Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
It was hot and humid, again, but at least they’d caught a break and a flat gray layer of clouds kept the sun at bay.
For now. Demetrius stood on the patio in the back of Amelia and Otis’s condo, a half-finished bottle of beer in one hand and his other tucked into the pocket of his shorts.
One Sunday a month through spring, summer, and fall, the block where Amelia and Otis lived in Parson's Pines came together for a potluck.
Demetrius and Cody were always invited, as were Oliver and Dave.
Oliver and Dave, however, were off on a weekend trip to the Allegheny Reservoir where Oliver knew people who owned a pontoon boat. A pre-honeymoon, Oliver had called it.
For their contribution to the potluck, Demetrius had brought a plate of celery sticks, some with peanut butter spread in the curve, others with bar cheese, and the rest with a cream cheese and marshmallow fluff mix.
Those were Cody’s favorite, and Demetrius was glad he’d managed to keep a dozen out of his reach before they’d arrived.
Cody was a short distance away, talking with Eileen, Oliver’s grandmother, and a group of senior ladies, all of whom he had laughing.
From his time spent in the neighborhood, Demetrius knew the names of all the women clustered around Cody, who was soaking up every drop of attention.
His smile was turned up to spotlight brilliance, and charm radiated out from him like Chernobyl.
Gladys Miller stood close to Cody, of course, resting her hand on his arm now and then, her laughter cutting above all others.
Patricia Wynne, who Amelia called a pinochle card shark, was more restrained, but she still threw back her head and brayed at pretty much anything Cody said.
And Vanda Gayle, the fashion diva of the block, looked resplendent in a tailored pink track suit as she held a martini glass in one hand and waved Cody’s comments off with the other.
Cody could charm fish from a river without breaking a sweat.
Stilted conversation and long, unfamiliar silences during their dinner at Margie’s the night before had followed them into bed. They’d lain beside each other, hips touching, but still with so much distance left until they found their ways back to common ground.
The morning had been much the same. Demetrius had stayed in the kitchen, making the celery logs and preparing a bowl of veggies and fruit for Trevor.
Cody had washed both trucks, and, Demetrius thought, pointedly organized and refreshed their monster tackle boxes.
When he’d come inside to grab an iced tea, Cody had been shirtless, his skin warm and glowing, his smell filling the kitchen and grabbing Demetrius by the balls.
With a wink and a smirk that told Demetrius Cody knew exactly the effect he was having on him, he left the kitchen.
His scent lingered long after he’d gone, and Demetrius had been half hard for at least an hour.
They’d driven separately because Cody wanted to vacuum out his truck before he went to the party. Demetrius hadn’t even protested, just nodded as he tore off another piece of aluminum foil to cover the logs.
Someone touched his arm, startling him back to the party. Amelia stood close, large, black plastic-framed sunglasses a contrast to her smooth, tanned face and the silver of her perfectly bobbed hair.
“Oh, apple trees, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said.
“No, you didn’t. I was just lost in my thoughts, I guess.”
“I can see that. Everything all right?”
Cody’s laugh floated to them on a humid breeze. Demetrius stiffened slightly.
“Can you help me in the kitchen?” Amelia slipped her arm through his, which meant he had no choice in the matter.
She towed him through the slider and into the kitchen amidst the brown cabinets and cream Formica countertops Amelia always clucked her tongue over, vowing to someday spring for a kitchen remodel. Two banks of fluorescents tucked within the drop ceiling provided the only light.
“Is everything all right between you two?” Amelia peeled the foil off some kind of multi-layered dip.
“Yeah, of course. Why do you ask?”
“You arrived separately for one. And you’ve barely talked to each other while you’ve been here. He’s spent the entire time cavorting with those women.”
“I don’t really think he’s cavorting.”
“Well no, of course not. I mean, he’s married to the most amazing man I know, so there’s no way he’d be cavorting. But I have picked up on a bit of tension, you can’t tell me otherwise.” She gave him a pointed look, her light blue eyes, so much like his own mother’s.
Demetrius sighed. “We had a disagreement last night.”
She frowned. “Disagreement? You’ve had those before. This feels more serious.”
“You’re psychic now?”
Amelia narrowed her eyes. “Demetrius Barnaby Singleton-Bower, I’m not to be made fun of when discussing matters of the heart. Is that clear?”
He felt the heat of his blush to the top of his head. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Now, as someone who knows you as well as, if not better than, your mother, my sister, as someone who has watched you and Cody both grow up, I can tell something has gone sideways between you two. What is it?”
“Yes, fine, you’re right. We had a pretty heated argument yesterday.”
“Well, I’m sorry, I know that can be hard. Was it over something trivial that just ballooned into more?”
Demetrius’s first reaction was to defiantly say, “Yes!” But he restrained himself. Instead, he told her what he’d done, and then about the aftermath between him and Cody.
“Oh, palm trees, Demetrius. Why on Earth would you go and do something like that?”
“God, you too?”
“Me too? Of course me too!” She raised her arms up. “That was extremely careless. Anything could have happened to you.”
“So I’ve been told, multiple times and at varying volume levels.” He caught himself sticking out his lower lip and stopped.
“And rightly so. Cody has a right to be angry. Olive trees, I’m angry, too.”
“Fine, I get it, okay? I was careless and thoughtless. I won’t do it again.”
Amelia adjusted a few of the sliced olives decorating the dip and patted her hair before meeting his eye again.
“You know I can’t stay angry at you for long, you’re too dear.
And I understand you don’t believe this is a big deal, but Demetrius…
” She clutched his upper arms and locked eyes with him.
“Your life means so very much to so many people.”
His eyes stung and he blinked rapidly, nodding and looking everywhere but at her.
“I know,” he said as his throat tightened even more. “I know.”
“I’m not sure I believe you really deep down know it, but I won’t press the issue.” She pulled him against her in a strong hug, then abruptly stepped back. After another moment of fussing over the dip, she said, “Vampires. Just terrible.”
“Well, just the one we know about so far, and he was staked by someone, so we might be in the clear.”
She made a humming sound. “I’ve known something was going on in town. I’ve asked you, remember?”
“I remember. But you didn’t really give me a reason why you think so. Have you seen anything more bizarre than usual?”
“I keep seeing fewer and fewer people at the senior center.” She gave him a pointed look. “And, yes, I know that’s expected at a senior center. But at least two of them haven’t had funeral services that I can recall.”
Demetrius knew Amelia and the rest of the women on the block perused the obituaries every day and made lists of those services they wanted to attend.
“That is strange,” he said. “Anything else? Weird sounds at night?”
“No, nothing like that.” She waved her hands as if dispelling the topic and handed him the dip. “We can discuss all that later. Right now, this is a party. Let’s put all this talk behind us and go out and have a good time. Carry that out to the dips and platters table, please.”
“Dips and platters table?” he mumbled, leading the way back outside.
Cody and his gaggle had moved into the shade of a party tent close to the table where Amelia directed him to set the dip.
A man had joined the group, Stan, if Demetrius remembered right.
He lived at the end of the block and had had a front row seat this past spring to watch the demon-possessed tree chase the Cadillac Sedan de Ville down the street.
“No,” Stan said. By the tone of his voice, he was clearly getting tired of repeating himself.
“She was forty and divorced.” He cocked his head, squinting as he thought.
“I can’t think of her name. But she lives with her brother in a small house on the corner of Granite and Quartz out in Stone Hill. ”
Demetrius snapped his head up. He looked at Stan, then found Cody staring at him. The house Demetrius had entered the day before was located in Stone Hill. Demetrius ambled up to join the group, standing close but not exactly next to, Cody.
“So, what do you know, Stan?” Cody asked. “Other than her age and marital status?”
Some of the women around them tittered, but Stan ignored them, keeping his eyes on Cody as he spoke.
“I know she was seeing a guy her brother didn’t like. And about a week after she started seeing this guy, she vanished.” Stan snapped his fingers. “Without a trace.”
“The ex-husband,” Vanda said, her thick white hair caught the pink glow of her tracksuit, making her look punk. “It’s always the ex on the shows and podcasts.”
“The bad boy boyfriend,” Patricia stated. “Very sad, really. Myra Clemmons knew her from the market where she worked.”
“Ike’s Market?” Cody asked.
“Yeah, Ike’s.”
“I don’t like that place,” Gladys said as she touched Cody’s forearm for the umpteenth time. “It’s too small.”
“You like the big stores, huh Gladys?” Cody asked.
“Oh my God,” Demetrius muttered, and Cody gently bumped shoulders with him.
“Oh, you.” Gladys blushed and turned coquettishly away.
“Did you go to Ivan Diverno’s visitation?” Vanda asked the group.
“I did,” Patricia said. “It was at Billings.” She lowered her voice and gestured to the side of her neck. “Ivan had marks on his neck.”
Cody went very still beside him, and Demetrius’s heart beat faster.
“It’s the makeup girl they hired,” Stan said.
“Make up woman,” the women all corrected him at the same time.
Even with the danger lurking beneath the conversation, Demetrius had to fight to hold back a laugh.
“All right, makeup woman,” Stan said. “Whatever she is—”
“She’s a woman,” Vanda said with exasperation. “Aren’t you listening?”
“Okay! Whatever. It’s because of her you’re seeing stuff like that now. Before her, Bernie would layer the stuff on like he was troweling cement for a brick wall. Now the new…” He glanced at Vanda, “employee doesn’t use as much cover up, and we’re seeing stuff like that.”
“Have you been seeing a lot of those marks?” Demetrius asked. “On people’s necks?”
Stan lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “A few.”
“The doctors say it’s because of their ages,” Patricia said. “The skin tears more easily.”
“You need to moisturize,” Gladys said, nodding. “Everywhere and every day.”
“Everywhere?” Stan asked, looking slightly startled.
“Did they ever find a body?” Eileen asked. She was sitting just outside the group, puffing on her pipe.
“No, they haven’t,” Patricia said, shaking her head. “Just terrible.”
“I’m telling you,” Vanda said, pausing to sip her martini. “It’s always the ex.”
“Hey, Stretch,” Eileen said from the other side of the group.
“What?” Cody said.
Eileen waved the stem of her pipe between the two of them. “What’s up with you two?”
“Good God,” Demetrius said, his face growing hot.
“Nothing’s up with us,” Cody said. “What makes you say that?”
“You’re acting like you just met.”
“Whatdya mean? We’re standing here next to each other.”
“Yeah, in a Catholic school kind of way.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cody said.
“Pretty much,” Patricia said, the group all laughing.
“I need to use the bathroom.” Demetrius turned away, then back again. “And it’s not because of this conversation.”
“It’s the bean dip,” Stan stated. “It’s been working its way through me, too.”
Shaking his head, Demetrius headed for the house.
For the next two hours, Demetrius and Cody circled each other around the party but never managed to come back together. By late afternoon, Demetrius caught Cody’s eye across the yard. Cody gave a single nod, and they met by the slider door to go in search of Amelia to say goodbye.
“You keep those feisty old ladies out there in line,” Cody said, giving Amelia a hug.
“They’ll be fine without you around riling them up.”
“Riling them up,” Cody said with a grin. “I like that.”
Amelia hugged Demetrius tight and whispered in his ear, “You call me if you need to.”
“I will,” he whispered back.
They left the condo and walked in silence along the block to their trucks.
“That was some interesting conversation back there,” Cody finally said.
“Yeah, it was.” Demetrius unlocked his truck but leaned against the quarter panel. “The marks on the neck at funerals suggest vampire victims who haven’t been turned.”
“But the missing people makes me believe some of them are being turned,” Cody said.
“Right, or just haven’t been found yet, which is…” Demetrius shook his head and made a face. “Maybe worse.”
“So, we’ve got a mix of things going on.”
“As usual.”
“That woman they were talking about, the one from Ike’s Market. I think that might be Annie Wilkerson. Do you remember her from high school?”
“Yeah, I do. And her twin brother, Andy.”
“Right, yeah.” Cody looked along the street, his eyes unfocused. “He always acted like a dog scared of being beaten.”
“Yeah, he did. And she really liked the bad boys.”
Cody grunted in agreement then pulled his phone from his pocket, and silence dropped over them. Finally, Demetrius asked, “Are you going right home?”
“I want to make a stop first, but it shouldn’t take long.”
Demetrius waited for more, but Cody’s attention was on his phone. Any other time, Demetrius would have asked where he was going, but things between them still felt brittle. His stomach knotted when he realized he didn’t feel like he could ask Cody that question.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll see you back home, I guess.”
“For sure.” Cody flashed a smile before walking away.
Demetrius watched him go, Cody’s stride quick and purposeful like a man on a mission. But where to, and to meet with whom?
He drew in a deep breath, the air heavy with humidity, the smell of fresh cut grass, and the smoke from the barbecue in the back.
Getting into his truck, he started it and headed for home, alone, to wait.