Page 98 of The Fallen Man

“Devonte keeps printing out more,” she said, clearly offended.

“But I’m not happy about it,” said Devonte.

“This is the system,” said Pete. “Don’t like it, go elsewhere.”

“How can you get anything out of this?” demanded Kerschel. “I sent you three perfectly clear spreadsheets.”

“You can’t absorb the information off of spreadsheets.”

She looked up at Jackson in disbelief.

“Take a break,” said Jackson. “Go get dinner. Come back in an hour and he’ll have something.”

“I’m torn,” she said. “This is torturing me, but I kind of want to see how he does it.”

“Up to you,” said Jackson, struggling not laugh.

“Dinner, for me,” said Devonte, slapping the laptop shut and putting it on a nearby desk.

“You talked me into it,” said Kerschel. “Let me get my jacket.”

Jackson got a cup of coffee and wandered around the office, but he waited until Kerschel and Devonte were out the door before trying to talk to Pete again. He had some time to kill before he went to pick up Caitlin and he liked watching Pete solve problems.

“You have a spreadsheet too, don’t you?” he asked, sitting in his usual desk chair after moving one of the stacks to the floor.

Pete looked up, a smile flashing across his face. “Of course. I based it on hers. But I can’t picture the data on the screen. Or I can, but I need like eight more screens.”

“Should we do a multi-media room? We’ve got that unused space back there. We could convert it.”

“Sounds great, but that doesn’t help me tonight. Where are you going? You look like you’re dressed up as yourself for a change, and you usually only do that if you have to be Jackson Deveraux.”

“I have a date,” said Jackson trying the words out on Pete before he had to admit it to his cousins.

“New girl or the same girl you been fooling around with since November?” asked Pete, giving him a frown over his reading glasses.

“Have you been tracking my phone or something?”

“No, you just been in a good mood since November, which is weird considering this shit that we’re dealing with. Do we need to run a background check on her?”

Jackson sighed.

“You would do it for your cousins.”

“Yeah,” said Jackson. “I know. I also know that she’s dealing with a financial shitstorm of some kind, and she doesn’t want help, opinions, or people looking into her shit. If she finds out I ran her, she’ll be pissed and embarrassed.”

Pete looked pained. “Isn’t that exactly the kind of thing you would describe as a red flag for your cousins?”

“It would be except that literally she gets grumpy face when I buy her coffee. She wants my time, not my money. Which, to be honest, is frustrating as hell.”

Pete laughed. “You finally found someone who doesn’t treat you like a meal ticket and look where it gets you—a girl with standards who likes you for you. It’s a goddamn tragedy.”

Jackson laughed. “It’s a tragedy I’m willing to endure.”

“Look, you know your business, but I do think we should just run a basic on her.”

“Yeah,” agreed Jackson, with a sigh. “Tomorrow. Where are we at on Caitlin Granger?”

“She was at Columbia when the shit hit the fan with her father, but she was already struggling because her mom was sick back in Colorado.”