Page 45 of Grave Danger

“Thanks for coming to a job site,” Cody said. “Great advertising for our company to have law enforcement track us down while we’re working.”

“Dottie requested we find you as soon as possible,” Lucia snapped back.

“What?” Dottie turned her head to look up at Lucia. “What’s that?”

“This is Cody Bower,” Lucia shouted down to her, waving toward the three of them. “The man whose name is on the envelope from JoAnn.”

Dottie turned her cat’s eye glasses on them and nodded. “I see. He’s the tall one?”

The odd trio arrived in front of their own coverall-wearing and dirt-covered trio, and the three caged groundhogs behind them squeaked in annoyance. It felt like a scene setup by Tarantino, and Demetrius wondered briefly if he might be dreaming. When Dottie opened the clasp of her gigantic handbag and reached inside, Demetrius felt Cody tense beside him. He had to admit he felt the same way. She could pull anything out of that purse, and with the way things had been going lately, she just might.

She drew a plain white envelope from the purse’s depths and extended her hand to Cody. The envelope shook slightly as her arm trembled, and Cody hesitated a moment before gently accepting it.

“Thank you,” he said.

“No idea what’s in it,” Dottie said, her voice loud and crackling like it came from a static-ridden radio station. “She just told me to keep it safe. I hope it’s not a check. She didn’t have much money.”

Lucia, Zellmer, and Dottie stood in place, watching him expectantly. Cody looked down at the envelope, staring at his name written in what Demetrius could see was surprisingly elegant penmanship.

“I didn’t even know she knew my name,” Cody said quietly, running his fingers over the ink. “We never really spoke to each other.”

“Maybe she thought you were hot,” Dottie croak-shouted, and Zellmer choked then launched into a fit of coughing. Lucia let out a quick, sharp burst of laughter before shutting it down. Dottie looked at them both. “What? You don’t think us old folks can find you youngsters hot? We’ve still got eyes, you know, no matter how strong our glasses or how bad our glaucoma or macular.”

“Oh thank you Jesus for bringing me this moment,” Jugs whispered, and Demetrius realized he had his phone up and was recording a video of everything.

“You’re not going to post that, right?” Lucia said, apparently having noticed Jugs’s actions as well.

“Oh, no. I’m going to show Aggie, and I’m going to mark it as a favorite to watch when I’m feeling down.” Jugs turned his phone toward Cody. “Come on, Bonker, open it.”

“Bonker?” Lucia cocked her head as she grinned. “That’s a new one.”

“Never mind,” Cody said with a growl.

“I’ll explain later,” Jugs said.

Demetrius gave Cody’s arm a squeeze, and when he looked at him, added a smile as well. “Might as well open it,” Demetrius said. “They’re not going to leave until you do.”

At that moment, their client stepped out onto her back deck, her own phone held up as she made a video herself. She’d probably seen the police and was hoping to get some kind of arrest on video so she could go viral on TikTok. What a wonderful world.

“Everything all right out here?” she called.

“Everything is fine, Mrs. Arbuckle,” Demetrius said, waving. “No arrests or anything going on. Just an exchange of legal documents that in no way affects, or is related to, our business.”

“Nice disclaimer,” Cody said. “Have that one saved up as a just in case?”

“Pretty much.”

Cody grinned, then turned the envelope over and ran his finger under the sealed flap. He drew out folded pieces of paper and slowly, cautiously opened them. One of them, Demetrius could see, was a form with a lot of typed information on it. The other looked to be a handwritten letter.

“Oh my God,” Cody whispered.

“What is it?” Dottie said, shuffling a couple of steps forward, forcing Lucia and Zellmer to move in as well, each still holding onto an arm. “What’s she left you? Is it money? The house? What?”

“No, it’s worse.” He looked at Demetrius, pain and confusion apparent in his expression. “She left me her car.”

“What the hell are we going to do with that cruise liner of a car?”

A mixture of shock, pain, and sadness colored Cody’s voice as he followed Demetrius into the Critter Catchers office. Demetrius couldn’t blame him at all. He was feeling much the same way, with anxiety and annoyance added into the mix. It had been crappy of Lucia to drive Dottie out to their job to deliver the paperwork. Demetrius had spent fifteen minutes assuring Mrs. Arbuckle the sheriff’s department tracking them down at a job site had not been a legal issue related to their business. The entire time he’d been going through the explanation, she’d been making a video. He wondered where that video was going to show up. Would she tag him or the company? And how bad had he looked after wearing coveralls in the heat of June and digging groundhogs out from underneath her shed?