Bleak Midwinter by R.L. Perry

Author:R.L. Perry
Language: deu
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781681570396
Publisher: Blue River Press
Published: 2016-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

31

As long as Silvia and I had been friends, we had trusted each other's instincts. But I knew I was asking Silvia to trust me unconditionally with this one. As a diversion I spent the rest of the afternoon at the funeral home, first getting ready for the Holmes funeral and then receiving Jerald Pyatt's ashes from Phil Miles.

The cremains, placed in a foot-tall ceramic urn reminding me of a Doric column, were all that remained of my final steps with Patricia Pyatt. I knew it wasn't closure, exactly, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.

I was filling out paperwork at my desk when Lance called at six o'clock. My heart leaped when I saw his name on the caller ID. I answered, “You made it to Philly.”

“It's snowing here,” he told me. “But I'm not feeling the brotherly love yet.”

“I wish I could be with you.”

“We have our first meeting tonight with the police rank and file. Probably go around the circle singing Kum Ba Yah. That, or the presenter will be dry as dust—one of those snoozers who will have us nodding over our soup. What's new with you?”

“Just received Mr. Pyatt's ashes. Ready for another funeral in the morning. Paperwork complete.”

“Are you keeping your nose out of police business?” Lance wanted to know.

“I haven't lifted a finger,” I said, hoping Lance would move on to more important matters.

“Good,” he said. “I'm being paged. Gotta go.”

“I love you!” I said.

“I love you, too,” Lance answered, his voice confident and assuring.

And that was that.

Leaving the office, I double-checked the locks and drove home in a gale of emotion. I wasn't hungry, so I poured myself a hot bath, slid into the suds and tried to eradicate my negative thoughts with a glass of chardonnay. Living an insanely busy life in the death industry wasn't always so charming, and every holiday and birthday seemed to pull along its own harvest of memories. I couldn't imagine any other life, however, having grown up alongside cadavers and embalming fluid. Lance seemed to be my only diversion from the insanity of it all, and perhaps that was why I had fallen in love with him. That, or he just happened to be the perfect man. I eased into the bath and felt the calming touch of the oils on my skin.

Carefully considering my next steps, I toweled off, slipped into my favorite terry-cloth robe, and made myself a cup of hot chocolate to top off the evening. I checked the time.

Silvia was deep into her date by now. And if my hunch was correct….

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