Page 79 of Grave Danger

“Crazy world when cemeteries sniping at each other on social media is the talk of the town,” Agatha said.

A state trooper held up a hand and moved around to her side of the truck. Agatha powered down her window and gave the man a bright, disarming smile. Cody was impressed at her ability to pull that smile up with everything going on.

“Cemetery is closed right now,” the trooper stated.

“My friends were involved in the incident earlier,” Agatha said, gesturing toward Cody, who tried for his own reassuring smile, but wasn’t sure he’d managed it. “Deputy Durant cleared it with her deputies for them to retrieve their truck.”

The state trooper shifted to look at Cody, and then at Demmy. “Hold on a minute.” He stepped back and got on his radio. Thunder growled again, and Cody could smell the approaching storm on the wind through the open window.

He was really starting to dislike thunderstorms. Every time they got involved with a monster case, some kind of storm moved in.

After some back and forth on the radio, the trooper had one of the cars moved aside and waved them through. As Agatha drove slowly along the narrow roads, she shook her head and wiped away a tear.

“Hard to believe we were just out here a few hours ago for a funeral and everything was fine.” She added in a quieter voice, “Jugs was fine.”

Cody squeezed her shoulder and decided not to say anything, because it would probably be inappropriate. He chalked that up to some kind of growth for himself, and he hoped Demmy had noticed.

As they approached the area where the Widow had been buried and Deputy Zellmer had been attacked, they started to see sheriff’s cars and state police cruisers parked along the road. Some had their lights flashing, which seemed a bit like overkill to Cody. There wasn’t a lot of traffic going past. Most likely just showing off.

Some crime scene vans were interspersed among the cruisers and SUVs, and Cody saw men and women wearing white hooded suits moving among the bodies. Canopies were being assembled to cover the area as the technicians watched the approaching storm.

“Holy hell,” Agatha whispered, taking in the scene with wide eyes. “You guys were really in the middle of the shit storm, weren’t you?”

“Like usual,” Demmy said.

“Amen to that,” Cody added.

Agatha eased to a stop beside Cody’s truck, and two sheriff’s deputies approached, a man and a woman. Cody got out and Demmy followed, both of them approaching the deputies.

“Which of you is Cody Bower?” the woman asked.

Nerves wound up his gut like a ball of twine. Had Lucia set him up somehow? Was he about to be arrested?

“I am,” he said with a glance toward Demmy.

“Your truck’s been processed, and you’re free to take it with you,” the woman said. “We just need you to give us a statement before you leave.”

“Oh, yeah, right,” Cody said. “We drove Zellmer to the hospital in his car, and we haven’t talked with anyone about it.”

It took them a good amount of time to go through it all. The deputies made notes, and at one point a couple of state troopers listened in, who were then replaced by a trio of crime scene techs who put their hoods down to expose their sweat-streaked faces. When they started talking about shooting the zombies, or ‘assailants,’ as the deputies referred to them, one of the white-suited crime scene techs had them approach the edge of the scene and point to the specific assailant and area as they talked about it.

The storm barreled down on them as they talked. Lightning flashed inside the heavy dark clouds, and the wind picked up, scattering flowers from graves and shaking leaf-laden tree branches. Agatha leaned against the door of her truck, listening and checking her phone as they gave their statements.

“All right, that’s all the questions I have for now,” the sweaty and bespectacled technician said. He put his hands on his hips and blew out a breath as he looked at the clouds, and then out over the scene. Techs were scurrying around, laying plastic tarps over the bodies and securing them with metal stakes. Other team members positioned canopies over the bodies and bagged evidence.

Cody was really glad he had never gone into law enforcement.

“You can go,” the female deputy said, nodding toward his truck. “But we’ll need you to come to the station in the next day or so to read through the statement and sign it. And we may have more questions at that time as well.”

“Yeah, we’re pretty familiar with the routine,” Cody said.

He and Demmy approached Agatha, who glanced at her phone as they walked up.

“Any word about Jugs?” Cody asked.

“Not yet,” Agatha said. “But I’ve been texting with Oliver.”

“Oliver?” Demmy said. “What’s he getting into?”