Chapter 6 #2
“I don’t mean anything by it. I like him. Hestia and I used to hang out in the mortuary parking lot after school. He never chased us away and sometimes he even brought us snacks.” His explanation makes me relax a little, though I still eye him carefully.
“You grew up here?” He doesn’t seem like the type to have grown up in Still Pines. He’s too…different. Something about his personality and the way he holds himself sets him apart from everyone here. Even Hestia.
“He wasn’t born here,” Hestia remarks, coming back over with drinks. She hands a steaming paper cup to Amir, then a clear plastic one to me, filled with the iced espresso I always order. “My aunt moved here with him when you were…what? Seven?”
“Nine,” Amir corrects, sipping his coffee.
“Thank you,” I say when I take mine from her. “I can grab my card, just—” I reach for my phone in my pocket, but Hestia waves me off.
“You don’t need to pay for it. Actually, you know what? You do. You can pay with gossip.” She hooks a hand around a chair from a nearby table, dragging it to the small one that’s parked in front of the television, then sits down while waving for me to do the same.
“I know you went out last night. And you do basically nothing outside of work, so…” She sips at her iced matcha, peering at me from dark brown eyes over the top.
“Did you see him?”
“Who?”
“Andrew.” She rolls her eyes, obviously unamused at my attempt to deflect. “It’s a small as fuck town, and no one else died. Process of elimination means you were at the mortuary with him last night. So…” she flicks her hand at me, gesturing for me to spill.
I sit down gingerly, leaning back in my chair before I cross one leg over the other.
My fingers drag against the condensation building on my cup, and when I look up, I find Amir is looking at me with a surprisingly intent expression.
Like he’s just as interested as Hestia, even if he’s trying to hide it.
Technically, I haven’t been interviewed or questioned by anyone, and I don’t have much information to tell about him. Except for the bite on his tongue.
“Yeah,” I admit finally. “I saw him. Cecil called me to say I needed to go in and take him from the coroner last night.” I figure that sharing just the basics, no real details, shouldn’t be a big deal.
“At the mortuary.” Amir’s words aren’t a question, but there’s a curious tone to them. “But if it was pronounced as a murder, why was he brought to the mortuary? Shouldn’t he have stayed in the coroner’s custody?”
Shoot. I hadn’t thought about that. Honestly, it hadn’t occurred to me that either of them would ask about proper dead body etiquette. And I’m way too tired to have thought about it much myself this morning.
“Yeah—no, I mean.” I close my eyes and try to get my words together. “There was just some mistake about where he needed to go. Wires crossed, I guess? Maybe the coroner’s assistant got the wrong info.”
“But you just said you took him from the coroner, did you not?”
I look at Amir. Really look at him for the first time. He’s not being rude, exactly. And I can’t exactly blame him for his curiosity when nothing of interest ever happens in Still Pines, from what I’ve seen.
But it just feels a little off.
“We grew up here, and we hung around Kindred Pines a lot,” Hestia suddenly reminds me with an apology in her voice.
“I’m sorry about him. He gets interested in something and then just won’t let it go.
” She rolls her eyes at him, though there’s no real anger in the look. Just affectionate exasperation.
"How can I?” Amir glances at her. “When this is the most interesting thing to happen here…” Quickly his attention comes right back to me. “So you were telling us about why he ended up at the mortuary? Or rather—why he needed to get picked up by the coroner?”
I’m pretty sure I hadn’t told him any of that. But I still offer him my most polite smile, the one I use whenever I’m face-to-face with a living human at the mortuary.
Which thankfully isn’t often, since I don’t handle crying and loud grief well.
“I really don’t have anything else to say. They brought him, I was called, but when I got there, they were already loading him right back up.” The lie is flawless now that I’ve had a few moments to think it over. “I’m just the mortuary assistant. They don’t tell me anything.”
Amir holds my gaze a moment longer, and I can’t help searching his eyes with scrutiny and fascination. His eyes are almost a warm caramel, and I swear I’ve never seen brown eyes quite like them. Combined with his rich complexion, I really just want to keep staring at his expression.
Still, I blink and force myself to look up at the news, where the anchor has changed to some report about traffic near Philly. “Highway still closed for road work?” I ask, trying not to seem like I’m deflecting too purposefully, even though I absolutely am.
“Yeah. Three weeks past when it was supposed to be open.” Hestia sighs and leans back in her chair before taking a sip of her drink. I do the same, having almost forgotten what I’m clenching in my fingers.
Amir doesn’t follow suit. He glances up at the television just as his phone vibrates on the table. With a grimace, he checks the screen, then eases up from his chair. “It seems I’m being summoned by my responsibilities,” he sighs. “I’ll see you on Friday, Hestia? At Bruno’s?”
She brightens almost immediately, giving him a lopsided grin. “Yeah. Absolutely. Take the back roads back to the city if you don’t want to be caught up in traffic.” When she gestures pointedly at the news anchor, Amir groans.
“I hope your day goes as well as it can, Nell,” he offers, though he barely looks at me as he slides his sunglasses over his eyes, hiding his honey-like gaze.
“Hmm?” I look up at the glasses, unsure if I’m actually meeting his eyes. “You too. I hope to see you again. Even better if you have your dogs with you.”
“I’ll remember to bring them next time for a visit,” he assures me before turning and walking out of the shop with his coffee still held lightly in one hand.
“You’ll see him again soon,” Hestia assures me, sprawling a bit more comfortably in her chair. “When he’s in town he’s always prowling around here. I think he misses me.” Her winning smile makes me grin belatedly in response.
“Anyway.” She fixes me with a look. “You’re up early. If you have time, want to help me out with some storage room organization?”