Page 44 of Grave Danger

Cody screwed up his face as he thought about it. “It’s the name of a singer, like from a while ago.”

“Okay…”

“Barbara? Linda? No, neither of them.”

“Stevie Nicks?” Demmy offered. “Sheena Easton. Ann Wilson.”

“You’re not helping.”

“Sorry.”

Cody closed his eyes and mentally ran through the alphabet a couple of times. “Belinda.”

“Ah, as in Carlisle. Nice.” Demmy made a note. “And her grave was dug out from the inside as well?”

“Yeah.” Cody frowned. “I don’t know if we told the office about it.”

“But you told Lucia, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s about all you can do. She should have talked with the office.”

“Good point.”

Demmy sat back and clasped his hands over his belly. “So, now what?”

“Feel like a walk in the woods before our next job?”

“Sure.” Demmy got up, then snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah, we need to get that carrier from out by the pond, too. You were right about that raccoon. What the hell?”

“He doesn’t want to live in the wild. Can’t say I blame him.”

Cody’s headache had eased up by the time they left the office. Demmy locked the door behind them, and they got into Cody’s truck. After he’d pulled out of the strip mall parking lot, he reached over to take Demmy’s hand as he headed out Route 118.

CHAPTER TEN

Two days later, with no more sightings of people who were, technically, deceased, Demetrius, Cody, and Jugs were extracting a family of groundhogs from underneath a client’s shed when a sheriff’s cruiser pulled up to the curb.

Jugs was kneeling on the ground beside the shed and sat back on his heels. “Uh oh. What’d you two do now?”

“What?” Demetrius had just closed the cage on one of the groundhogs and looked toward the street in time to see Lucia and Deputy Ryan Zellmer step out of the car. “Oh, come on. Do they have to come to a job site? What the hell?”

“What’s going on?” Cody asked, out of sight behind the shed and unable to see the new arrivals.

“Lucia and Deputy Zellmer are here,” Demetrius said, returning his attention to the cage and making sure the lock had been set correctly. Groundhogs didn’t have nimble fingers like raccoons, but they were big and bulky, and they could force a cage door open. Experience had taught him quite a bit about the critters of their region.

“And a special guest,” Jugs said, then gasped. “Oh my God. It’s the Widow’s sister. It’s got to be her.” His smile was big and wide, and he clapped his hands with glee. “I’m so happy I’m here for this. Oh man, I think I just peed a little.”

“What?” Cody poked his head out from behind the shed, forehead smeared with dirt and creased in a frown. “Lucia’s here? What the fuck?”

“Looks like she’s brought a friend.” Demetrius got to his feet and brushed dirt from his knees. “I think Jugs is right.”

Deputy Zellmer had opened the passenger side back door and helped an elderly woman out of the cruiser. She looked to be about two feet shorter than the deputy, though her silver updo helped make up some height. Big cat’s eye sunglasses covered half of her face, and the skin exposed was dark brown and creased with wrinkles, making Demetrius think of a leather handbag left behind in Death Valley by a senior bus tour group. Even though the temperature was mid-seventies, she wore a heavy wool coat over a purple wool skirted suit. A massive black patent leather handbag swung from the crook of her left arm, and gleaming zirconia earrings hung heavy from her sun-browned ear lobes. Just looking at her heavy wool layers made Demetrius sweat even more inside his coveralls.

“Good God,” Cody said as he came up beside Demetrius. “It’s like somebody left the Widow in the oven too long.”

Demetrius snorted a quiet laugh as Jugs got up to stand with them, all three watching as Lucia and Zellmer walked slowly up the gravel driveway, each of them holding an arm with Dottie between them.