The Perfect Impression by Pierce, Blake (essential reading TXT) 📕

the Aldridges, but he was still put out. The truth wasthat she did feel a little guilty about it, but not enough to apologize.

“She’s all yours now,” she said instead. “I didn’t arrest her. Shestill thinks she can talk her way out of this. Hell, maybe she can. I told heryou were going to go over every second of her time on the island and that ifshe couldn’t substantiate her alibi for you, then she should expect to becharged.”

“If she didn’t convince you, why should I expect to have a differentreaction?”

Jessie, her skull thick with exhaustion, tried to make herselfunderstood.

“I didn’t check every detail of her story. Maybe I missed something. AllI know is that all the other people in their group seem to have someone to vouchfor at least part of their time. She doesn’t. Beyond that, she snuck back onthe island. She wore a disguise. She had clear motive to kill Gabby, even ifshe was wrong about her having a tryst with her husband. That’s a lot toovercome. But I’m happy to let you be the one to either absolve or charge herand let the Avalon Sheriff’s Station get the credit.”

He was about to object but then thought better of it, apparentlyrealizing the arrangement might work out well for him.

“What do you plan to do?” he asked.

“I plan to go home. I’ve got some family stuff to deal with and then Ihave a pillow with my name on it. I don’t know that there’s much more I can dotonight. If you get a confession and close the case, congratulations. Ifsomething new and astounding comes up, call me. If she just sticks to herstory, then we’ll go back at it tomorrow. Cool?”

She didn’t wait to hear his answer as she walked out the door. Glancingdown the hall she was tempted to go to the research department and check inwith Jamil. She knew Ryan was out running down leads on his case with Trembley.

But even though she was sure Jamil would be happy to fill her in, shecouldn’t help but think that Ryan might resent it, as if she was checking up onhim like an anxious mother. Besides, he was sure to share every detail when hegot home. So, using all the willpower she had left in her bleary-eyed,bone-tired body, she turned in the other direction and headed for the stationexit.

*

No one was home.

Jessie knew she wouldn’t find Ryan but she’d expected to see Hannah. Itwas starting to get dark out and she was tempted to text her. But then shepaused, wondering if she really wanted her sister home right now, consideringthe conversation they needed to have.

She texted Ryan to see if he was wrapping up soon, in the hope that hemight be able to come home in time to offer some emotional backup for theinevitable sisterly confrontation to come. He responded almost immediately witha selfie of him and Trembley in a car, both making goofy faces. The captionbelow the picture read: Ride-along fun! She didn’t have the heart tobring his spirits down so she sent back a smiley face and left it at that.

Though she knew it was pointless, she checked her messages again incase Peters had any updates or questions. There were none. If he had somethingto share, he would have called. She grabbed an apple from the fridge andwandered around aimlessly.

Eventually, she poked her head in Hannah’s room, in the futile hopethat maybe the girl had fallen asleep and she’d just missed her. But the bedwas empty. She sat down on it, debating what to do next.

Against her better judgment, she pulled out her phone and checked whereHannah was. Though her sister had turned off her own phone’s location services,Jessie had secretly installed another GPS tracking system that ran in thebackground, imperceptible to any user who didn’t know exactly where to look.

After an initial check to make sure the app was working, she had generallyavoided using it, at least in recent weeks. She told herself that if she onlyused it in an emergency, she wasn’t really violating her sister’s privacy. Butnow, as she opened the app, she silently admitted that her justification didn’thold much weight. But that didn’t stop her.

To her relief, she saw that Hannah was at Tommy’s Coffee. Only half amile away, it was her favorite hangout. She often spent hours there afterschool or on weekends, feet curled up under her on a worn loveseat in thecorner of the coffeehouse.

The pit of anxiety in her gut, one she hadn’t even realized was thereuntil now, subsided. She fell back on Hannah’s bed, letting herself sink intothe mattress. She looked up at the ceiling, wondering what her sister thought aboutat night when she stared up at the same light sconce Jessie was looking at now.

When she was lying in this very bed last summer, was she planning toconfront that drug dealer when she went on the stakeout with Kat? Or was it aspur-of-the-moment thing? What about when she volunteered to pose as an underageescort to bust a sexual slavery ring? Was she resting her head on this verypillow when she decided to break into Kat’s office to get information on amissing girl that led her to a pedophile?

That last one was a whole other level. At least with the dealer, Kathad been there. At least with the sex slave ring, there were multipleundercover cops in vehicles close by. But it’s not like the guy she confrontedwas just going to get a little handsy with her. He was a child rapist who hadattacked her. Jessie had seen the bruises that proved it.

She sighed in frustration, unsure how she could broach all these newhorribles while keeping her cool and not pushing Hannah further away. At herwits’ end, she closed her eyes and gave her brain a break, allowed it to floatwherever it wanted.

For several seconds, her thoughts receded and she pictured only therolling waves of the ocean from earlier today. To her surprise, when her mindreengaged, it landed on a word she hadn’t expected, one that had passed throughher