PsyCop 6: GhosTV (43 page)

He almost smiled. “Could you actually see me turning into a househusband?”

Actually, I could…and I didn’t like what I saw. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“No.” He squeezed so hard I needed to pull my hand free for fear of bleeding on him. He released my hands like he hadn’t realized his own strength. Which I’m sure he hadn’t. “I might not be safe at the Twelfth Precinct anymore, but that doesn’t mean I just roll over and surrender. I couldn’t.”

“Okay,” I said, relieved. “Just as long as you don’t—”

“So that’s why I’m signing on with the FPMP.”

I waited for the rimshot, the point at which he’d break into his big, contagious smile, cuff me on the shoulder, and say,
I really had you
going there.

Except that point never came.

Nope, Jacob looked completely earnest. Painfully so. And I realized, as I stared deep into his eyes, that I hadn’t been seated next to Lisa on that flight back to Chicago so that I could catch up with her. I’d been put there so Dreyfuss could start working on Jacob. So he could drop a few carefully selected notions into their conversation—ideas that would make Jacob fear not for himself, or even for me—but for his family.

I could argue, remind Jacob that the FPMP was tapping our phone.

That they assassinated people, for crying out loud. But Jacob had that mulish expression on him that told me I’d be better off biding my time, since any argument now would only make him dig his heels in deeper.

I stood, and picked up the check. “C’mon,” I said. “Let’s get going.” It was gonna be a long ride home.

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Jordan Castillo Price writes and produces the PsyCop novels from her home in rural Wisconsin. Since she shed her day job, she no longer needs to endure embarrassing staff inservices like the one in which Sando makes Vic do a million wristlocks. Though she imagines you never know when a wristlock might come in handy.

Since Camp Hell came out, I’ve been trying to do more hands-on research when I write a book. Very little pulls me out of a story quicker than reading a section where the author could have added some realism with only a small amount of legwork, or even a trip to Wikipedia. Especially if they’ve just mundane facts they could have easily researched, and they made them up instead, and got them dead wrong.

I re-discovered an old friend of mine who’d had a career as a forensics tech since last we knew each other. I badgered her for a good long while to try to get an idea of how crime scenes are treated.

Interestingly, some of the things she said around the specific questions, such as the fact that most people couldn’t handle hearing about the crime scenes, really informed the Vic/Jacob relationship, and I think said a lot about how they get along well because they understand each other on a level that a civilian wouldn’t. Her descrip-tions of sketching the scenes gave rise to the part in the story where Vic draws the astral door without knowing it.

And I need help with the more mundane aspects of the storytelling, too! Another friend has two pre-teens in Wisconsin soccer, so I totally picked her brain about what happened at soccer games, if it would be plausible for Clayton’s team to play in Beloit in June, and how people acted at the games. There are these plastic red and yellow penalty cards the ref keeps in his pockets. They’re shown to the kids when they’ve broken rules, and I really wanted to include a yellow card, but explaining what it was seemed to bog down the action too much, so I dropped that idea. That part where no one’s actually paying attention to their kids playing soccer and they’re all knitting? That doesn’t really happen; I just took artistic license to show what a special little snowflake Clayton is. Plus it seems whenever I go somewhere, there’s someone completely oblivious to their surroundings, knitting.

I often add in details like that just to amuse myself.

Some aspects of the story I figured out via first-hand research. I took a day-long meditation retreat to get some ideas for PsyTrain—and believe me when I say everyone there was nice! But Vic needs to be dis-gruntled and roll his eyes at everything so you’re seeing it all through his annoyed filter. There was one woman who went into a thing about her gluten intolerance that probably would have at least drawn an eye-roll from Vic…but I swear the gluten-free spelt cookies already featured prominently in the plot before I enjoyed her company.

I actually even looked for some spelt cookies so I could enjoy the fi-brousness, but alas, I couldn’t find any. I ate something called Chunks of Energy Carob Spirulina, figuring Vic wouldn’t put something called spirulina in his mouth without vociferous protest…but, it wasn’t bad.

Kind of like an herbal crispy rice treat. Then again, I don’t mind hippy food. I’m not Vic. (I would’ve spewed over that bone in the salmon.)
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fiction by Jordan Castillo Price

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Recommended Reads

Readers who enjoy PsyCop should check out these additional titles by Jordan Castillo Price.

Sleepwalker

Daniel Weber (“Web” to his friends) was a promising young biology student on the fast track to a prestigious grad program. That was a year and a half ago. Now he’s working a dead-end security job and living in his cousin’s two-flat. Thanks to the mysterious George, he’s got gaps in his memory too big for his pocket notebook to fill.

Jesse Ray Jones is the taxidermist who’s trying to help the Faris Natural Sciences Center secure the MAHPS Grant, a funding that would keep the foundering organization afloat for a few more years. He looks like a skatepunk and talks like a science major, which pushes Web’s every last hot-button.

It’s lust at first sight…but hooking up proves difficult when a supervisor at the Center is found bludgeoned to death in the petroglyph alcove—and Jesse and Web are the primary suspects. (Novella) 

Sympathy

It took Anthony Potosi years to recover from the accident that claimed his father’s life, and doctors told him he’d never walk again. He proved them wrong. Now he’s back at the landscaping business, Potosi and Sons, he shares with his two older brothers—but they seem more interested in getting Anthony to sell out his share than in celebrating his recovery.

The oil-and-water relationship between Anthony and his brothers is hardly new. Even when they were kids, Sal and Chip delighted in terrorizing their baby brother with stories like “The Hook.” Now Anthony towers over his brothers...but he’s still the youngest. When the new owner of the Hook House calls in an order, they take a little too much satisfaction in sending him to face his old fears. And learning to open up again to trust, desire—and maybe even love—is far scarier than The Hook. (Novelette)

Zero Hour

Ernest just turned thirty. It’s time for retirement, freedom from the tedious drudgery of his job as a data clerk. Time to explore parts of the city he’s never seen before, and hopefully meet some people other than his Deacon or his health monitor. And at the end of the month?

Time to die.

Will mans the counter at the historic coffee shop, and when he talks, he sounds just like an old-time data feed. He’s nothing like anyone Ernest has ever met—which isn’t saying much—but still, something about him simply doesn’t parse. (Novel)

Featuring cover art by the illustrious PL Nunn