Page 43 of Grave Danger

The crackpot was Clarabell Remington, a short and feisty woman with poor fashion sense, bad eyesight, a voice that could crack an engine block, and a great depth of knowledge of things creepy and unusual. They’d met her while on their honeymoon and worked with her on the werewolves scattered throughout Parson’s Hollow a couple of years ago. While Cody had formed a kind of begrudging affection for Clarabell, he really didn’t want to hear her wax poetic about zombies.

“Not yet,” Demmy said with a casual shrug. He opened a drawer and pulled out a notepad.

“Not ever.”

“Mm hm.”

“Demmy…”

“I saw Ryan Zellmer as I was leaving the cemetery.”

Cody paused a moment to let his brain catch up to the sudden shift in topic. “Deputy Zellmer who hates us?”

“That’s him.”

“Was he paying respects or something?”

Demmy shook his head, eyes on the notepad as he made a list Cody couldn’t read from where he sat. “No. He was pulling into the cemetery as I was leaving. We passed each other under those big iron gates, and he gave me a long, hard stare.” He looked up and made a face. “Also, I may have lied a bit to the guy I talked with in the office.”

“Oh yeah?” Cody grinned. “Eileen was right. I am rubbing off on you in more ways than one.”

“Maybe, but there’s only one way I really like you to rub off on me.”

Cody felt his chest heat up and his cock stir with interest. “You’re a tease.”

“Am I?” Demmy gave him a bright smile. “I told the guy at the cemetery I was a freelance reporter.”

“Good idea.”

“Thanks. I was asking him if there had been any grave tampering or anything of that nature going on out there, and he was very adamant about the fact that there hadn’t been. He did mention the activity at Eternal Rest, though, which isn’t a surprise considering their posts. I’m sure their marketing team will keep hammering the topic on social media. He kept trying to find out my name to give to the general manager, and I kept dodging the question. It got awkward pretty fast.”

“Did you finally say your name was Oliver Berridge, I hope?”

“No, of course not.”

“I can dream.”

“Stop that. When I got here and saw Lucia, I was afraid she was here about my visit to the cemetery.” He looked up from his notepad and raised his eyebrows. “Any thoughts about what the Widow may have left for you?”

“No idea. It’s not like we ever really talked with her.”

“You pulled her out of her car when she hit Nicolae that night. And we did get those kittens out of her garage a while ago.”

“Maybe she finally wrote us a check for that. Guess we’ll find out when Dottie gets in touch.” He gestured to the notepad. “What’re you doing?”

“Making a list of weird things we’ve uncovered.”

“Like all the weird things, or just the ones from recently?”

“Recently.” He fanned the pages of the spiral notepad. “Not enough paper for all the things.”

“That’s for sure. Okay, so you’ve got the mayor and the mayor’s empty grave, right?”

“Yep. And the condition of the grave, which looked like someone had pushed their way out from the inside.”

Cody shuddered. “I can’t even imagine that.”

“I don’t want to try. And I’ve got the old woman who attacked you and Oliver. Do you recall her name?”