AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The wife of one of your clients. Devin Sykes.”
Cody felt a wave of cold dread fill him from his feet to the top of his head, as if someone had opened his skull and turned on a faucet of icy water full blast. “Oh, shit.”
“Who is that?” Demmy asked.
“The guy with the snake,” Cody said.
“Oh, shit.”
“We went to high school with him,” Lucia said, looking between them. “And Cody happened to be in his house yesterday.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Cody said, holding his hands up palms out. “I had nothing to do with this. I’ve got alibis for everything.”
Lucia closed her eyes and nodded, holding up one hand in a placating gesture. “Don’t get your sphincter in a knot.”
Despite the situation, Cody made a face. “I don’t like you talking about my sphincter.”
“I know you didn’t do this,” Lucia said. She moved in a little closer and lowered her voice. “I wanted to come tell you this right away because all three of us know Devin. We all have a shared history. And something about this feels a little… off to me.”
Cody exchanged a glance with Demmy, then looked back at Lucia. “What are you saying, exactly?”
She took a deep breath and let it out. “We’ve all been through some crazy shit in the last few years. We know there are things out there most people either don’t know about or don’t want to know about.” She looked between them, then set her gaze on Demmy. “What do you two think about this case? Do you think this might be one of those things?”
“Oh, shit,” Demmy said quietly. “If you’re coming to us and asking if we think this might be a monster case…”
“I didn’t say that,” Lucia protested.
“What proof do you have?” Cody asked, hearing the edge to his voice and not really caring. After all the grief Lucia had given them over the years when they’d tried to get her to believe weird shit was going on, he was definitely up for giving her a taste of her own medicine.
“Nothing definite. Call it a cop’s intuition.”
“Not a lot to go on,” Cody said. “You’ve busted our balls over statements like that when we had more evidence to shove in your face.”
“Look, I know I’ve been hard on you two in the past, and I’m sorry for that.”
“Well, hallelujah and hold the hot sauce, we finally got an apology.” Cody spread his arms and looked at Demmy with a big, false smile. “Did you hear that, Demmy? Now that we’ve both risked our lives countless times and nearly died to save this ungrateful town, not to mention some zombie’s family wanting to put us out of business, Lucia finally steps up with an apology.”
“Yeah, I heard,” Demmy said as he moved to stand beside Cody, never taking his eyes off Lucia. “And, you know, Lucia, as often as I’ve stepped in and taken the middle ground in an effort to temper interactions between you and Cody, I have to side with him on this one. You’ve threatened, accused, and insulted us for years about all these weird cases we happen to stumble into. And now with this drowning, you come to us and ask for our input about whether or not this is a monster case, without any kind of physical proof, just your intuition?” He shook his head. “I don’t know what to think about it. We have been through a lot over the years, you’re right, but this makes me feel like you’re looking for someone to be the fall guys about this case. Our business, our lives here in this town, are in too precarious a position for that. We care about Parson’s Hollow and all of its residents, you know that, but right now isn’t the best time for us to start shouting ‘monster’ without some kind of hard evidence. Not with the lawsuit from the Woleks hanging over our heads.”
Lucia gave a single, curt nod. “I understand your positions.” She strode to the door and pulled it open. Cody felt the humid air outside curl around him as she paused to look back. “I still expect you down at the station tomorrow morning to give your statements.”
And with that, she quietly closed the door behind her. Cody huffed and plopped down on the couch. Demmy paced before him, arms folded tight and eyes cast down.
“I really wish I felt better about telling her off,” Cody said.
“I know what you mean.” Demmy stopped and gnawed at a corner of his thumbnail as he looked at Cody. “Do you think she’s right?”
“Fuck, I don’t know,” Cody said. He put his head back and covered his face with both hands. “Fuuuuuuuuck.”
“How can we dig into this without letting on we’re looking into it?”
Cody dropped his hands and raised his head. “I don’t know. But I’m sure we’ll find some way to do it.”
“You sure you want to?”
“No.” Cody sneered as he tightened his fists on his knees. “But do we have a choice?”
Demmy’s smile looked more than a little sad. “No.”
