Page 110 of Grave Danger

Agatha didn’t look at him as she took her own long drink, but she shook her head a couple times. “No,” she said, once she’d lowered the bottle. “He’s still somewhere in the wind, letting his staff take the fall for their shit show.”

“But he wasn’t in charge, right?”

She gave him a sour look. “Even if he wasn’t signing the paychecks and sitting up in that big office like last time, he still had a lot of input in that place. I don’t buy that innocent of all culpability act for a second.” A muscle in her jaw pulsed, and she shook her head as she turned away to glare out across the yard.

Abbott and Costello ran up to her, providing a happy and needed distraction, and they moved off to join the rest of the party. Cody greeted Amelia, Otis, Eileen, and Lucia. They were talking about some drama at the senior center that Cody only half listened to. His thoughts were still on Llewelyn Tisdale’s whereabouts and what his true role had been in things at GRUNT. They’d all been following the stories in The Herald, Parson’s Hollow’s paper published twice a week, as well as the national news once the AP had caught wind of everything. Dr. Willoughby, Sam, and the other surviving staff of GRUNT were all being charged with multiple counts, not the least of which was the manslaughter for the deaths of thirty-two town residents and fourteen GRUNT staff members. But Sam and Dr. Willoughby had assisted with the antidote, so they were placed under house arrest rather than imprisoned.

“Need another?”

The question brought Cody back to the party, and he found Lucia dangling her empty bottle in front of him.

“You off in space or something, Bower?” Lucia said. “Need another beer?”

He checked and discovered that, sure enough, he’d finished his first one. “Yeah, I could use another.”

“Come on then,” Lucia said. “I’m not playing bar wench for you.”

Cody couldn’t help the grin as he followed her to the large metal washtub that had been filled with ice and stocked with bottles of beer and a variety of hard seltzers and ciders.

“They finally gave you a day off,” Cody said.

“Yeah. Sheriff pretty much forced me to take the day and come here. I guess my attitude needed improving.”

Cody stood and looked at her a moment. “You know you left that wide open for me, right?”

Lucia smirked as she selected a beer. “Thought you needed a lift. You’ve been going through a lot yourself.”

“It’s no fun if you just serve them up on purpose like that.”

They laughed together, and it felt good. It felt pretty fucking great, actually.

“So, what’s going on with the recovery operation?” Cody asked.

Lucia took a drink before replying. “They’ve been able to match up about ninety percent of the bodies with their graves and return them. The funeral home is providing whatever services and products are needed, like attending to the deceased’s condition, new casket, providing another memorial service, and digging out and refilling the grave. All of that is being billed to the lab.”

“That’s going to be a big price tag.”

“Getting bigger every day. The deputies have been conducting sweeps of the surrounding woods in an effort to find the last ten percent of those who were previously interred. That’s been a real treat.”

“Sounds like a nice distraction. A little nature walk through the woods.”

“It’s not really a distraction when I have to keep my eyes down looking for bodies in varying states of decay.”

Cody took another drink and looked away before asking, “How’s Zellmer’s mother doing?”

“About as well as you’d expect considering Jaylene lost her husband to a monster attack a few years ago, and then her only child to a completely different monster attack.”

“She still trying to get our business license revoked?”

“Not anymore. I did hear she’s getting her house ready to sell so she can move to Tucson.”

“That’s a big change.”

“She’s got a sister out there, so she’ll have someone close when she needs them.”

“That’s good.” Cody shook his head as he thought about that day with Zellmer in the cemetery. He had been a grudge-holding asshole, but nobody deserved to go out like he did.

“The mechanic’s family, though,” Lucia said. “They’re still trying to get your business license revoked.”