but not local. Mitch said he had the perfect candidate.”
“So you’ve basically found a way to get a free ski vacation out of this,” Ryan observed.
“I don’t ski,” Kat said coquettishly. “So I guess Mitch and I will have to find other ways to keep busy when I’m not on a stakeout.”
“Oh my God,” Hannah said, pressing her hands to her ears as she hurriedly left the room, “You realize I’m still technically a child, right? Why am I being subjected to this? I’ll be in my room until either you all leave or my therapy appointment, whichever comes first.”
She dashed across the room, red-faced. As Jessie watched her go, she wished she could embrace the ‘technically a child’ assertion. It might be true, but her half-sister, just months from turning eighteen, had long since left childhood behind.
Apart from all the traumas she’d recently suffered, physically, no one would mistake her for a kid. She was barely an inch shorter than Jessie. They shared the same green eyes. And with her long, skinny frame, her medium length blonde hair, and her attitude, she sometimes looked closer to thirty than to twenty. At certain angles they could be mistaken for fraternal twins, though Jessie would never say that out loud. The three adults waited until Hannah slammed closed the door to her room to continue.
“I should keep you around all the time,” Jessie said. “That way I can deploy you whenever her sarcasm levels get too high.”
“Happy to be of assistance,” Kat told her, starting for the front door, “but not until after I conquer the sin in the snow. That’s what I’m calling this case.”
“I’m very happy for you,” Jessie said. “I hope it’s all you’re dreaming of and more. Let me know when you’re headed back to town and we can discuss your hot tub adventures.”
“Now you’re going to make me run out of the room,” Ryan threatened, though he was smiling.
They ignored him.
“Hey,” Kat remembered, “any updates on our unstable, incarcerated friend who shall not be named? Has she tried to get in touch with you again? Did you agree to write that letter for her?”
Jessie shook her head, not wanting to think about the Andy Robinson situation. After all, this was a woman who had tricked her into trusting her—even befriending her—during an investigation, then tried to poison her when Jessie discovered that she was the killer all along.
“I’ve been putting it off,” she said. “I know that she was helpful on the Night Hunter case, and that she says she can provide good info on other cases, but the idea of writing a letter in favor of transferring someone who tried to kill me to a nicer prison just rubs me the wrong way.”
“I don’t blame you,” Kat said. “That woman is bad news, no matter how much help she offers. Be careful, okay?”
Jessie gave her friend a hug.
“I will,” she promised. “You have fun up there in the mountains with your boy toy. And stay safe.”
“You too, lady,” Kat replied. “With a teenage hormone monster in one room, a tough guy fiancé in the other, students to teach, endless killers to catch, and an incarcerated, obsessed sociopath trying to wheedle her way back into your life, you’ve got a full plate. And now you won’t have me watching your back, so keep your head on a swivel.”
“Always,” Jessie said.
As if on cue, just as she closed and locked the door behind Kat, Ryan’s phone buzzed.