Jessie Hunt 13-The Perfect Impression by Blake Pierce (ebook reader online free .txt) 📗

See you later. Instead of textingback, Ryan actually called.

“Did you get any sleep?” he asked.

“Not a wink,” she told him and briefly walked him through the developmentsof the night.

“That’s sounds rough,” he said. “Maybe you should take a nap on theboat while you can.”

“I plan to as soon as we hang up,” she said. “But not before you tellhow your investigation is going.”

He hesitated so long before responding that she thought the call haddropped.

“We’re making progress,” he said vaguely. “Jamil has been invaluable.He’s living up to your hype. And Trembley’s helping out too. As always, he’senthusiastic, even after getting a vicious sunburn on his vacation. He won’tadmit it, but I think he fell asleep on the beach.”

Jessie could tell he was being evasive and called him on it.

“Why do you need Trembley around if you’re just doing research?”

“I don’t really,” he said way too casually. “Decker just assigned himto help out if I need any field work done. He’s basically a glorified errandboy.”

“Ryan,” she replied, not buying his laid-back front, “I’m starting toget the sense that you’re withholding details from me just so I don’t getstressed and can’t sleep.”

“That’s quite a charge,” he said.

“And that’s not a denial,” she pointed out.

“Listen, everything’s fine,” he said in his most reassuring voice. “Thework is coming along. I promise to fill you in on all of it later. But youalready have one case taking up space in that brain. You don’t need another.And I really do want you to try to get a little sleep.”

“Fine,” she said with more of a pout in her voice than she’d intended.

“I love you,” he told her. She could tell he was trying not to laugh ather through the phone.

“I love you too,” she said.

The phone had only been back in her pocket for a couple of minutesbefore she got another call. She startled to attention, realizing she must havedrifted off in that brief stretch. She was tempted to ignore it but knewherself too well to think that would work so she pulled it out again. It wasKat.

“What’s up, Philippa Marlowe?” she asked, trying to hide the exhaustionshe felt.

“Hey, Jessie,” Kat said, not joining in the playfulness. “Do you have acouple of minutes?”

“Considering that I’m stuck on a ferry boat from Catalina Island backto the city, sure.”

She sensed something was off with her friend but decided to let hershare the issue on her own schedule.

“Normally, I’d ask what that ferry thing is all about,” Kat said, “butI need to talk to you about something else.”

Okay,” Jessie said, noting her body involuntarily tense up. There was along pause during which Jessie could feel Kat working up the courage to saywhat she had to say.

“It’s about Hannah—”

“Is she okay?” Jessie interrupted, unable to keep her voice from rising.

“Yes. She’s safe,” Kat assured her quickly. “I just saw her a littlewhile ago. This is about things that have already happened, things I shouldhave told you about but didn’t.”

“What things?” Jessie demanded.

“Listen—you have to allow me to get through this. You’re going to wantto yell at me. You may hate me when I’m done. But just let me finish first,okay.”

“Okay,” Jessie agreed, despite every instinct she had.

Kat proceeded to tell her about the day she’d brought Hannah along on asupposedly safe surveillance operation with her last summer. Jessie had a vaguememory of the day. She recalled that Kat had suggested the idea because Hannah wasgoing stir crazy. She had said it would be uneventful, just sitting in a carfor hours.

The goal had been to use that down time to get Hannah to open up aboutthe trauma of recently seeing Ryan stabbed and almost dying herself. Butapparently she had instigated a confrontation with a drug dealer who wouldlikely have assaulted her if Kat hadn’t intervened at the last second.

Then Kat told her about a more recent incident, one she’d justuncovered. Hannah had snuck into her office, gotten information on a case abouta missing girl, and gone to the home of a potential suspect in the case—a convictedchild rapist out on parole—trying to find proof of his guilt. She’d ended up ina physical altercation with him, barely escaping.

As Jessie listened, doing her best not to blurt anything out, sherecalled how Hannah explained a massive bruise on her back by claiming she’dgotten injured falling backward into a shelf at a store. That would have beenthe same day she confronted the ex-con.

“I’m really worried about her, Jessie,” Kat concluded. “She’s gotsomething going on where she seems to need to put herself in danger. Like Isaid, I stopped by to see her this morning. I begged her to get help. I thoughtshe was going to come clean. Instead she threatened me, said that if I toldyou, it would ruin our friendship. She said you’d never forgive me for keepingthis from you for so long.”

She paused, apparently waiting for Jessie to either confirm or rejecther apprehension. But Jessie said nothing. He head was swimming with too manyconflicting emotions to put into words. Kat pressed on.

“And it’s true. I think that’s why I waited so long to say anything. AfterI covered for her once, thinking I could help her through this and avoid aconflict between you two, I was culpable. I let that color my decisions goingforward. I was worried about how you’d react if I told you, so I held back. Iconvinced myself the drug dealer thing was just a one-off. And every day that Idid that just made it worse. But now, after having her calmly blackmail me, Irealize that it’s gone way too far. You had to know, no matter theconsequences.”

Jessie sat in the corner of the boat, huddled against both the coldthat was sneaking in through the cheap windows and the pain of her friend’s disloyalty.Worse than that was the guilt. This had been happening underneath her nose formonths and she’d been oblivious.

Now she recalled another incident last fall, one in which Hannahwillingly using herself as bait to bust a sexual slavery ring. Jessie had beenproud, had thought her sister was bravely moving past