Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
Xander was getting awfully tired of having ghost hunters in his house. He got it. He did. This activity was unusual. There was absolutely no historical precedent for it. There was no reason it should be happening logically, and now they were looking for an object.
The problem was he had bought probably two or three hundred objects at yard sales and estate sales and at Clinton’s Crapitorium over in Secret Springs. He had no idea what he had brought into the house that might be setting things off.
On the good side, Iago had decided to come back and work with the guys at the house. He was cataloging items on his laptop as Xander brought them down for everybody to examine. He’d stored most of the crap he bought to decorate the house once the renovations were done in a guest bedroom.
Iago was currently staring at an amazing stuffed Cthulhu doll made from leather, chuckling softly. “He’s so cute.”
“I know, right?” Xander loved that silly thing. “Mrs. Clinton over in Secret Springs found it for me.” She was always holding things back for good customers. Her antique and junk store was a place of legend.
“He’s stunning. I have a couple of weird collectables — nothing as wonderful as this, of course.”
“Do you think this is the culprit?”
“That’s up to the guys with the meters. I’m just the keyboard warrior.”
“Okay, cool.” He studied Iago while he hunted something on the computer. He was… quieter around Xander today, as if he was trying not to annoy him.
Which made him feel bad. He didn’t mind the caffeinated squirrel. Not most of the time.
“I hid the last two pieces of cake. If you want to come share them with me…”
Oh, that was a sweet, sweet offer.
“I would love that. Such a good cake. I was so proud of it.”
Iago rolled his eyes and smacked his lips. “It’s amazing. That little hint of lemon is what does it.”
“I’ve always heard that you should use something tropical or citrusy to go with coconut because it cuts that creamy fattiness.”
“Mmm…creamy fattiness.” Iago waggled his eyebrows.
“You are—” His cheeks heated, and he hooted out a weird laugh that made the other guys glance over.
“I know. I’m a lot.” But Iago didn’t sound upset. Only teasing. He winked over. “I’ll be good. Promise.”
“Hey, no. I don’t want you to do anything different.” Xander meant it. “Like I said, I’m sorry. Though I can’t promise not to be a grumpy asshole.”
Iago studied him for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. I believe you.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it, and yeah, I’d love to, with the cake, I mean, when you’re off work.”
“Cool, cool, cool.” Iago started typing again. “How’s work going for you?”
He shrugged. “Pretty easy, really. I go in, I make food, everyone loves it. I come home.”
The hotel wasn’t huge, so he didn’t have too many covers a night, but he cooked enough to pay his bills.
“That’s a win-win situation.”
“It is. The only time it sucks is when the weather is bad, but I have chains for the SUV. It’s no big deal. I know how to drive in lots of snow. I grew up around here.”
“I have seen some things now that I’ve been here for a winter,” Iago agreed.
“Things you can’t unsee, right?”
“Yes, up to and including Xavier’s long underwear.”
Xander felt a little spurt of jealousy go through him at the thought of Iago seeing his buddy Xavier partially naked. “How did you see Xavier unclothed?”
“Oh, we had to change up at the coffee shop at one point, all of us including Xavier, because we had to save a little black bear out of the dumpster. We were on our way back into Hot Springs Junction, in fact, from Secret Springs.”
“Huh. I haven’t heard that story.”
“Yeah, you were off work or we would have made you come over from the hotel and help us.”
“Oh my God, I’m not sure whether I’m sad or glad I missed that.”
“Hey, Iago, I need you to catalog this thing. I think we might have gotten some readings off of it.” Law came wandering into the kitchen, some kind of weird military insignia in hand.
He left it next to Iago’s computer and then wandered over to the fridge, which was plugged in out in the mudroom, to stand in front of it with the door open.
Xander raised an eyebrow at Iago, who glanced up and grinned at him, shrugging.
“You going to stand there and let all the cold air out?” Xander asked.
“Probably. Hopefully there will be cheese at some point.” Law sounded completely unconcerned, as if this was his house. He kind of did that. Mason was more formal; Iago was less so. Law landed somewhere in between.
Xander rolled his eyes then moved to push Law out of the way. He pulled out cheese, salami, pepperoni, some fruit, peppers, a tub of cream cheese, and a bunch of other stuff like olives and pickles before he set about making a charcuterie board.
Iago got up from his computer and stretched. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Yeah, there’s a baguette over there on the counter if you want to slice it up for me. The bread knife is hanging next to the pantry.”
“Oh my God, you are a prince among men,” Law said. “Let me go get Colton and Mason.”
Xander nodded, because what else was he going to do?
All three of them, the others who were not Iago, had seemed to warm up to him a little bit today after they found out Iago wasn’t angry at him anymore.
He knew they wouldn’t trust him as far as they could throw him really, but they were treating him pretty much like they had before the caffeinated squirrel crack.
It was good enough for Xander. He didn’t want to have strife with Sebastian’s husband and friends. Even more than that he wanted Iago to like him because, while he knew he would never be good enough for the guy, he really thought Iago was cute and funny and Xander enjoyed his company.
As long as it hadn’t been a hard day, and he was enjoying anybody’s company, he guessed.
Iago glanced at him again once Law left the room. “You’re thinking so hard I can almost smell the smoke coming out of your ears.”
“I was just contemplating what a shitty human being I am.”
“What?” Iago set aside the military insignia that honestly Xander couldn’t remember ever having seen before.
“I admit I was pretty hurt about the things you said the other day, but I know now you were just in a really bad mood, and you didn’t mean them.
Do I think you need to work on that? Sure.
Do I think that makes you a shitty human being? No.”
“Thanks for that.” Xander sliced the cheese into attractive rounds and squares and laid it out, alternating with the meat. He put the fruit in the middle, then stuffed the miniature peppers with cream cheese he mashed up with some dill and some garlic.
Iago stared at him. “That is so cool.”
“What is?”
“How you just do the thing. You cut and wiggle and spin around, and suddenly there’s food. I mean, I can make eggs…”
“Hey.” Xander shook his head. “Eggs are like the hardest thing to learn how to make.”
Iago snorted “Sure, they’re one of the hardest things to learn to make well. I make mediocre eggs, middle of the road all the way. I like my scrambles hard and my overs easy, and I know how to do all that, but I’m not very patient with soft curds.”
Xander shuddered, because ew. “I don’t particularly care for soft curds. That’s like a chef thing. I’m a short-order cook. I cook eggs to order, and I cook my eggs to at least medium. I worry about things like the salmonella outbreak.”
“I like that.” Iago stole a pepper and chomped it. “I like food. I don’t need a chef. I love to eat real people food.” He stopped and winked. “Like coconut cakes and those neat salads.”
“I’m glad.” He held Iago’s gaze for a little bit, somehow feeling like they were saying all sorts of things without words.
He pointed his knife at the military emblem.
“So, I don’t think I’ve seen that before.
” It looked like some kind of a medal that someone wore around their neck because it was on a ribbon instead of on a pin.
It appeared old, but he didn’t remember buying it. Militaria wasn’t his deal.
“No? That’s weird. You don’t think you picked it up somewhere?”
He shook his head. “It’s just not my thing. I like goofy shit. I mean, I got nothing against it, but it’s just not something I collect.”
Iago stole an olive and sucked the pimento out of the center. “Interesting. It must have come in with something. Do you buy lots?”
“Sometimes I’ll buy a shoe box of cards or pins or something to wear on my jacket, but I don’t tend to buy junk drawer stuff.
I wonder if it ended up in my bag by accident.
” He could see that, if somebody was putting a lot together for him at an estate sale and had just picked that up off the table.
“Huh. Well, I’ll record it and then put it aside. Maybe someone is missing it.”
“Sounds good. I’ll call Mrs. Clinton tomorrow over in Secret Springs and make sure she didn’t have it turn up gone unexpectedly.
” And if no one claimed it, maybe he would have Sebastian take it over to Hank Vargas, who ran the historical museum in Secret Springs.
It gave him the heebie-jeebies kind of looking at it, so he didn’t really want it in the house.
“No problem. I’ll take care of it.” It was amazing how much a little guy like Iago could eat.
The other guys finally filed into the kitchen, and they talked a little bit about how the rest of the investigation was going to go.
Xander pointed out the medal. “You might have something there, Law. I don’t know this thing at all.”
“I’ll send the picture to Hank Vargas and see what he says.”
“Yeah, see if he wants it, too, even if it’s not what’s causing the trouble in the house. I don’t want it here.”
Iago nudged him gently with an elbow in the ribs. “It’ll be okay.”
Xander rolled his eyes. “I’m just being silly, I know.”
Iago shrugged his shoulders, shook his head. “It’s totally cool to get wigged. It happens to the best of us.”
He let one eyebrow wing up. “You?”
“All the time. Colton is the macho one in that front. Mason too. Me and Law, we get freaked out.”