Grave Danger, page 16
People started to move, most of them heading toward the exit. Lucia and Zenona went off in search of the Widow’s sister, and Demetrius wound his way through the migrating crowd until he found Cody and the rest of the group, Jugs included.
“Have fun?” Cody asked.
“Not sure that would be the word I’d use, but she looks good.” Demetrius looked at Jugs. “Would you agree?”
“What?” Jugs was rubbing his forearms again. “Oh. Sure. Yeah. They managed to fit her and her hair in the casket. She’s good to go.”
“What’s going on with you?” Cody asked.
“My arms are itchy as hell,” Jugs said, making a face as he rubbed a hand faster. “Means they’re healing. That’s what my gramma always said.”
“Hello.”
The smooth, baritone voice from just behind Demetrius made him jump. The funeral director stood smiling at them, and Demetrius suppressed a shiver.
“Am I to understand that one of you is now the owner of Mrs. Monroe’s vehicle?”
Cody sighed and half-raised a hand. “That would be me.”
“I was wondering if you’d be open to joining the procession. So many people associate Mrs. Monroe with the car, and vice versa. I thought it would be a lovely tribute to have her beloved car follow the hearse to the cemetery.”
“Beloved?” Oliver whispered.
Cody shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, sure. We can do that.”
“Wonderful.” The funeral director smiled, but it still gave Demetrius a chill. “Just pull into the lot, and Connor will get you in line.”
As they headed for the exit with the rest of their group, Oliver said, “The day has finally come. Someone’s going to get Cody Bower in line.”
“Ha ha,” Cody said over his shoulder. “You’re a real comedian, Ollie.”
The group split up when they reached the overflow lot, each going to the vehicle they’d arrived in. Once in the Cadillac, Cody started the engine and pulled across the street to the smaller lot adjacent to the funeral home. Connor had to direct some other vehicles to move around to make room for the big car, but after a time they were lined up behind the police cruiser which held Lucia, Zenona, and Dottie, which, in turn, was behind the hearse. Demetrius stared past the cruiser at the gleaming black finish of the hearse’s back door. The casket was barely visible beyond the small white curtains gathered in the middle that hung over the back window.
“Why the hell do they put curtains inside a hearse?” Cody asked, then looked over at him. “It’s not like people don’t know there’s a casket inside.”
“We humans have a weird relationship with death. We know it’s there, but we don’t want to look at it too closely.”
“And yet, here we are, leaving an open casket funeral,” Cody said. “Makes no sense.”
“True. But the corpse had been made up to look natural. Well, natural as it applies to someone else.”
“What’s that mean?”
“She had this little smile on her face.” Demetrius made a face and shook his head. “It didn’t look right on her.”
“You missed her typical scowl?”
“I missed her scowl.”
Cody grunted. They sat in silence a moment, then he gave Demetrius an assessing look. “How do you feel about death?”
“Seeing as how we’ve both danced with it once or twice over the last several years, my answer is I’d like to avoid it as long as possible.”
“Yeah, me, too. And I definitely do not want to come back as a zombie. If that happens, please jam a screwdriver into my brain.”
Demetrius felt a clammy chill spread over him at the thought. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
The hearse eased forward from beneath the portico, and Lucia followed. Cody slowly trailed behind the police cruiser. He obviously felt a bit more light-hearted about their conversation, because he added, “Just, you know, make sure I’m really dead though, okay? I don’t want you to think I’m requesting you stick a screwdriver in my head tonight while I’m sleeping.”
Demetrius thought his laugh sounded normal. “Thanks for clarifying. Guess I’ll have to change my plans.”
“Funny guy.” Cody glanced at the instrument panel and started tapping the steering wheel in a nervous staccato. “Dammit, I should have filled the tank before we arrived. I didn’t know they’d want us to drive this slowly through town. We’ve only got a quarter tank of gas.”
Demetrius had nothing to say to that, so he looked out his window and let his mind drift a bit. Cody asking him to promise to kill him had, it seemed, opened a door. Not much, but enough to give him an idea of what lay beyond, and it wasn’t something Demetrius wanted to think about.
A life without Cody beside him. How the hell could he ever manage something like that? Their sexual relationship aside, the quarter of a century of friendship had become an integral part of him, as if Cody had been imprinted on his DNA. All the details of and history with Cody lived inside him, coasted on his bloodstream, drifted like filaments in the passing of his breath. The marriage had, of course, deepened their relationship, but that had blossomed out of years and years of friendship, and all of that suddenly felt too big inside him. It was like the concept of him and Cody was too large for Demetrius to handle. And if all of that was gouged out from inside him, torn violently away, he’d be left empty and cold. He’d become a shell of himself, a sketch without the finer details that brought him to life. Without the strength of their relationship to keep him together, Demetrius would undoubtedly collapse into dust and drift away.
The gaping maw of loss opening inside Demetrius made him catch his breath and fight back tears. Was this what Cody had felt when he’d watched Demetrius swallowed up by Esther the lake monster? Or when he’d tried, unsuccessfully, to talk Demetrius out of offering himself up to Nicolae, the alpha werewolf?
“Thank God.”
Cody’s words brought Demetrius out of his thoughts, and he realized they’d arrived at the Hollow of Eternal Rest cemetery. It lacked the grandeur of the enclosing iron fence and grand gates of Buford Heights. Instead, the dead at Eternal Rest were secured behind cyclone fencing in need of repair in some spots, and which also seemed to catch all the windblown trash from town. A padlocked cattle gate secured the grounds at night, but today it was swung open, allowing the hearse and all the vehicles behind to pass through.
“I really hate that she’s going to be buried here,” Cody said, shaking his head. “I know she’s going to come back.”
“God I hope not,” Demetrius said with a sigh. He shook off the last of the emptiness that had washed over him. “She’s going to want to drive, and she was a terrible driver when she was alive.”
Cody grunted in acknowledgement and, Demetrius told himself, amusement.
The hearse pulled off the road, and the sheriff’s cruiser parked behind it. Cody stopped behind the cruiser and looked over at him.
“Ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s see this through and go to lunch.”
“I like the way you think.” Cody leaned across the seat and Demetrius met him halfway for a kiss.
Lucia and Zenona each held one of Dottie’s arms, assisting her to the chairs set up beneath a canopy. Cody and Demetrius joined the others picking their way between headstones, Demetrius flinching and sending out mental apologies each time he stepped on a grave.
The Widow’s plot was at the top of a small rise and looked down on the narrow ribbon of the Davenport Creek. Sunlight glinted dully along the muddy surface, and Demetrius turned a bit, looking past those attendees standing behind him as he squinted to try and find the mayor’s grave.
“Can’t see it from here,” Oliver whispered from directly behind him. “Either one of the graves. I already checked.”
Demetrius gave him a quick smile and turned around again.
The service was thankfully short. When Dottie squatted to grab a handful of dirt to toss on top of her sister’s casket, she almost toppled headfirst into the grave. Demetrius’s heart lurched. The entire gathering gasped as one. Lucia snagged Dottie’s arm and kept her above ground for a while longer, and everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
The pastor shaded his eyes against the sun and thanked everyone for attending. He added a reminder to be patient with each other when exiting the cemetery as the roads were only single lane. Cody, Jugs, and Agatha started talking with Amelia, Otis, and Eileen about lunch plans. Demetrius’s mind seemed determined to wander, however, and he stood nearby, looking around the grounds. He noted the placement of trees and benches, but he was also scouting for any sign of disturbed graves.
Motion from a short distance away caught his attention, but a tree blocked much of his view. He stepped a bit farther off to the side of their group to see better. A man stood near another open grave, a ball cap style hat casting his face in shadow. But Demetrius was able to make out a full, dark beard, and he could see the man wore a green polo shirt.
“Huh,” he said.
“What?” Oliver asked, coming up beside him.
“Oh, just noticing that guy up there. I’ve seen him before, I think.”
“Yeah? Like in town or something?”
“No, out at Buford Heights.” Demetrius looked at Oliver with a frown. “He climbed up out of a grave and scared the crap out of me. I got the impression he was part of the groundskeeping crew.”
“If he works at Buford Heights, what’s he doing here?”
“That’s my question, too.” Demetrius glanced toward their group and saw that everyone was still talking.
“Let’s go check him out,” Oliver said, nudging Demetrius with his shoulder.
“Think we should tell someone?”
Oliver looked at their group and made a face. “They’re all involved in their conversation. Besides, we’re just going to be right over there.”
Demetrius nodded—really, they were only going to be a few yards away—and headed toward the mystery man. Oliver walked beside him, each of them picking a path between headstones and watching the man ahead of them. He hadn’t noticed them yet, and Demetrius was hoping they would be able to get a chance to talk with him. The man had provided Demetrius with his name when they’d met before, and it took him a moment to remember it now: Sam.
A shout went up from the line of cars parked on the grassy shoulder of the road. Demetrius stopped and looked in that direction. From where he stood, he could see Lucia and Zenona running along the line of cars as the sound of a large engine roared across the lush green grass. The Widow’s Cadillac lurched into reverse, hitting the front end of the car behind it with a sharp and brittle crunch of plastic. People shouted, and through the driver’s window, Demetrius could see a tall updo swaying back and forth.
The thought the Widow’s at it again, went through his mind. Then he realized they were at the Widow’s funeral and had just watched her casket lowered into the ground. That was followed up by the realization that Cody was now the Cadillac’s rightful owner.
“Oh, shit!” Oliver exclaimed. “The Widow’s sister is taking your car.”
Demetrius saw Oliver’s eyes widen behind his round glasses, and he looked at the mysterious bearded man. The man was staring right at him, and Demetrius could now see he wore sunglasses and held a plastic cubby filled with what might have been small jars.
“Excuse me,” Demetrius called.
“Dude, she’s leaving Lucia in a cloud of exhaust,” Oliver practically shouted.
Demetrius looked back at the chaos erupting along the road. Sure enough, Dottie had maneuvered the Cadillac enough to angle out of the line of parked cars, leaving several damaged in her wake, then roared off along the road at heart-stopping speed, swerving left and right to avoid pedestrians scattering out of her path. Cody stood beside Lucia, a white cloud of exhaust settling around them like a steampunk mist.
“Come on!” Oliver jogged past Demetrius, headed toward the line of cars.
Demetrius looked at Sam and saw him hurrying off across the grounds toward a white pickup truck parked nearby. Demetrius muttered a curse before rushing after Oliver.
“What happened?” Demetrius asked as he came up beside Cody.
“Dottie got away from us,” Lucia said with a snarl.
“And, again, I did not leave the keys in the car.” Cody held up the key ring containing the door and ignition keys, shaking it slightly. “She must have kept a set for herself.”
Lucia stomped off toward the sheriff’s cruiser. Once she’d sped off, Zenona approached them.
“So, um, Lucia was my ride.”
“Yeah? Well Lucia is chasing down our ride,” Cody said.
“Come on,” Demetrius said. “Someone will give us a ride home.”
The three of them accepted a ride from Amelia and Otis. They squeezed into the backseat of Otis’s Chrysler sedan, Demetrius sitting between Cody and Zenona and trying not to imagine it was more than a little symbolic.
“What a day,” Zenona said with a sigh.
“Most exciting funeral I’ve ever attended,” Otis said, smiling at them in the rearview mirror.
“That Dottie is as loose of a cannon as her sister,” Amelia said, shaking her head. “I hope she doesn’t kill anyone.”
“Maybe she’ll take out a zombie or two,” Cody said.
Everyone gasped, including Demetrius.
“What?” Cody looked around at them. “We all know what’s going on.”
“Yeah, okay,” Demetrius said with a nod, glancing at Zenona. “Anything weird happening at the hospital?”
She studied him a moment. “Like what?”
“Bodies lurching back to life in the morgue?” Cody said, leaning up to look at her past Demetrius.
“Not since last summer,” Zenona said, then grinned at Cody and Demetrius’s expressions. “Gotcha.”
Demetrius let out a breath as Cody chuckled, and in the front seat, Amelia whispered, “Sycamore trees, I about had a heart attack.”
“Nicely done, doc,” Cody said.
“Thanks.” Zenona looked pleased with herself before turning serious. “We haven’t seen anything unusual in the morgue, but I’ve treated a few people with human bites, and several with some deep scratches, like what Jugs received.”
Demetrius looked at Cody. “Bites and scratches always pass the virus on.”
“Virus?” Zenona, Amelia, and Otis exclaimed.
“That’s how it’s always explained in books and movies,” Demetrius said. “I’m not saying anything as a fact.”
“What’s he’s saying,” Cody said. “Is that other than the mayor, the old woman who came after Ollie and me in the woods, and the mechanic who attacked Demmy, we don’t know if there are others out there.”
Amelia turned in the seat to look back at Demetrius. “Has there been any more information about the man who attacked you?”
Demetrius shook his head. “All we know is he started to feel ill after he was bitten by some woman he caught going through his trash can. And the autopsy came back inconclusive, saying he’d been dead two days before he attacked me.” He looked at Zenona. “Is that what you’ve heard?”
“I really can’t comment on any of it,” Zenona said, making a face. “Sorry.”
Amelia shook her head. “Just seems so apocalyptic.”
“Just like the last time the town was overrun by monsters,” Cody said. “Hey, have you paid a visit to our favorite librarian who hates me?”
“Tracey?” Zenona leaned forward to look past Demetrius at Cody. “Why would Demetrius go see her?”
“She’s helped us with stuff like this in the past,” Cody said. “I just figured he would have jumped at the chance to get inside that little room again.”
Amelia turned around and said in tandem with Zenona, “What little room?”
Demetrius gave Cody a wide-eyed look and shook his head slightly. Cody blinked in surprise and then fumbled for words.
“Um, you know, the, um, the men’s room. There. At the library. He likes the… acoustics of the tile.” Cody pressed himself back into the seat and shrugged, making a face as Demetrius stared at him.
“Demetrius,” Amelia said in an exasperated tone. “For the love of beech trees, I would hope that’s not true.”
“Not entirely,” Demetrius said as his face burned. He reached down and pinched Cody’s outer thigh. Hard.
Zenona watched him a moment. “Huh,” was all she said before she turned away.
In the rearview mirror, Demetrius could see Otis wore a big smile.
After Otis parked in one of the angled spots down the street from Margie’s Diner, they all stepped out and Demetrius immediately approached the parking meter.
“I’ll get the meter since you drove,” he said, and waved toward the diner. “Go on ahead.”
The others started to walk away, but Demetrius called out, “Oh, Cody, do you have any change on you?”
Cody walked back as Zenona, Amelia, and Otis continued off down the sidewalk.
“Dude, you can’t talk about Tracey and the artifacts room around other people,” Demetrius said in a harsh whisper.
“Why not?” Cody plugged a couple of quarters into the meter. “It’s not a secret.”
“Yeah, it pretty much is.”
“Pretty much? What’s that mean?”
“It means nobody else knows about those books.”
“Nobody at all?”
Demetrius sighed. “Some people know about them, of course. But not the general public.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know, that’s just how the library wants it.”
“The library or Tracey?”
“The library.” Demetrius checked the time on the meter and pushed a dime into the slot before turning away. “I’m not sure why, but Tracey’s always been funny about me looking through those books, warning me not to tell anyone, that kind of stuff.”
They started walking slowly along the sidewalk toward Margie’s. Cody had loosened his tie and had his hands in his pants pockets, and he looked very sexy, even if the tie was a couple of decades out of fashion.
