Page 104 of Starved Until Sunset

Amelia gave them both tight hugs, then stepped back and wiped tears away.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t cry,” she said.

“Did you set this up?” Demmy asked.

Amelia shook her head. “Not my idea, but I helped with some of the details.”

“Of course you did,” Cody said, leaning down to give her another hug, because he couldn’t seem to help himself. He was on the verge of tears himself. What the hell?

They made a circuit of the bar, shaking hands, hugging, and talking with a lot of people from town. Their core group of friends were there, of course: Dave, Ollie, Amelia, and Otis, Eileen and Dieter, Jugs and Agatha, and, Cody was surprised to find he was happy to see Clarabell. Margie was there with Vicki, a waitress Cody might have dated years ago if he hadn’t realized how important Demmy had become to him.

Someone clapped him hard on the shoulder, and Cody turned to find Lucia smiling at him. She was out of uniform, dressed in worn jeans and a blue chambray button-down that made her eyes pop. Deputy Walsh stood just behind her, also dressed casually in a long-sleeved tee and jeans.

“Uh oh, am I in trouble?” Cody said.

“Again?” Walsh offered, then laughed.

“Not yet,” Lucia said. “And, besides. We’re off duty.”

“How are you doing?” Cody asked.

“We’re rooting out a few more of them every day,” Lucia said. “Going door to door. Getting a lot of help from people in town, actually.”

“Yeah,” Walsh said. “A lot of tips called in.”

“That’s good.” Cody nodded. “Did they find John the Bastard yet?”

Lucia and Walsh exchanged a look, then Lucia said, “We found him in the basement of the DPW garage. Looks like he’d hung himself.”

“Oh, shit.” Cody blew out a breath. “How’d his wife take it?”

“Pretty hard,” Lucia said. “Life insurance won’t pay out because it’s ruled a suicide, but he had a lot of cash hidden around his house, and that’ll go to her.”

“Lie down with vampires,” Cody said. “Oh, hey, what’s up with Shrieky Pete?”

Walsh’s turn to blow out a breath. “He’s still in the psych ward. Last I heard, there was no definite release date. And a couple walking their dog out by Parson’s Pond came across what was left of Spiffy. There wasn’t much.”

“Damn, those vamps really fucked up the DPW.” Cody shook his head, then leaned in a little closer to Lucia. “How are you doing?”

She shifted her gaze away and shrugged slightly. “Good nights and bad.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

Demmy came back, sliding an arm around Cody’s waist. It felt good and warm, anchoring Cody to the moment and all that was good in his life.

“Hi, Lucia,” Demmy said. “Hi Deputy Walsh.”

“You can call me Gayle when I’m not in uniform,” she said.

“How are you feeling, Demetrius?” Lucia asked.

“Oh, you know how it is. Good days and bad.”

“Seems to be a lot of that going around,” Cody said.

Zenona joined them, pulling Cody into a tight, long-lasting hug. Before she released him, she whispered in his ear, “Thank you.”

Cody smiled when he stepped back, then swiped at the tears in his eyes. He was definitely getting soft in his old age. To their credit, everyone standing around them had looked off in a different direction, except for Demmy, who smiled and placed a hand on the small of his back. It wasn’t a possessive gesture, more a comforting one. He and Zenona shared a smile of their own.