“Well, yeah. Duh. If I go down there.”
I had never thought of that. “But why would you want to?”
She jammed a fist onto her hip. “I am slowly decomposing. It’s awesome! I want to see it in stages. You know, check out what I look like every so often. Sadly, the embalming fluid is slowing down the process drastically.”
“Yes,” I said, kicking at the ground with my toe, “that is a sad dilemma.” The grass covering her grave was a little softer than it should have been. It did feel disturbed. It just didn’t look like it.
“Oh, and I searched my ex’s house. No Lacey anywhere to be found. Maybe he didn’t do it after all.”
“If he did, I’ll find out.” I called Ubie back. “Sorry!” I said before he could say anything.
“No problem. What’s up?”
“Can I get a warrant to have a grave dug up?”
He laughed. “You ask the strangest things. And no. Not without some very compelling evidence as to why it should be. Exhuming a body is a serious matter.”
“Darn. Well, that’s the problem. There’s no body in there.”
“Three others are missing as well,” she said to me.
“Ew, what?” I asked.
“What?” Ubie said.
“Hold on,” I said to him, then turned back to Lacey. “There are three more empty graves?”
She nodded. “Yes, I checked. I can show you. They’re all girls, and they were all buried within the last five years.”
“Yuck,” I said, wishing I hadn’t asked. “Just yuck. It looks like we have a grave robber, Uncle Bob. But the site looks completely undisturbed.”
“I can check with the captain, but again, exhuming a body is kind of a big deal. I’m going to need something. Some kind of evidence the grave has been seriously disturbed. Not just vandalized.”
I sighed aloud. “Okay. I’ll figure something out.”
“Should I bring wine tonight?”
“Um, sure.” I still had no idea what the hell he was talking about. “And sparkling grape juice for me.”
“Got it.”
We hung up again and I looked around for Reyes. When I didn’t see him, alarm shot through me. The Twelve.
“No,” I said, running to where I last saw him. “This is consecrated ground. They can’t come on here.”
“Are you looking for the guy who came with you?” Lacey asked. “He’s over there.”
She pointed toward the mausoleum. I hurried toward it, worried the Twelve had shown up, and spotted Reyes talking to someone. I stopped short and ducked behind a tree. He was talking to a woman. A beautiful, tall woman with hair the exact color of honey. She wore a flowing white evening gown and a million-dollar smile. And she was dead.
I caught the soft scent of White Shoulders on the breeze, and I knew she’d been at the Java Loft earlier. I’d felt a departed. It had to have been her.
She turned and saw me, said something to Reyes while gesturing toward me with a delicate hand, and flashed that brilliant smile. He didn’t turn around. Instead, he turned away, and I felt the heat of his anger from where I stood.
“Time to go,” I said to Lacey, hurrying back to Misery.
Being left high and dry would infuriate him, but my number one goal in life at that moment was keeping Reyes out of jail. I had a feeling the woman had been spying on me at the coffee shop. She probably overheard my entire conversation with Ubie about Bumpy Navarra. But I knew something he didn’t. I knew where Bumpy lived and did business.
I’d go to the businesses first and try to get an explanation out of him. There was no telling what Reyes would do to him, and that temper could land my fiancé right back in prison. He’d spent too much time incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit. I couldn’t imagine what he’d do to Bumpy if Reyes thought the man had sent Zeke after me, but I was fairly certain it would land him right back in a six-by-eight.
“But what about my body?” Lacey said.
“No worries, hon.” I tapped Barbara on the temple. “I have a plan.”
“Oh. Okay. So, I’ll just wait here?”
“Yes. Perfect. You do that.”
I jumped in Misery and turned the key just as my driver’s door opened. And boy was the opener peeved.
“Oh, hey,” I said, offering him my best guileless smile. “Just warming her up.”
He lowered his head and glared at me. Glared! “You knew,” he said, his voice deep. Accusing.
Clearly the charade was up, but I had a few things of my own to be peeved about. “You sent that woman to spy on me.”
He eased forward, his anger exploding around me like aftershocks. “After that little stunt you pulled yesterday, I sent her to keep an eye on you. To make sure you were safe.”
“And to spy,” I said.
“You knew who Schneider worked for and you kept it from me.”
I turned off the engine. “Because I also knew what you would do.”
“You had no right to keep that from me.”
“I was going to tell you. I just needed to talk to him first.”
He stabbed me with an incredulous look, a harsh one that needed no interpretation. He thought me a fool. The laugh that followed proved that.
“Do you have any idea what he would have done to you if you’d just waltzed into his place and asked him why he sent a man to kill you?”