Page 33 of Grave Danger

“There’s my big guy,” Demmy said, rolling himself in even closer so he could lean in for a kiss. “My big, sexy, handsome, strong, brave, and kind guy.”

“You’ve been hitting up your thesaurus.” Cody kissed him again. “You might want to save some of those words for later, Dems.”

The office door opened and Demmy looked over his shoulder, but, to Cody’s relief, he didn’t take his hands off Cody’s knees. And, to Demmy’s credit, a few years ago, Demmy wouldn’t have had the courage to remain this close together in front of a stranger.

“This is a place of business, isn’t it?” the new arrival said, familiar voice tinged with typical annoyance.

Demmy had the courage in front of an old acquaintance, as well.

“Hi, Lucia,” Demmy said. He turned to Cody again and gave his knees one more squeeze before letting go and rolling back to his desk.

“Second time I’ve caught you two going at it in your office. Is this what you do with your spare time?” Lucia walked into the space between them. “Make out and hope for the phone to ring?”

“Pretty much.” Cody stuck Clarence Simmons’s file back into the drawer, most likely far out of order, and slid it shut. For some reason, the sound made him think of a morgue drawer sliding away and the door closing behind it, and he thought about the Widow and shivered a bit. “And, trust me, we were far from ‘going at it.’ You would have known if we’d been ‘going at it.’” He was satisfied to see her cheeks turn pink. “What do we owe the pleasure of seeing you yet again today?”

“I wanted to ask you some questions about the Widow’s accident. See if you two had any insight about it.”

“We were sitting in Margie’s when it happened,” Demmy said. “Having lunch with Dave and Oliver at a back booth. Cody and I had our backs to the front windows, so we didn’t know anything was happening until people started screaming outside, and then we heard the crash.” He glanced at Cody before leaning in a little and lowering his voice, though it was only the three of them in the office. “Is she really dead?”

“Yeah, she’s dead.” Lucia blew out a breath. “Not sure if it happened while she was driving or because of the accident. I’ve been trying to talk to Eileen, but the doctors have been keeping me out of her room until they get her settled and thoroughly examined.”

“Is Eileen doing okay?” Cody asked. “Any injuries?”

“She’s got some bruising that I saw, and she was highly agitated. Otherwise she’s okay. Zenona admitted her for observation overnight.”

“Zenona should let you in to talk with her later tonight, I would think,” Demmy said.

“You’d be surprised. She’s pretty strict when it comes to her patients.”

Demmy sat back and shook his head. “Wow, the Widow Monroe is actually gone. Doesn’t seem possible.”

“She’s definitely been a town institution,” Lucia said. “And hazard.”

“Going to be a lot of editorial pieces written about her in The Herald,” Cody said.

“That’s for sure.” Lucia hooked her thumbs in her gun belt. “Once the autopsy is completed, they’ll ship her over to Eternal Rest. From what it sounds like, she had a casket and service pre-paid and ready to go.”

“Guess she was ready, huh?” Demmy said. “Amelia told us she has a sister down in Florida. I don’t remember the name off the top of my head.”

“Dorothea Lavish. She goes by Dottie. I’ve met her briefly a couple of times, when she’s been visiting during holidays and they attended social functions together.” Lucia smirked as she shook her head. “You’d swear they were twins, but Dottie is older by eighteen months.”

“Good God, she’s older than the Widow and still around?” Cody gave a low whistle. “That’s a good gene pool.”

“Looking for a surrogate for you two?” Lucia asked with a grin.

Before Cody could respond to that, Demmy asked, “Have you contacted Dottie?”

“Not yet. I need to find a number for her.”

Cody looked at Demmy. “I still have money on the Widow coming back. Especially now that I know what cemetery she’s going to be buried in.”

“What’s that mean?” Lucia snapped.

“It means both the mayor and that woman Ollie and I saw earlier were buried at Eternal Rest.” Cody shrugged. “And if those two could manage to come back from the dead, then the Widow Monroe sure as hell is going to make another appearance.”

“For fuck’s sake, we don’t have a zombie apocalypse starting here in town. Stop spreading rumors.”

“I’m not spreading anything,” Cody said, his voice rising.