Free A Grave Prediction (Psychic Eye Mystery) by Victoria Laurie Page B

Candice Fusco? Persona non grata around the office?”
    I frowned. “You’ve heard of her, huh?”
    “Oh, yeah,” she said with a knowing smile. “I’m a little surprised you didn’t ask me if it was okay that she meet up with us for lunch.”
    “So, you also know that she’s here in L.A. with me, huh?”
    “There’s not a lot we don’t know about you, Abby. We were given a full briefing by the director before you even boarded the plane from Austin.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Seriously. Whitacre wasn’t too optimistic about your chances of lending us a hand, and he wanted us to know exactly what we’d have to deal with. It’s why your reception was a little on the chilly side.”
    I laughed. “I like that you think it was only a ‘little’ chilly.”
    “Yeah, sorry about that. If it helps, I’m now a believer.”
    “It helps,” I admitted. “What do you think the odds are that any of your peers will be willing to give me a chance?”
    “Before you found Grecco’s wine cellar, I’d have said they were slim to none. Now I’d put them at about even.”
    “Well, that’s better than I would’ve thought, at least.”
    “The one to work on would be Agent Robinson. He’s the most respected agent in our department.”
    I grimaced. Robinson seriously disliked me, and I didn’t need to be psychic to pick up on it. “Why’s he the leader of the pack?” I asked her.
    “He closes the highest percentage of cases, and he’s known for not letting go of a case until he brings in the bad guy. That’s why what you said to him yesterday about Alejandro Cortina was such a blow to his ego. It’s a trait that, until recently, had been seen as something to be respected, but as the Cortina case continues to go nowhere, I think he’s afraid it’s starting to become a liability. Basically, you fed into his worst fears.”
    “Awesome,” I said flatly.
    “Did Rivera tell you that you’d be working on his case next?”
    “He did,” I confessed.
    Kelsey nodded. “Just do your thing, Abby, and you’ll win him over.”
    “It’s not the Cortina case, is it?” I asked, a little worried that, in spite of my warning, he’d ask me to find a way to lure Cortina here.
    “No,” she said. “It’s another case entirely.”
    “What’s it about?”
    She cocked a playful eyebrow. “You mean, you don’t already know?”
    I resisted the urge to roll my eyes . . . but just barely. People are always attempting to use a bit of “psychic humor” with me, and I’m pretty sure they don’t realize just how often everyone else does it, or, after years and years of enduring it, how
totally annoying
I find it. “No,” I said levelly, and left it at that.
    Kelsey’s eyebrow lowered and she cleared her throat. “You get that a lot, I’ll bet.”
    “More than you know.”
    “Sorry,” she said. “Robinson and Perez have partnered up to work a series of bank robberies happening in and around La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena.”
    “Where’s that?” My knowledge of the local geography was pretty limited.
    “North,” Kelsey said, thumbing over her shoulder to indicate the direction.
    “Huh,” I said. “What do you know about the case?”
    “We have weekly meetings to brief Rivera and the team on each of our case files, so I know a fair amount, but I think I should let Robinson and Perez explain,” she said, placing her napkin on the table. “And on that note, I think it’s time we got back. Rivera’s going to lend us some latitude with the late lunch after bringing in a win like we did today, but he’s not going to let us push it.”
    *   *   *
    W e arrived back at the bureau around four o’clock, but it felt much later to me. It was more than just the time change; I was tired and drained. So I was hardly enthusiastic when Rivera called Kelsey and me into the conference room again for a debriefing about the search at Grecco’s house.
    Kelsey did most of the talking, thank God. And she gave a