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“I didn’t say you were wrong,” Oliver said. “I just think a merman isn’t a good fit for what’s been happening.”
“Merman?” Cody said, loud enough for Clarabell and Oliver in the living room to hear him. “Ethel Merman?”
Clarabell’s laugh sounded like the honk of a Canadian goose with bronchitis. Over it, Demetrius could hear Oliver’s sigh. For his part, Demetrius smiled and shook his head as he looked at his husband.
“You can’t help it, can you?”
“Don’t act like you didn’t know what you were getting into when you said ‘I do.’” Cody pushed up from his chair. “You had more than twenty years of warnings.”
“Yeah, I did.” Demetrius finished up the last few bites of his own meal and followed Cody into the kitchen. He set his dishes on the counter and ran a hand up Cody’s back, feeling the knobs of his spine through his t-shirt. After placing a gentle kiss on Cody’s shoulder blade, he rested his cheek against the spot and said, “No regrets.”
Cody turned and wrapped his arms around Demetrius, giving him a soft kiss on the mouth. “None here, either.”
“Jeez, get a room,” Clarabell said as she entered the kitchen, the plastic soles of her Crocs scuffing across the linoleum.
“We had an empty one, but someone’s moved into it,” Cody said.
“Only temporarily,” Clarabell said, rummaging through the refrigerator and unaffected by Cody’s grousing. “Just until we get this situation figured out.”
“We have several situations going on,” Demetrius said, patting Cody’s chest before easing out of his arms. “You might need to be more specific.”
“Amen to that,” Cody said.
“I was referring to the mysterious drownings,” Clarabell said as she twisted the cap off a bottle of kombucha. “What other things are happening? Crop circles? Stick figures bound with twine and human hair?”
“Jesus Christ,” Cody said, leaving the kitchen.
“What’s eatin’ him?” Clarabell took a swig of the kombucha.
“That civil lawsuit the Woleks have filed against him.”
“I still think that’s stupid,” she said. “Isn’t it like double indemnity? The guy was already dead. You can’t kill someone twice.”
“That’s what the criminal court decided, but now they’ve filed a civil lawsuit.”
Clarabell shook her head. “You guys and your weird monster luck.”
“I won’t disagree with you,” Demetrius said. “What did you and Oliver find at the library?”
Oliver entered the kitchen from where he’d obviously been listening outside the door. “We found a few potential things that could be responsible for the drownings.”
“And we also found out there are some missing persons here in town,” Clarabell said. “Again.”
“How many?”
“Five, just this summer alone,” Oliver said.
“Five? Why haven’t we heard about them?”
“You’d have to ask Lucia about that,” Oliver said. “According to Tracey…”
“Wait, Tracey told you this?”
Oliver looked at Clarabell, and then back at Demetrius. “Yeah. Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s not a problem, it’s just… She’s always given me a hard time about using that room, and very rarely shares information. It’s like pulling teeth with her.”
“Oh. Well, she seemed almost excited to be talking about it,” Oliver said.
