Page 39 of Starved Until Sunset

The doors on the back of the ambulance slammed shut, and the driver hurried to his door. Cody winced at the start of the siren, closing one eye against the sound as he watched it do a U-turn and speed off back toward town and the hospital.

Lucia and Deputy Walsh crossed the road and stopped in front of them.

“What the fuck is going on?” Lucia said.

“Good question,” Cody said. “You should call someone to find out. Oh, wait. I heard they were forced to shut down their business.”

“Hey, that was not my decision. And, besides, your actual business was catching critters, not monsters.”

“And yet…” He felt his fingers tightening on Demmy’s shoulder, and made himself relax.

“We found him like that,” Demmy said, always the peacemaker. Cody really should try to be more like him. But then what would Demmy have to do?

“Any sign of Spiffy?” Demmy continued, his voice so quiet Cody almost couldn’t hear him over the engine sounds.

“No. Just…” Lucia waved toward the truck without looking behind her. “What’s in the truck.”

“It looked like Pete was afraid of something being in the air when he was taken to the ambulance,” Demmy said. “Cody was swarmed by a flock of bats this week. But bats couldn’t have carried Spiffy away.”

“Bats, huh?” Lucia said with a smirk.

“Yeah, bats,” Cody said, glaring back.

“Did Pete say anything at all that could give us a clue?” Demmy asked.

“Just kept repeating the Lord’s Prayer.”

“Gonna need more than that,” Cody said at the same time as Deputy Walsh. They grinned sadly at each other.

Lucia shot Deputy Walsh a look. “You are not allowed to adopt his attitude.”

“Allowed?” Deputy Walsh and Cody said at the same time.

Then, just to be a total dick, Cody said, “That’s extremely authoritarian, even for you… Lucy.”

“Oh, God,” Demmy said quietly, and Cody felt his shoulder sag just a bit beneath his hand.

“What?” Lucia turned her fiery glare from Cody to Deputy Walsh. Her tone was low and slightly menacing when she said, “Deputy?”

Cody felt a little bad for Walsh, but Lucia’s reaction had been worth it. Seeing Deputy Walsh stammer and wave her arms as she tried to explain gave him all the insight he needed. He was glad Lucia had finally found someone able to tolerate her long enough to give her a shortened nickname. Hopefully he hadn’t fucked things up between them. Well, not too much. Every relationship needed a bit of ire to add some sizzle to it.

“So, if you’re done with us, we’d like to get back to the garage and figure out how to get paid for all this overtime.”

Lucia turned on him. “Oh, no. You two are material witnesses. I should keep you overnight in jail.”

“What? Again?” Demmy said. “Lucia, come on. You know we didn’t have anything to do with this. And we didn’t see anything. We found the truck in that condition.”

“Fine.” Lucia pointed right at Cody. “Don’t leave town.”

“Guess I’ll be canceling that Airbnb in Morocco,” Cody said. He pretty much couldn’t help himself most of the time he interacted with Lucia. It was like she lit the fuse to a stockpile of sass inside of him.

“What will happen to their truck?”

“We’ll have it impounded for evidence,” Deputy Walsh said. “I’ve called the State Police for the big tow rig they use.”

A sudden breeze gusted over them. Cody ducked his head, expecting to once again be surrounded by bats. But instead of a multitude of small, dark bodies, a single pale form swooped down in front of them. It had long wings, the tip of one brushing against Cody’s cheek, feathery light and terrifying. He jerked his head away and waved a hand in front of his face. “The fuck?”

“Gayle!”