Page 97 of Perfect Pitch

“Did you say something, Mitch?” Kane strolls in.

“Sorry. Just talking to myself.”

He shrugs before leaving the communal living quarters.

There’s something about the picture niggling at my subconscious. Something I can’t quite put my finger on. I keep staring at the photo. Finally, I let my eyes drift shut, knowing I’m going to lose my train of thought if I keep staring at it.

Chin comes in. “Mind if I turn on the TV?”

Without opening them, I respond, “Go ahead.”

The second he does, the Hershey’s Kiss commercial where the candies act like bells begins to play. Just as the last bell goes, “Whew!” I’m surging upward in my chair. The picture of Paige and Beckett was taken during the holidays.

The holidays.

Austyn is going to talk to Paige about her father.

The shit is going to hit the fan soon. I just hope we’re all wearing protective gear so we’re not permanently splattered with it.

* * *

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Smile at work. You never know who might need one.

—Beautiful Today

“What was my goal for the year? Survive.”

Austyn laughs softly. “Was that because of the hours?”

I roll to the side, pulling her with me. “You don’t get it, Beats. Part of my job was walking up and down the trains to look for people who boarded without a ticket. At that time of the night, there would be people who—shall we say—didn’t mind burning out other’s olfactory senses.”

Austyn falls to the floor as she screeches with laughter. “Oh my god.”

I lean over the side of the couch and grin. “There was this woman...”

“A woman?”

“And her six, no seven, cats.”

“You have got to be shitting me.”

“That’s what they were doing. Shitting.”

“The woman or the cats?”

“At which point? I walked the train four times that night.” I wince in remembrance. “Then she bit me when I threw her off.” I show Austyn the teeth marks on the back of my hand.

She almost clocks her head on my brother’s end table when she sits up. “Holy shit, Mitch! You’re not joking.”

“Not even in the slightest.”

“Why did you stay with it?” She props her chin on her hands.

I brush her hair away from her face. “Probably the same reason you make music. I couldn’t think of anything else I ever wanted to be.”

“Just a cop?”

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