“I brought him.” From the hallway, Jeremy poked his head into the room and Pescoli’s day, which had so recently been looking up, took a nosedive.
“Don’t you know you need to check with me first?” she asked her son, trying to hold on to her temper. This situation could have been so easily avoided had Jeremy been properly trained. But the worst part of it was that facing off with Jeremy was just the kind of scene she’d been concerned about ever since her son had started volunteering at the offices, the kind of scene she never wanted to experience.
“It was okay the other day,” Jeremy pointed out, his back up as she grabbed her purse and zipped her jacket.
“And I came out to meet him, remember.” For the love of God, her son could be so clueless sometimes. “Always let me know,” she told him. “Always. Give me a heads-up. I could have sensitive material on my desk, or someone else in the room. You can’t just let anyone walk in here.”
“Hey, hey, hey!” Manny butted in. “I insisted. And it’s a good thing. What happened to ‘first call’? That’s what you promised.”
“I know what I said,” she snapped as he backed up a step to allow her to pass, so now, she and Zoller were adding to the clog of people near her doorway. “That call will come when there’s something to report.”
“This seems like a breaking story to me.”
“Nope, it’s not. Not yet. We’ve got nothing so far. As soon as we do, you’re first on my list.”
“Huh,” he snorted.
“Mom!” Jeremy said, a new urgency to his voice. “What’s on your finger . . . are you engaged?”
Everyone stopped to stare at her left hand where her new ring winked under the fluorescent lights.
“Umm, yes . . . yes. I was going to talk to you and Bianca tonight.”
“But—”
“Seriously, Jer. Tonight.”
“You said you would talk to us first before you did anything,” he said. “But it looks like you’ve already made your decision.” He was positively stricken.
“Not keeping promises, Detective?” Manny asked.
“Tonight, Jer,” she said again firmly. Before he could argue any further, she shouldered past him and Manny, and said in an undertone to Zoller who was right on her heels, “Under the radar. No sirens, no lights.”
“See you there . . .” Zoller said quietly as she headed down the hall and Pescoli turned into Alvarez’s office.
“What do you mean, she’s getting married?” Bianca asked and Jeremy wondered how his smart little sister could be such an idiot sometimes. He’d picked her up from her current BFF Amy’s house and now they were cruising through the lower section of town, near the falls, and were scouting out food, cheap food as neither of them had a job and therefore no extra cash.
“It musta happened last night. That’s why she had to leave, to be with that douche bag Santana.” He looked around. “There’s nothing good down here. Let’s check the hill.”
“You think Santana’s a douche?” Bianca asked as they headed toward the road that connected the upper part of Grizzly Falls, which was above this section near the river.
“I don’t know.”
“I think he’s kind of sexy, well, in an old man kind of way.”
Jeremy groaned. “Are you kidding?” As they passed the courthouse, he shot a glance her way and caught her smothering a smile. “Oh, yeah, you’re so funny.”
“What’s really bugging you?”
“I just don’t think we need some jerkwad coming into the house and telling us what to do,” he said, though she was right, he was irritated at his mother, in fact, mad as hell. His mom thought she could tell him who he could date and what her opinion was about his choice, but man, he couldn’t give her advice on anything, and the way she’d chewed his butt in front of the other detectives and that reporter today was a real pisser. Then again, he didn’t like Santana much either. They’d come to blows before and it could happen again.
“Maybe he won’t get in our way.”
“Jesus, Bi, what planet are you living on?”
She looked at him as if he were from Jupiter; then she reached over and turned the heater up, as if that would help.
“It’s broken. Remember?” he said.