Working Stiff tr-1

by Rachel Caine

Bryn was shaken, not that she’d let him see it. “Take no for an answer, Freddy. You ought to know the word by now. I’m sure you hear it enough.”

  “Ouch.” He seemed more amused than hurt. “Look, I don’t really want to be seen in public with you either; you’re not exactly up to my usual standards. So how about a quickie down here? Nobody here but Mr. Granberry; I don’t think he’d mind. I could break out the wine coolers.”

  “If you come near me with a wine cooler, I hope you go both ways, because I will shove it up your ass.” Bryn walked for the door, half expecting him to grab her and throw her to the floor, but when she looked back Freddy was still standing there, smiling at her.

  “Don’t know what you’re missing,” he said. “When you’re ready for a good time, you know where to find me, sweetheart. You’re welcome down here anytime.” He blew her a kiss.

  Bryn didn’t even remember going up the stairs, or going into her office—only the slamming of the door let her know that there was a solid oak surface between her and Fast Freddy. She shuddered, locked the door, and backed off to collapse into her office chair. “Ugh, ugh, ugh,” she said, and dropped her head into her hands. “Now I really need a shower.” She’d met guys like him, of course. Lots of them. It came with the territory of working in a traditionally male area. And she’d learned to deal with them. She just hadn’t quite expected to have to do it here, in civilization.

  And not at the end of a miserable first day.

  After taking a few dozen deep, calming breaths, she stripped off her lab coat and retrieved her purse from the drawer of her desk. So time to go home. Maybe Lucy had been right—a glass of wine and a massage—but if she couldn’t get the massage, at least a glass of wine, a movie, something to take her mind off of things.

  Bryn jerked at the sound of a thunderously loud knock on the door. “Hey, girl? You still here? Come out! Come out!”

  She hadn’t turned her fluorescent office light on, so as long as she kept quiet, Freddy wouldn’t know she was there. Hopefully.

  She could hear him breathing. There was something very creepy about that.

  Finally, he muttered, “Man, you are one cold bitch,” and she heard him walking away. She held her breath until she heard what sounded like the front door slamming, and then went to the window to look out. Carefully.

  Freddy drove a silver sports car, and she watched him climb inside and drive away in a squeal of tires. Oh, thank God.

  Just her, then. Her and the late Mr. Granberry downstairs.

  She bet Freddy hadn’t bothered to put him in the refrigerator. That seemed like the kind of slap-dash asshole move he’d pull.

  Bryn unlocked the prep room door and turned on the lights, and yes, she was right: Freddy had left poor Mr. Granberry naked on the table. It was cold in the room, but not cold enough to properly retard decomposition … and besides, it was just disrespectful, leaving the poor man there exposed and alone.

  Bryn walked over and looked down at his face. Bodies didn’t scare her—never had, really. They were a sad remnant of a life already gone by the time she saw them like this—an impermanent memorial, melting like paper in water. Everybody—and every body—had a story. She supposed Mr. Granberry’s was kind of tragic, given his wife and what had happened with his daughter, but he didn’t look especially tragic—just absent.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, and put her hand on his cheek. He felt cool and utterly lifeless, like a rubber doll left outside in winter. “Take care of Melissa, wherever you guys are. I don’t think she meant to hurt anybody. She just didn’t want to live with all the pain. I’m sure she really loved you.”

  Talking to the dead was always useless. Mr. Granberry didn’t hear, didn’t feel, didn’t care. But Bryn felt better for having said it, and that was really the point.

  “Time to go to your room.” Bryn spread a clean white sheet over him, then removed the brakes from the wheels and rolled his table into the walk-in refrigerator. “Sleep tight, Mr. G. I promise we’ll do our best for you. Oh, look— you’ve got a friend.” Mr. G had a neighbor, it seemed— another body, still zipped in a dark plastic cocoon. She supposed it was a late arrival from a hospital or the coroner’s office.

  As she closed the door on him, she could have sworn she heard something. Bryn paused, holding her breath, but she heard nothing now but the hum of machinery. She couldn’t help but think of poor Mr. Granberry sitting up on his tray. Corpses sometimes did that sort of thing. It wasn’t anything to do with zombies; it was just muscles contracting. It seemed creepy, but it was just … biology.

  Although biology could be pretty damn creepy, when you came right down to it.

  She looked inside, but nothing seemed to have changed. As she swung the door shut, she heard it again. A faint sound but definite.

  Kind of a scratching.

  “Rats,” she said, and shuddered. She’d have to tell Mr. Fairview. The last thing any mortuary needed was a rodent problem. That would get them shut down quickly, and ruin their reputation forever.

  Bryn clicked off the lights decisively and walked out the doors, locking them behind her.

  She was halfway up the stairs when the door at the top opened. She was caught—nowhere to go. All she could do was stand there and look alarmed. Of course, Fast Freddy had come back … and this time, he had her where he wanted her.

  No … As the shock faded and her eyes adjusted, she realized that the man standing at the top of the steps wasn’t Fast Freddy, or Lincoln Fairview. For a second she couldn’t place him at all, and then she remembered.

  It was the man who’d come earlier today to talk about his brother’s arrangements. Joe. Joe Fideli.

  He lifted a finger to his lips, a clear shushing motion, and Bryn took a step backward slowly.

  Mr. Fideli raised a pistol. Not just a Saturday-night special—no, this looked like a very serious professional semiauto. Not military issue, but a similar model, and just as good. She raised her hands in mute surrender. Mr. Fideli gestured her down the stairs. She slowly went, feeling for each step as she took it backward.

  Once she was at floor level, there still weren’t many options. The elevator and loading-dock doors were closed, and she didn’t know the maze of basement storage at the other end well enough to count on another exit. Still, she had the crazy impulse to run—but there was something about running into the dark that stopped her.

  Well, that and the fact that she thought Mr. Fideli was probably a crack shot.

  “It’s Miss Davis, right? You’re not supposed to be here,” Mr. Fideli said. “Sorry. I don’t mean to scare you, but I’m going to need you to do what I say for a while.”

  He sounded like he meant it. He also sounded completely different from the buttoned-up, blankly inquisitive man who’d been sitting across from her this morning. He was kind of relaxed, as if this were his job, and he was very, very good at it.

  Also, she supposed an unarmed, first-day-on-the-job funeral director probably didn’t pose much of a threat.

  “What are you doing here?” Bryn demanded. Her voice was shaking, so it spoiled the confrontational words, but Mr. Fideli just raised his eyebrows and ignored the question anyway.

  “Anybody else here I need to know about?” he asked. “Fairview? Freddy Watson? Lucy?”

  He knew everybody’s name. That was … strange. Bryn shook her head.

  “Okay.” He stared at her for a long second, and she sensed he was making some kind of decision. It might have been about her own life and death. “Upstairs. Let’s have a seat in your office and talk. Might as well be comfortable.”

  She led the way, terribly aware of the gun he was aiming at her back; she supposed some movie action hero would have been able to spin around, roundhouse-kick the gun out of his hand, and martial-arts him into blubbering submission. She’d been through extensive unarmed combat training, and she knew that in no way was that a good idea.

  Bryn lived in the real world, and in the real world, you followed a gunman’
s instructions, and waited for any opportunity that wouldn’t get you shot.

  Once they were in her office, Mr. Fideli locked the door and sat down in the guest chair opposite her desk with a relieved sigh. When she hesitated, he gestured with his free hand for her to take the chair behind the desk. She did, making no sudden movements.

  “Long day,” he said. She nodded. You’ve got no idea, mister. “So. You weren’t on my briefing paper. I’m guessing you’re the new hire?”

  “Today’s my first day,” she said.

  “Well, you picked a honey of a time to start, Bryn. Mind if I call you Bryn?”

  “Mind if I call you Joe? If that’s even your name?” She felt a little better sitting down. A little more in control.

  “Sure. And yeah, it’s my name.”

  “Do you even have a brother?”

  “Had,” he said, and tilted his head slightly, still watching her. “How the hell old are you, anyway?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  “Damn. You ought to be an actress; you could do those teen shows. You look sixteen.”

  Bryn ground her teeth and said nothing. She was so tired of people assuming she was high school age. She supposed when she was forty, she’d be grateful for the baby face, but up to now it had been a total pain in the ass.

  Probably not the most important thing on the radar at the moment, from a macro point of view.

  “Anyway,” Fideli said, “I’m just here to do some reconnaissance. You know what that means?”

  He clearly didn’t know her past. “Check out the lay of the land.”

  “Ding. I wasn’t planning on running into anybody. Where’s your car?”

  “I don’t have one. I ride the bus.”

  “No shit. Is that one of those save-the-planet things, or I’m-too-poor-to-afford-it things?”

  “Both. Mostly the latter, honestly.” Sadly.

  “Well, good for you, I guess. Bad for me, though. Tougher for me to get you out of here.” Fideli fell silent, staring at her.

  She felt compelled to say something. “What do you want? We don’t have a lot here that’s worth taking, if that’s what this is about. I mean, the furniture, maybe, but—”

  “I’m not a thief.”

  “Well, there’s not a load of opportunity for industrial espionage in this business,” she said. It was a joke, but he didn’t smile. His eyes certainly didn’t. “What did you want in the prep room?” Preparation, Bryn remembered, too late. Fairview always wanted to be formal about it with the customers. Not that Mr. Fideli was shaping up to be a customer, after all.

  “I’m supposed to find out if Mr. Fairview and Fast Freddy are running drugs,” he said. “Prescription drugs. Stolen.”

  “What? Of course not!”

  “No offense, but you’re what, a day into this job? How would you know?”

  “This is a successful business. Why would they do something so stupid?” Then again, she’d met Freddy. And she wouldn’t put anything past him. “Unless—maybe it’s not Mr. Fairview? Just Freddy?”

  Fideli’s head came back upright, and there was a new tension in his body. “You know something about the guy?”

  “Not that much. Just … he’s a creep. You know the type.”

  “Explain it to me.”

  “He came on to me. Downstairs.”

  “Romantic.”

  “Exactly.” She cleared her throat. “Look, I’m not Wonder Woman—do you think you could put the gun down?”

  “What?” He seemed genuinely surprised, and then smiled. “Yeah. I already went through the drawers of your desk. Just in case you had a thirty-eight-caliber surprise in there. So I guess you’re safe enough.”

  She was startled. “When did you do that?”

  “While you were downstairs.” His gaze shifted, and the easy friendliness disappeared instantly. “Hold up. Don’t move.” She didn’t. He got up and went to the window, looking without moving the blinds. “You know of any reason why your boss and Freddy would come back here after hours tonight?”

  “No.”

  “Well, they’re parking cars right now.” Fideli backed up next to her, and the gun made an unpleasant reappearance. “Not a word, Miss Davis.”

  “You’re not going to kill me are you?”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Because you’re the one with the gun?”

  He looked at it. “This old thing? Family heirloom. I hardly ever shoot anybody with it.” He was lying, but he was doing it with style and a sense of humor, and whether she wanted to or not, she felt a little bit better about being held hostage. “You’ll be quiet?”

  “Absolutely.”

  He sent her a sassy wink, which wasn’t nearly as creepy as when Fast Freddy did it. “Good girl.”

  Fideli moved to the closed door and listened with great concentration—but still keeping an eye on her; she was sure about that. Bryn didn’t move. Straining her ears, she heard the front door opening and the door chime faintly making the announcement. Then nothing. Soundproofing worked in bad ways, too.

  Fideli, however, had heard something she hadn’t. “They’re heading downstairs,” he said. “Okay, let’s get you out of here, miss.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “No place for bystanders right now. Up and out.”

  Not that waiting in the dark for the bus was going to be her favorite thing, either. “Can’t I just wait here? You know, until you‘re, ah, done?” Whatever that might mean.

  “No,” he said. “Get your stuff, Bryn.”

  The kinder Joe Fideli was gone again, replaced by one highly mission-focused. She got her purse and coat and followed him as he cat-footed it down the hall to the lobby door.

  She grabbed his arm. “The bell!” she whispered. “They’ll hear it!”

  “You’ve got reason to be here, and reason to be leaving,” he whispered back. “Play it cool, whatever they do. Just pretend like everything’s normal, and leave. Go catch your bus.”

  Then he opened the door, the bell dinged, and he disappeared into the shadows, moving so fast that Bryn was left standing there, openmouthed, with the door swinging back shut against her outstretched hand.

  Nowhere to go but out.

  Bryn didn’t get far. She was less than ten feet from the door when she heard the muffled chime of the bell again, and looked over her shoulder to see Mr. Fairview standing there.

  “Bryn,” he said, still using that soothing working-hours voice. “Well. This is a surprise. We thought you’d already left, especially after the day you’ve had.”

  “I got caught up in reading over the materials. There’re a lot of things to learn. I’m sorry if I broke any rules…. I’m not putting in for overtime, I promise.”

  She felt nervous, and she knew he could see it—but hopefully, he’d put it down to the natural uneasiness of a new employee caught doing something slightly odd, and God, how had she gotten herself into this, anyway? Working with the dead was supposed to be peaceful. That was the whole point.

  The silence seemed to stretch on. Bryn felt sweat break out under her arms. She had a choice to make—tell Fairview about Joe Fideli’s quiet infiltration, or stay quiet and risk being wrong about him. He’s a man with a gun, skulking around at night. You should tell Fairview.

  And she would have … except that he said, “Did you go into the preparation room after Mr. Watson left tonight, Bryn?”

  “Why?”

  “We have a silent alarm that operates when we’re off premises. To prevent any, ah, tampering with the bodies. I’ve turned it off now, since we’re here.” Fairview’s eyes were in shadow, his face rendered into a blank mask by the lighting in the parking lot. There was nothing in his voice, either, but Bryn’s instincts screamed that there was something wrong. Very wrong.

  “I realized that Freddy left Mr. Granberry out on the table,” she said. “I just went in to put him in the freezer. I hope I didn’t do anything wrong. I do have the keys. Nobody told me the area was o
ff-limits.”

  “Oh, it’s not—not normally, of course. I was just concerned, based on the alarm.” Fairview smiled. “Why don’t you come on back inside, my dear? It’s chilly out here at night, and the fog’s coming in.”

  He was right; she was shivering, and the gray mist had rolled over the coast and faded out the lights of the town in the distance. Even the bus-stop lights seemed smeared and indistinct.

  “I need to get home,” she said. “The last bus is on the way any moment.”

  “Oh, no need to worry about that,” Fairview said. “I’ll drive you home, Bryn. But come back inside; have some coffee. I have something I need to discuss with you first.”

  She swallowed. The night felt dark, deep, and icily empty; she was fifty feet from the bus stop, but the shelter was empty at this hour, and although there were cars going by on the road, they weren’t going to notice anything happening here. Running seemed stupid. At best, it would let him know she suspected something was going on inside; at worst, at least Joe Fideli was somewhere nearby, with his gun.

  She wasn’t sure why, but she felt that she trusted Fideli more than the man who’d hired her. The man she’d admired so much for his compassion and composure just this morning. Standing here in the chilly dark, watching his face, she thought he might be more of a killer than the guy with the gun.

  The thought of lying cold on one of those trays robbed her of the will to run—not that there was anywhere to go; the bus wasn’t even in view. She stayed where she was as Mr. Fairview descended the steps and came toward her. He took her arm and escorted her back into the mortuary.

  “Nothing to worry about,” he said, still using that soothing professional tone. “I just want to explain about some of our procedures, Bryn. You’re in no trouble, I promise. If you’d wait in your office for a bit, I have to meet with someone else first. I’ll come right up, and after we’ve talked I’ll give you a ride home. I hate making you wait out there in the dark. It’s just not safe.”

  “Okay,” she said. This was a really bad idea, but she couldn’t think of anything else to do except go along with him. Mr. Fairview hustled her, quietly and irresistibly, back into the mortuary and down the hall to her office. She fumbled with the keys and opened it, and Mr. Fairview gave her a reassuring smile.