She thought of the worry she’d felt at seeing Diana’s soul collect itself and hover over her corpse.
“No one else will be hurt by her, I promise.”
Chapter Twenty
“You still look down,” Finn said, scooting onto a seat at the kitchen counter. “Was I not to your satisfaction?”
“You’re always satisfying, darling. I’m just tired.”
“Ah, no, you’re not.” Finn reached over, squeezed her hand, and then grabbed a chunk of crumbled tofu from the bowl she was working with. “I know when you’re tired and when you’re melancholy, and this isn’t sleepiness.”
Veruca kept chopping vegetables for a bit, glancing at him but still mainly focusing on the work of preparing breakfast. Finn waited her out, watching her and smiling softly, knowing she’d reveal what was bumping around in her noggin if he gave her enough time. It might have taken all day, but he could wait. They had nothing in the world to do except keep each other company and nurse each other’s emotional wounds.
“I’m concerned about … how we left things.”
“Whad’ya mean?” He grabbed for a pepper, crunched on it while she dumped everything she’d sliced and diced into the tofu and tossed it in an impressive show where waves of food arced up and back into the bowl. Nary a morsel hit the floor, which wouldn’t have been the case had Finn tried the same trick.
“I might go to the funeral home, check to make sure everyone got there okay.”
“Everyone?” Finn asked, his voice quiet, though he hadn’t meant to whisper.
“Yes, everyone. There were quite a few bodies to get sorted out, and some of them specifically were meant to be delivered there. I just want to make sure they were.”
“Well, we’ll head over after breakfast, then.”
“You don’t have to go.”
“You trust me at the house alone? I nearly burnt it down the other night. You should keep me in tow.”
Veruca smiled and he was pleased to see it was genuine, letting him know she’d allow him to visit with her. He had worries of his own, concerns over what would happen to Diana mostly. No way would he have put on a whole funeral for her, she didn’t deserve that much recognition and adulation. He doubted he’d find anyone who would eulogize her nicely in any case, but she deserved something. A proper burial or cremation maybe. He’d heard people could be interred in urns made of mud or some such thing, and buried at the base of a tree. Or maybe buried and they grew into a tree. Finn figured that couldn’t be it, because how could a person turn into a tree? That didn’t seem right.
“Still here?” Veruca asked, turning back to face him. The pan was sizzling full of breakfast and Finn felt his stomach rumble.
“Just hungry, that’s all. We’ll eat and go check out the lost souls, eh? You can check on the hotel while we’re out.”
“I was going to do that anyway. Donald insists things are moving smoothly, but I’d still like to see for myself.”
“That’s because you’re very thorough. How many bouquets have you sent to employee families so far?”
“Not just bouquets,” Veruca said, tossing the food in the pan. Finn felt his mouth water at the sound of the sizzling, spicy tastiness. “The company will pay for the funerals, and I’ve made sure the families get any wages the victims would have made through the end of the month.”
“The hotel can afford that?”
“I can afford that.”
Finn felt his soul go a little warm, the familiar, fuzzy feeling arising any time Veruca was so casually generous with those around her. He still wasn’t sure how he’d gotten so lucky as to end up with someone so incredible.
“I love you, my love.”
“Thus the nickname,” she said, throwing a wink over her shoulder. “I love you too, darling. Set the table, would you?”
“Of course.” Taking the long way to the cabinet that held the dishes, Finn leaned in, pulled Veruca against him for a soft kiss, and felt the warmth in his chest glow even hotter as their lips met.
****
“Ms. Lake,” Serena said, stopping in the foyer with an arm full of paperwork.” I didn’t expect to see you again. Is something wrong?”
“We’re just here to check on the people sent over this morning.”
“Oh, oh. Right. We don’t really have much yet. Still waiting on finding out who we should notify, if anyone at all. Several of the people look like they were vagrants. I can get the paperwork, though.”
“Yes, and do you mind if we see them?”
“Uh, okay.” Serena looked a little thrown off but nodded and gestured toward the back of the building. “Come on, I can show you where everything is, and you can go to the freezer on your own if you don’t mind. I have a family in shortly—not one of yours.”
“People die every day, I know.” Veruca smiled softly, falling into step slightly behind Serena as she led them through the mortuary, away from the solemn, beige décor, and into the back area that looked more akin to any average office building. “Everyone made it, right? No missing bodies on the list?”
“As far as I know, everyone is accounted for, but I’ve been pretty busy since I got here, and Garrett’s been handling most everything. He insisted, wanting to dot every I and cross every T on his own. I’d call him over, but you’ve managed to show up during the only half hour he’s not going to be here this morning. Here’s what you need. Um.” She looked around, seemingly lost for a moment. “Well, if you need anything else, just give Hildy a ring. I’ve got that appointment in five, but Hildy knows the ins and outs of the place as well as could be.”
“Thanks. You go, help your clients.” Veruca patted her shoulder as she passed, grabbing for the stack of folders Serena had left. Once she was gone, Veruca handed half the stack to Finn. “Come on, we’ll go check everyone off, make sure no one’s missing.”
“We’ll what?” Finn squeaked, stepping back and flinching. “Are you saying we have to go into … back there?”
“You’ve been around corpses before,” Veruca said, though she kept her voice mild, knowing it wasn’t just his usual cowardice crawling up his spine this time. “These ones, in fact. You should recognize them, maybe be able to put some names to the faces?”
“She didn’t tell me names,” Finn said, still tense. “Not real names. She didn’t like real names, probably got that from Mort.”
“He should be here,” Veruca said gently. “Did you want to … I mean, you might be the only person left to choose how…”
“No,” Finn said, shaking his head. “I’m not—that’s not my place. I didn’t like the bastard. I don’t wanna be responsible for him. Burn him up, throw him in the oven, I don’t care. Just don’t make me look at him. Bury him, spread him up on the moon.”
“And Diana?”
“I don’t … I mean, she…” Finn trailed off, his mouth open, his brow knit. Veruca set her folders down and closed in to hug him.
“Why don’t we go in, see what we see, and maybe you’ll have a better idea of what’s to be done.”
“What I said about Mort stands. He’s a bastard.”
“You want to draw on his face with a permanent marker?”
“What?” Finn asked, confusion edging out the anxiety vibrating through his body. Veruca winked, letting him know she was being silly.
“Whatever you might want. I’ll grab a Sharpie and you can give him a silly mustache, maybe draw a few penises. He won’t know.”
“I’d rather not even see him, if possible.”
“I’ll go in first and make sure he’s covered, then. You give me a moment, then bring in the files.”
“You don’t have to talk me into not going into a cold room full of corpses.”
Veruca rubbed his back, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and headed back to the freezer. This was probably for the best, she thought. Whatever she found in there was probably best discovered alone. Whether it was Diana still hovering over her body—though Veruca saw no sign of a so
ul from where she stood—or simply her lonely corpse, it was best to approach it on her own terms.
The motion sensor caught her the second the door opened, and Veruca paused at the edge of the chilly room as the lights flickered to life, illuminating rows and rows of bodies on gurneys. And, to her surprise, one sprawled out on the floor next to an empty body bag.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Call Hildy,” Veruca said, closing in on Finn and grabbing for the files.
“What? Is something—”
“Go get her, please.” As quickly as she could, Veruca shuffled through the folders, looking for the description she was looking for, hoping to God she’d find it and set her mind at ease. It was unlikely, as she didn’t remember seeing Amanda’s body at the house when they’d been watching the mercenaries start to clean up the mess Diana had made, but that didn’t necessarily prove anything.
When she found no sign of the poor girl listed among the decedents, she swore. It started out mild, just a single, “Shit,” but grew in volume and absurdity as the worst possibilities suggested by the situation dawned on her.
“Something wrong?” Hildy asked when she came in ahead of Finn.
“I need to see the files for everyone in there.”
“Looks like you’ve got them,” she said, taking the stack from Veruca and fanning them slightly. “Yeah, this should be it, why?”
“You’ve got a girl in there who shouldn’t be.”
“What?” she asked, shaking her head as if Veruca had suggested she was personally up to something illegal. “No, that’s not right. I was the first one here this morning. I made sure everyone was accounted for.”
“This woman,”—Veruca tugged at Diana’s file—“is missing, but there’s a woman on the floor who … who you’ve lost before actually. This wasn’t how I wanted you to find her again.”
“The floor?” Horrified, Hildy stepped around Veruca, rushing into the freezer as if she should help Amanda’s corpse get up before it got hurt.
Coming to an abrupt halt a few feet away from the body on the ground, Hildy shook her head again, this time slowly in disbelief. “That’s…”
“Amanda Gleason, who went missing from this funeral home a…” Another horrible thought occurred to Veruca and she felt her heart start to pound. They had no idea how many victims Diana had left behind. It had been assumed, from how many zombies she’d had surrounding her at the house, that every one had been accounted for. But Veruca hadn’t seen the rest of the Gleasons among the nameless others.
The zombies hadn’t gone down when Diana had died. They’d needed the extra nudge, the extra swipe of power from Veruca. If there were any still out there, they may have still been animated, and Veruca could no longer ignore the nagging suggestion of imminent danger that was screaming in the back of her mind.
Diana’s body had been dead, that Veruca had been absolutely sure of, but maybe the residual bits of her soul Veruca had pulled from the zombies around her weren’t all she’d left behind. Maybe she hadn’t dissipated and become one with the universe like she should have because she was still tied to a mortal form somewhere else.
Meeting Finn’s eyes, she felt a shiver run down her spine.
****
Finn wasn’t sure what was going on, but he was keen enough to know it was bad and that it involved Diana.
Veruca hadn’t made him go into the freezer yet, for which he was grateful, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t at least somewhat aware of what was going on. Somehow, Diana’s body had gone missing, but Amanda’s body had shown up instead.
Worry chased fear down Finn’s spine as he pictured the initial meeting with the fairy who’d accused him of murder and mayhem. If there was some chance he could be blamed for Diana’s body going missing, Finn wanted to know.
Keeping quiet as Veruca and Hildy looked through stacks of colorful file folders, Finn made a mental note to ask Veruca what was going on with the big guy, and if he still had to worry about being crushed to death between massive, furry mitts.
Hildy and Veruca took the files back out toward the offices empty of people but filled with undecorated desks covered in more folders and pens and loose papers. Finn was trying to tune into what they were saying, but his brain was a bundle of steel wool, catching only words like, “Diana” and “missing” and “security” and repeating them on an echoing loop. Finally they stopped to investigate a monitor with lots of tiny boxes on it, each one showing a feed of some different part of the building.
“I swear, no one could have gotten in without me knowing it.”
“Someone had to have gotten in with you knowing it, then.”
“I only remember one person and it was an officer coming to check on things. She said—”
“She?” Veruca interrupted.
“Yeah, she. Look, I’ll show you and then you can look at everything from last night. Won’t be anything there, but you can check.”
Finn slipped in behind the women as they pored over the footage of the mostly dead—er, idle, Finn amended, refusing to be amused by his own accidental pun—funeral home. The only people who showed up were those he’d seen around when they’d gotten in, though it was still early, so he wasn’t surprised. Right before they were to open, however, they’d had a visitor, and Finn frowned when he recognized her.
“Why’s Alex in a cop’s uniform?”
“Alex?” Veruca demanded, standing up and catching his eye. “That’s Alex?”
“No, that’s Officer Smith,” Hildy said, tapping on the screen. “She came in, said she was sent to make sure we had the same count as she did on bodies and to let me know they were working on locating and notifying next of kin.”
“No, no,” Finn said, shaking his head. “I know women and that’s definitely Alex. Looks different, has her hair up and blonde, she’s walking a little heavier, but that’s her. I recognize the way she moves, kinda like when she was pretending to be that fancy, er, what’s it? Treasury Department officer?”
“At the bank,” Veruca said, turning back to lean in as if getting close to the low-resolution screen would help, rather than hinder visibility. “Play it back.”
Hildy procrastinated for a second, but Finn recognized her hesitation as guilt rather than annoyance. After they ran through all the footage of Alex at the funeral home, Veruca stood up, crossing her arms and shaking her head.
“You’re sure that’s her?”
“Who else do we know who likes to dress up in government costumes and has a million names?”
“I checked her ID, though!” Hildy insisted. “She had … she was legit!”
“You’re not the only one she fooled. She left without touching the back door,” Veruca said suddenly, jabbing her finger against the screen. “That’s on a loop.”
“It’s like in the movies?”
“Finn, stay here, watch that.”
“Where are—”
“Just watch for me.”
“On the TV?”
Veruca didn’t answer, just took off back toward the freezer. Finn and Hildy locked eyes for a moment, both bewildered and worried, before Finn turned back to look at the little square Veruca had poked. Nothing changed, and the longer Finn watched, the more he realized why she’d been suspicious.
“That thing,” Hildy said, her finger following a white speck that crossed the screen. “I think it’s blown by, like, twice.”
“You didn’t see me?” Veruca asked, startling them both.
“No, why?”
Veruca sighed. “Good, that means it’s your footage that’s been tampered with.”
“How is that good?” Hildy asked. Finn waved his finger at her, nodding rapidly.
“What she said!”
“It’s better than what I was worrying about, that’s all. Look, go over everyone in there again, make sure there’s no one else missing. Call the cops if anyone else shows up, verify they are who they say they are—I mean, make some calls, don’t just take a gander at a bad
ge and assume it’s real. Finn and I have to track down a corpse.”
“Another one?” Finn asked, letting her hook his arm with hers and pull him toward the front door. “Haven’t we tracked down enough?”
“We just need one more,” Veruca said as they stepped outside.
****
“I don’t understand, why do you look so happy? Alex was at the funeral home. How could that be a good thing?”
“It’s a good thing because I was worried it was something worse. She came in, somehow looped the feed on the door to the back of the building—the one they use to bring in the decedents—and now Diana’s body is missing.”
“Diana’s body?” Finn demanded, horrified. He squirmed, turning in his seat to face Veruca. She’d refused a driver again, so he didn’t bother to keep his voice down. “She’s gone and that’s better than what you were thinking? She could be out there, after me, and that’s not as scary as what—”
“I think Alex took her.”
“Why would she do that? What could she possibly want with her … with that?”
“I’m not sure, but we’re going to track her down and find out why.”
Finn watched her drive, letting the facts swirl in his head. Diana’s body—and Veruca didn’t seem worried it might not just be an empty corpse—had been taken by the woman they’d hired to help clear Finn’s name. Just a few days ago, someone in Fairy had been concerned he was a rogue necromancer, killing and using corpses to rob banks. Things hadn’t gotten easier when they’d realized it wasn’t him, and now even with Diana supposedly out of the picture, things were still tough.
“Why was Amanda in there?” Finn asked, thinking back on the big guy glowering at him from the doorway of the room of the undead girl.
“The—she—” Veruca cut off, frowning as she switched lanes. Finn gave her a moment, wanting to make sure most of her attention was in fact on keeping them out of a collision before repeating himself.
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