Page 62 of Grave Danger

Oliver looked at their group and made a face. “They’re all involved in their conversation. Besides, we’re just going to be right over there.”

Demetrius nodded—really, they were only going to be a few yards away—and headed toward the mystery man. Oliver walked beside him, each of them picking a path between headstones and watching the man ahead of them. He hadn’t noticed them yet, and Demetrius was hoping they would be able to get a chance to talk with him. The man had provided Demetrius with his name when they’d met before, and it took him a moment to remember it now: Sam.

A shout went up from the line of cars parked on the grassy shoulder of the road. Demetrius stopped and looked in that direction. From where he stood, he could see Lucia and Zenona running along the line of cars as the sound of a large engine roared across the lush green grass. The Widow’s Cadillac lurched into reverse, hitting the front end of the car behind it with a sharp and brittle crunch of plastic. People shouted, and through the driver’s window, Demetrius could see a tall updo swaying back and forth.

The thought the Widow’s at it again, went through his mind. Then he realized they were at the Widow’s funeral and had just watched her casket lowered into the ground. That was followed up by the realization that Cody was now the Cadillac’s rightful owner.

“Oh, shit!” Oliver exclaimed. “The Widow’s sister is taking your car.”

Demetrius saw Oliver’s eyes widen behind his round glasses, and he looked at the mysterious bearded man. The man was staring right at him, and Demetrius could now see he wore sunglasses and held a plastic cubby filled with what might have been small jars.

“Excuse me,” Demetrius called.

“Dude, she’s leaving Lucia in a cloud of exhaust,” Oliver practically shouted.

Demetrius looked back at the chaos erupting along the road. Sure enough, Dottie had maneuvered the Cadillac enough to angle out of the line of parked cars, leaving several damaged in her wake, then roared off along the road at heart-stopping speed, swerving left and right to avoid pedestrians scattering out of her path. Cody stood beside Lucia, a white cloud of exhaust settling around them like a steampunk mist.

“Come on!” Oliver jogged past Demetrius, headed toward the line of cars.

Demetrius looked at Sam and saw him hurrying off across the grounds toward a white pickup truck parked nearby. Demetrius muttered a curse before rushing after Oliver.

“What happened?” Demetrius asked as he came up beside Cody.

“Dottie got away from us,” Lucia said with a snarl.

“And, again, I did not leave the keys in the car.” Cody held up the key ring containing the door and ignition keys, shaking it slightly. “She must have kept a set for herself.”

Lucia stomped off toward the sheriff’s cruiser. Once she’d sped off, Zenona approached them.

“So, um, Lucia was my ride.”

“Yeah? Well Lucia is chasing down our ride,” Cody said.

“Come on,” Demetrius said. “Someone will give us a ride home.”

The three of them accepted a ride from Amelia and Otis. They squeezed into the backseat of Otis’s Chrysler sedan, Demetrius sitting between Cody and Zenona and trying not to imagine it was more than a little symbolic.

“What a day,” Zenona said with a sigh.

“Most exciting funeral I’ve ever attended,” Otis said, smiling at them in the rearview mirror.

“That Dottie is as loose of a cannon as her sister,” Amelia said, shaking her head. “I hope she doesn’t kill anyone.”

“Maybe she’ll take out a zombie or two,” Cody said.

Everyone gasped, including Demetrius.

“What?” Cody looked around at them. “We all know what’s going on.”

“Yeah, okay,” Demetrius said with a nod, glancing at Zenona. “Anything weird happening at the hospital?”

She studied him a moment. “Like what?”

“Bodies lurching back to life in the morgue?” Cody said, leaning up to look at her past Demetrius.

“Not since last summer,” Zenona said, then grinned at Cody and Demetrius’s expressions. “Gotcha.”

Demetrius let out a breath as Cody chuckled, and in the front seat, Amelia whispered, “Sycamore trees, I about had a heart attack.”