Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
He forced himself to still his hands, but a minute later they started up again. His foot was bouncing, too. He glanced at the clock in the dash again, and his movements intensified.
Everything stopped, however, when the door across the lot pushed open.
Zenona left the hospital, looked around, then headed toward his truck, her hair in that professional ponytail and her purse slung over one shoulder.
She wore khaki pants and a white blouse that fluttered in the gentle breeze.
She was finally back to work after spending several days in the hospital receiving transfusions and getting her strength back.
“Hi,” Zenona said as she came up to his window.
“Hi. You still want to do this?”
She bit her bottom lip and looked away, but she nodded. “I do.” She met his eyes again. “I need to.”
“Good.” He dredged up a grin as he gave a quick shrug. “I think I do, too.”
She reached into the cab to squeeze his shoulder. “Follow me there?”
His voice was scratchy and thick when he said, “Yeah.”
It was a short drive to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church a few blocks off 118.
As he followed Zenona’s Subaru into the lot, Cody swallowed hard at the number of vehicles already there.
How many people was he going to have to face?
He pulled into a spot alongside her, raised the windows, then stepped out.
She came up beside him and they stood together looking over the cars at the church.
“I’m nervous.” She turned to him. “Are you nervous?”
“Me? No. Nope, not at all.”
That produced the grin he was hoping for, and she gently bumped against him. “Liar.”
She took his hand and tugged him forward. He hadn’t expected it, but it was nice. Her hand was smaller than Demmy’s, the bones more fragile, and he focused on not gripping it too hard. That helped him not think about what he was going to say.
When they reached the doors of the church, he released her hand to pull it open and wave her through.
There were short flights of steps going up and going down.
A sign on a stand just inside the door had an arrow pointing toward the down steps and happily proclaimed: GRIEF SUPPORT MEETING IN GATHERING ROOM A.
They exchanged another glance before starting down the steps side-by-side.
The room was smaller than he’d expected, and it smelled like overheated coffee and day-old donuts.
An ancient plastic fan on a stand across the room turned slowly back and forth, slightly stirring the chill but damp basement air.
Avoiding the coffee and donuts, they chose a couple of folding chairs from the twenty or so arranged in a circle.
Some other attendees nodded or smiled at them.
Cody tried to smile back, but it felt too slick, like it wouldn’t stay on his face.
A big-boned woman with lank, straight hair and glasses with frames that looked straight out of the 80s stood up and cleared her throat.
“Let’s everyone take a seat now.” She waited until everyone had moved to a chair.
“I’m Augusta, and I’ll be leading the meeting tonight.
I see we have a couple of new people with us.
” She looked at Cody and Zenona. “Why don’t you tell us your first names and just a quick explanation of what brings you here? ”
Cody immediately nodded for Zenona to go first. She wrinkled her brow slightly in annoyance, but took a breath, let it out, and said, “Hi, I’m Zenona.”
“Hi, Zenona,” the rest of the group said, and Cody chuckled briefly with her.
“I’m here because…well, because I’ve recently lost someone I’d grown very close with. Okay, it might not be really recent because it happened last year. Last fall, I mean. Anyway, I haven’t been handling it so well and, um…” She glanced at Cody. “My friend convinced me to come.”
“Thank you, Zenona, and welcome,” Augusta said. “And grief doesn’t come to us on a strict timetable. We’re glad you’re here.” Augusta turned her attention to Cody. “How about you?”
He ran his hands up and down the legs of his shorts as a muscle beneath his eye twitched.
“Yeah, okay. Um, hi, I’m Cody.”
“Hi, Cody.”
“Hi. I’m here because I’ve…” A searing clot blocked his throat, stopping his words.
His eyes burned, and that muscle beneath his eye fluttered again.
He looked at the floor and drew in a deep breath, but it seemed to snag in his chest as Andy’s words echoed in the back of his mind: What the fuck did you do to me?
Cody closed his eyes. He listened to the buzz of the fluorescent lights, people shifting position around the circle, and the whir and click of the fan as it oscillated across the room.
The tightness in his chest eased a bit, allowing him to slowly release his breath, and he managed to look up and into Augusta’s kind and patient face.
Clearing his throat, he continued. “I’ve lost some people in my life the last few years, and I think it’s catching up with me. ”
He shrugged as the faces around him blurred.
“That’s why we’re here,” Augusta assured him. “And you’ve both done a very brave thing by coming tonight. Thank you.”
The meeting continued, group members introducing themselves and sharing.
But Cody had a hard time hearing them over the blood pounding in his ears.
At one point, Zenona took his hand and squeezed it.
He turned to her and saw tears running down her face.
Wiping his cheeks, he was surprised when his fingers came away wet.
He nodded once and, still keeping hold of her hand, focused on the meeting again as something long held tight inside him twisted loose a tiny bit.
Demetrius wrung out the mop Margie had purchased, wrinkling his nose at the dark, sludgy water in the bucket. He straightened up, one hand on the small of his back as it crackled, and took stock of the diner.
The dining area was one big open space, the tile floor still stained in some places with dark vampire blood.
The busted up tables and chairs and a few of the booths ruined beyond repair had been tossed into the rented dumpster parked outside the back door.
His heart clenched at the empty feel of the room, but he reminded himself her new and improved tables and chairs would be delivered in another week, and Biff Gittleson, a handyman out toward Creighton, had offered to rebuild the ruined booths for two dozen meatloafs he intended to freeze and savor over the next year.
Demetrius, Oliver, and Robin had been mopping the last two days, and Vicki Downing had helped the days before. Even with the stubborn sticky patches of vampire blood scattered around the floor, the place was looking a lot better, and the countertop and tabletops of the surviving booths gleamed.
The muted conversation within the kitchen grew suddenly more heated, and he heard Margie say, “Look here, Gordon Gottlieb, I will not have you deny this damage after the money I’ve paid you all these years without a single claim, do you hear me?
This was not an act of civil war or riot.
This was vandalism, pure and simple. Now, straighten up and tell me what that new walk-in cooler is going to cost you. ”
Demetrius looked at Oliver across the room, and they shared a smile. The front door opened and the little bell, which had survived it all, tinkled. Lucia and Gayle came through, Lucia still moving a bit stiffly.
“Hi,” Demetrius said, leaning his mop against the wall. “How are you feeling?”
“I’ve got three broken ribs, how do you think I feel?” Lucia said. “Crappy.”
“And crabby,” Gayle added, but she hovered close by while Lucia lowered herself onto a stool at the counter.
Lucia shot her a glare before taking in the room. “It’s looking a hell of a lot better.”
“Figured it was the least we could do,” Oliver said, leaning on his mop.
“Yeah,” Robin put in from the front corner of the room where they were on their hands and knees scraping at a stubborn stain. “Since my company burned down, I’ve gotta keep busy somehow.”
“Your company?” Oliver said with a smirk. “You some business mogul whiz kid all of a sudden?”
Robin rose up on their knees and spread their arms. “I might be. You don’t know.”
“If you are, you’re a pretty cheap ass bitch with your money,” Oliver said, and they all laughed.
Margie pushed out of the kitchen, muttering. When she saw Lucia and Gayle, her face lit up and she came around to the front of the counter. “How are you doing?”
“Crappy,” Lucia repeated, then gave Gayle a long look, prompting her to make a twisting motion in front of her closed lips as if turning the key in a lock.
“The stove, oven, and griddle will be operational tomorrow, but I won’t be open for more than a few hours a day without a cooler to store the meat and produce.
That refrigerator back there won’t cut it for my usual hours, and it’s going to take weeks for the new cooler to arrive.
” Margie glanced toward the kitchen door before adding in a softer tone, “And fully covered.”
“That’s really great news, Margie,” Lucia said. “We just wanted to stop in and see how the cleanup was going. No pressure to open up again.”
“Oh, I’m pressuring myself to reopen.” She clutched her hands together as she looked around. “I miss the bustle of this place.”
“People are talking about missing Hollow Grounds, the Orchid, and the clothing store,” Robin said, getting to their feet and stretching.
“I think Diane is meeting with Gordon later today about how she can get the coffeeshop rebuilt. But everyone, and I mean everyone, says they miss this place the most.”
Diane was the owner of Hollow Grounds. When the firebomb had been thrown through the window, she’d evacuated as many people as possible and received several burns in the process. In a lot of pain, she’d driven herself to the hospital and called 911 on the way.
“People have been asking me when you’ll open again, too,” Demetrius added.
“Oh, you all are going to make me cry.” Margie ran a finger beneath one eye.
“Was the sink actually damaged?” Gordon called from the kitchen.
Margie’s expression changed in a flash, and she whirled to stomp back toward the kitchen. “You’re damn well right it was damaged.”
They all laughed, then Demetrius took a step closer to Lucia. “Congratulations on being appointed sheriff.”
Her smile was brief, there and gone. “Thanks. Not the way I wanted to get it.”
“But well deserved,” Gayle said, squeezing her shoulder.
Lucia blushed. “There’s a difference between being appointed by the mayor to being elected by the population, though.”
“That’ll wait until fall,” Gayle said. “You’re already showing them what you’re all about, and people are happy for the change.”
“Any word from the ME about the bodies in Hollow Grounds?” Demetrius asked.
Lucia shook her head. “There are still about ten open missing person cases. Diane’s working on getting the Hollow Grounds security camera video downloaded from the cloud so we can try to make IDs ourselves.”
“She knows a lot of the customers by sight,” Robin said, shaking their head. They added in a quiet voice, “Most of the people who went there were really nice.”
“Sorry to hear about Deputy Soltero leaving,” Oliver said.
“Probably for the best, for him and us,” Lucia said. “He was having a hard time coming to grips with what happens around here, and he wasn’t taking my updated training very seriously.”
“Gotta love those crisscrossing ley lines,” Robin said, then did a little shimmy as they sang about their ley lines bringing all the freaks to their yard.
Cody came in the door, waving in general greeting as he headed right for Demetrius. The smile on Cody’s face didn’t quite reach his eyes, and Demetrius noticed the way he looked from face to face without settling on anyone.
“Hey, handsome,” Demetrius said as Cody gave him a quick kiss. “How about you take me home to change and we go to dinner?”
“If you’re thinking Antonio’s, you’re going to be in for a wait,” Gayle said. “With Margie’s closed, Antonio’s has started taking reservations.”
“You could go to Harriettville,” Oliver said, then made a face. “If you like that kind of thing.”
Everyone laughed, and Lucia gasped and clutched her side. “Stop cracking jokes,” she moaned.
“It only hurts when she laughs,” Oliver said with a grin.
“Or moves. Or thinks about moving,” Gayle said.
“All right now.” Lucia rose slowly to her feet. “Time for me to do all the things.”
“Let’s go, over-achiever.” The bell tinkled when Gayle opened the door, and she stood holding it for her as Lucia made her way out.
“How about somewhere outside of town?” Demetrius looked over to Oliver. “What’s that place in Creighton you and Dave have gone to?”
“Ember and Table,” Oliver said. “It’s really good. And you don’t need a reservation.”
“Yeah?” Demetrius turned back to Cody. “How’s that sound?”
“Yeah, okay.” The skin around Cody’s eyes still looked tight, but his shoulders had lowered a bit. “That sounds good.”
“Oh, before we leave…” Demetrius looked at Robin. “If you’re looking for work, would you be interested in joining Critter Catchers?”
Robin’s eyebrows shot up. “What? Really?”
Demetrius laughed. “Yes, really. We’ve been busy lately, and Jugs took some time off after…” He waved a hand around the diner. “We could use the help. What do you say?”
“Hell, yeah!” Robin whooped then stopped. “Wait, how much does it pay?”
“The age old question,” Oliver said.
“Why don’t you come out to the office tomorrow around ten, and we’ll talk about all that?” Demetrius said.
“Yes, I will be there!” They clapped and danced around again, then pulled their phone from a pocket. “I need to let Clarabell know.”
“God, she’s another step closer to being in our office full time,” Cody grumbled.
Demetrius laughed and took his hand. “Come on, let’s go.”