PsyCop 3: Body and Soul Read Online Free PDF Page A

different park, and I was no longer on secret experimental drugs that amped up my ability to the level of Marie Saint Savon. So I let "Zig" establish a search grid and march along beside me, pen and paper at the ready, as we walked it.
    Zig was professional, I'd give him that. He really knew his shit. Moreso than me. Not that that's saying much. Willing to do all the work, too, without seeming to expect much input from me. All in all, maybe a good match—if it wasn't for the whole "I'm gay" thing. I couldn't imagine that such a confession would be greeted with any amount of enthusiasm.
    Or even civility.
    "All clear?" Zig asked as we moved to the next row. I realized I'd been trying to figure out if there was any way at all I could get the damn confession out there, on the table, before I built up any kind of relationship with him. Best to let him be disappointed right off the bat, before he had any preconceived ideas about me.
    I glanced back over my shoulder and gave the area we'd just walked a quick scan. "All clear."
    We pivoted and started doubling back. I didn't want to challenge Zig's work methods by telling him that I didn't actually need a grid to spot ghosts. After all, maybe he'd find something that the first investigators had overlooked. But once I realized he was focused on me rather than the grid, like any good Stiff would be, I knew that I was just wasting time.
    In so many ways.
    "You married, Zig?" I asked him.
    "Yeah, twenty-one years." He actually glanced at his wedding ring as he said it. "You?"
    I looked down at my bare left hand. I'd never had the compulsion to do that before. How lame. "I'm, uh.... "Great. I couldn't say it.
    But I had to. The longer I waited, the worse my anxiety would be. And I couldn't imagine it feeling any worse than it did already. "I'm moving in with someone. Just as soon as we find a place that's not haunted." Say it, Vic. Damn it. Tell him.
    "That a common problem, spirit activity in a...?"
    "Jacob Marks. From the Twelfth. You know him? I'm moving in with him."
    Zig almost did a spit take. The color drained from his ruddy cheeks, leaving him a strange shade of gray. His already-bulging eyes bulged even more. And then a barrier slammed down somewhere behind them and he pressed his lips together hard.
    Shit. I'd thought I was up for the conversation, but evidently I was a much bigger pussy than I realized. My stomach clenched up and I fought back the urge to tell Zig that I was just kidding, and laugh, and give him a hearty, heterosexual clap on the back.
    God, I hate confrontation.
    I steeled myself for the tirade that was sure to come. The one where I was a drug addict, a shitty cop, and a miserable excuse for a human being.
    Zig blinked. He cleared his throat. "Marks," he said. "Sure.
    We've met." And then he looked back at his notepad with every ounce of attention he had.

Chapter Three
    Even though he was on vacation, Jacob hadn't been relaxing. My hole-in-the-wall apartment smelled like lemons, or more likely Pledge aerosol furniture polish, and Jacob was dressed in black and charcoal designer casual.
    "Got a date?" I asked him. My sport coat slid off the hook on the back of the door. It seemed like too much effort to pick it up. It settled into the space where my door met the worn linoleum tile of my kitchen floor. There was a cigarette burn there from the previous tenant. A gouge where the new refrigerator had cornered badly. I was accustomed to my apartment. It wasn't very demanding.
    "Condos on Irving Park, Western, and Ravenswood. I made the first appointment for eight. Figured you could get a power nap in if you needed to."
    We'd been awake since five and it was six-thirty at night.
    If my head hit the pillow, I'd power nap all the way through to the next day.
    Of course, I didn't need as much sleep as I had in my big pill-popping days. I tried to get into the Internet to fill those sleepless hours with some good healthy porn, but it seemed to me that all my old