Page 51 of Grave Danger

In the rearview mirror, Cody could see Agatha shake her head, cross her arms, and then look over at Demmy. “I should have known better than to say that.”

“It’s hard to remember sometimes,” Demmy said.

“She’s got a point,” Jugs said, leaning back from the passenger side window as Cody eased the car up the driveway of his and Demmy’s house. White bandages wrapped around Jugs’s forearms gleamed in the sunlight against his dark skin, covering the scratches he’d received from the man in the woods.

“Yeah, she’s right.” Cody stopped before the side mirror hit the corner of the house. “Damn smart ass veterinarians. All those years of higher education make them know-it-alls.”

“This car isn’t that big, I can hear you,” Agatha said with a grin.

Cody looked over the front seat at Demmy. “Any suggestions where we can park this monstrosity?”

“What about out at Parson’s Pines?” Demmy said. “Maybe Amelia and Otis have a parking space we can use. Or even Eileen.”

“That’s a thought. How about we take a drive out that way?” Cody looked between Jugs and Agatha. “Feel like visiting some of the senior set with us?”

They looked at each other and shrugged.

“I’m kind of invested in where this car’s going to end up,” Agatha said.

“I’m in, too. Take us back to the office so we can follow you in my truck.”

Halfway back to the office, Cody had to stop for gas. People around him stared, and one funny guy called from a pump across the cement, “Looking good, Widow!” Cody flashed a weak smile and gave a wave. Everyone thought they were funny.

He was glad for the fact the engine took unleaded gas. However, as he watched the dollar amount climb, he felt a cold, sinking feeling low in his belly. Nothing about this was good. Nothing.

When the total reached fifty-five dollars, he stopped the pump himself and returned the nozzle. Snatching the receipt from the machine, he got back behind the wheel.

“Fifty-five bucks,” he said, waving the receipt. “And it could have taken more.”

“Holy hell, this thing is a hungry beast,” Agatha said.

Jugs opened the glove compartment and swore as a bunch of crap fell to the floor mat between his feet. Cody groaned and turned the key, feeling the rumble of the V8 engine in his seat. It felt good, powerful, and he had an inkling that maybe, just maybe, he could get a little bit of joy from sitting in it and letting the engine run for short periods of time. Not too long. He didn’t want them to go broke keeping gas in the tank. He shifted into drive and pulled out into the road. All around him people stared, and other drivers avoided them as much as possible. Old habits obviously died hard.

“Look at this crap,” Jugs said as he picked through the stuff on the floor. “Good God, a full-size can of hair spray.”

“Goodbye ozone,” Agatha said.

“Boxes of shotgun shells,” Jugs continued. “What the hell? That woman was crazy.”

“Oh, I’ll take those.” Demmy extended a hand over the seat and Jugs passed him the boxes with a dubious look. “These could have silver dust on them. Might need them if we come across another werewolf.”

“Guess we could consider that a bonus gift,” Cody muttered.

“A lot of unpaid parking tickets,” Jugs continued. “Nice to see the local sheriff was keeping track of her. Stacks of utility bills and gas receipts. Oh, the owner’s manual. Yes!”

By that time Cody had reached the strip mall where the Critter Catchers office was located, and he eased to a stop behind Jugs’s truck. Jugs and Agatha got out, and Demmy moved up to the front passenger seat. He took the thick owner’s manual from Jugs and held it on his lap. Cody let the car idle for a minute, trying not to think of the gas he was wasting as he looked at the yellow police tape stretched across the door to their office. Demmy followed his gaze and reached over, having to lean toward him across the wide bench seat in order to be able to touch his thigh.

“It’s all going to work out,” Demmy said.

“Yeah, like it always does, right?” Cody put the car in gear and left the parking lot, turning in the direction of Parson’s Pines senior living complex.

The last two days had been, in a word, difficult. Cody had been in full rage mode when Lucia had dragged him down to the sheriff’s station like a goddamn murder suspect. They’d demanded the photos he’d taken of Demmy, then photographed his own hands before taking swabs of the blood splattered on him before allowing him to clean it off. After that, he’d been escorted to one of those so very familiar small interview rooms and left him there for what felt like hours.

With nothing else to do, he kept reliving the moments when he’d stepped out the back door to investigate Demmy’s shouts for help. Seeing Demmy on the ground and the man on top of him, clawing, biting, and straining to get at him, had sent Cody into angry protector mode. He felt the rush of adrenaline swamp his body. He recalled the shock of impact up his arms and heard the hard thump as he’d brought the rock down on the man’s skull. The sharp and quick crunch of cracking bone on the second strike echoed in his memory, and he shuddered. All of it blended with the moment he’d hit the mayor, and it became one terrible loop of sounds, sensations, and reaction.

He tried to put all of that out of his mind and get his thoughts in order. He’d been questioned enough times to know how it worked. But it was difficult to recall all the details, to remember what he’d been thinking when he’d stepped through the door.

If he was honest with himself, he really hadn’t been thinking. He’d seen the man attacking Demmy and had reacted. His only driving force in that moment had been to stop the attack, to keep Demmy from being bitten, from being turned.