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Cody’s back protested when he lifted a box wrong. He paused and closed his eyes, gripping the box tight and holding very still as he willed the muscles in his lower back to relax. It worked for the moment, and he transferred the box to the flatbed cart.

“You think your grandma was a witch?” Jugs lifted a box—using the correct method, Cody noted—and placed it on the flatbed next to the one Cody had added.

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Would explain a lot.”

Cody turned to give him a hard look. “You talking smack about my recently deceased grandma?”

“What? Nope. I wouldn’t do that.” Jugs reached over the cart to squeeze his shoulder. “I loved Felicia. She was a good woman.”

“Yeah, all right. Sorry. I’m a little on edge.” Cody squatted—thinking to himself, lift with your aching, worn out knees—and took hold of another box.

“I was talking smack about you. That would make you the grandson of a witch.”

His laugh surprised him, and he lost his grip on the box, dropping it. Something inside shattered, and he hung his head, sighing through his laughter. “Dammit, Jugs.”

“Oh man, I’m sorry. Seriously. I’ll pay for whatever that is. That’s my fault.” He turned and said louder. “This was my fault.”

Cody stood upright. “Who are you talking to?”

“The hidden cameras,” Jugs said. “You know they’ve got them all over this place, watching us.”

“Yeah? They giving you instructions at night, too?”

Jugs’s expression turned serious. He leaned in over the flatbed and said in a whisper, “Don’t fucking joke about shit like that. Shit like that scares the fur off my possum, if you know what I mean.”

Cody closed one eye and shook his head. “No. Not really.”

“Come on. Shove that box to the back of the shelf, and let’s finish loading up this cart.”

After pushing the box he’d dropped to the back of the overstock shelf, Cody worked with Jugs to add more boxes to the flatbed. Once everything was loaded, Jugs grabbed the handle before Cody could.

“I’ll push. I heard you groan each time you stood up.”

“Fuck you, I did not.”

“Fuck you, you did, too. Come on, Bonker.”

Cody made a mocking face as he followed Jugs through the swinging doors and onto the sales floor. It was early evening, and the aisles were filled with shoppers. Cody hated stocking the shelves at this time of day. People would ask him where extremely specific items were located, or if he would reach something on a higher shelf. He was like their own personal sasquatch assistant.

The aisle they needed to work in was shockingly empty of shoppers. A lucky break. As they transferred boxes to the correct spaces on the shelves, Jugs asked more questions about the man they’d seen in the woods and the hex bags, wondering what he and Demmy were doing about it all.

“Not sure yet.” Cody adjusted his left work glove. “We’re just finding out about it.”

“Why didn’t they talk with you guys about it?” Jugs wondered.

“Clarabell said they wanted to give us a break since we’d lost our jobs and my grandma… “ He stopped and shrugged, unable to finish and not looking at Jugs. “They gave us a break.”

“You think you’re ready to get involved now?”

“Don’t think we have a choice,” Cody said. “You’re asking a lot of questions. It’s almost like you want to get involved.”

“Nope. Living vicariously through you, my friend.”

“You need to up your vicarious living game if that’s the case.”

“Not wrong about that.”

Cody had just grabbed another box when someone called, “Bower!” Turning, he saw Lucia Durant at the far end of the aisle. She wore her khaki sheriff’s uniform, hands on her utility belt. She’d been growing out her blond hair since Halloween, and it was gathered at the back of her head. Even from this distance, Cody could see the hard line of her mouth and the steel in her blue eyes.

“Cosmetics are in aisle twelve,” Cody said. “Personality upgrades are done in aisle twenty-two.”

Her eyebrows went up—that was number four for him that week, a new record—and it seemed to Cody that she pressed her lips even tighter. His work there was done.

“A moment, please,” Lucia said.

He turned to the side and raised the box he held. “I’m kind of busy working right now. You don’t like it when we interrupt you while you’re working.”

“I can go back and talk to your boss. Explain our complicated history and why I need to speak to you.”

Jugs took the box from his hands, and Cody glared at him.

“Don’t shoot your hate my way, I’m just trying to help you keep your job and avoid being arrested. Again.”

“I’ve never been officially arrested,” Cody muttered. “Just held for questioning.” He pulled off his gloves as he approached her. “Aren’t you a little out of your jurisdiction?”

“We have an arrangement with the Harriettville PD.” She glanced over her shoulder and lowered her voice. “Have you seen Tracey recently?”

A chill went up his spine and spread across his scalp. “Not since last night. I saw her here in the store, and she looked scared and out of sorts. I stopped in at the library today to ask her about something I found in my grandmother’s things, but she wasn’t working.”

“Yeah, I tried to catch her at the library, too. She’s not answering my calls or responding to my texts.”

Cody avoided saying something smart ass. Barely.

“When you saw her last night, did she say where she’d been?” Lucia asked.

“Nope. But her hair was a mess, one side standing up and with a leaf stuck in it. She had a small cut on her cheek, too. Said she and Heath and someone named Rita had been out in the woods and something happened. Then Heath showed up and she ran. There’s something off about Heath. Like, even more than usual.”

“Yeah, we got a call about him acting out at the library this afternoon,” Lucia said. “I haven’t heard what happened when the deputies arrived.” She looked off down the aisle. Cody could see the muscle in her jaw tighten and relax as she ground her teeth.

“You share with me, and I’ll share with you,” Cody said.

She scowled. “Share what?”

“What we saw out in the woods earlier.”

“What part of the woods?”

Cody decided it was time to get it all out in the open. He explained about the hex bags and his conversation with Clarabell and the strange man with the hood he and Demmy and Ollie had seen out in the woods.

“Felicia had a hex bag in her belongings?”

“Yep. But not in her room at Parson’s Pines. After they decided to move her to assisted living, my parents rented a storage unit I knew nothing about until this week.”

“So, she’s one, too.”

“She’s one what?” Cody took a step closer and lowered his voice even more. “Are you telling me my grandmother was a witch?”

“Mr. Bower?”

Cody turned to see his supervisor, Shanice, at the opposite end of the aisle. “Son of a bitch.”

“Want me to explain it’s my fault and official sheriff’s department business?”

He wasn’t sure, but he thought Lucia might be smirking slightly.

“No. Thanks. Probably wouldn’t help. Like, at all.”

“Offer stands.” Lucia was definitely smirking now.

“Again, I’ll handle it myself.”

“Mr. Bower? A word?”

“Yep. I’m coming,” Cody called. He looked back at Lucia. “We’re not done talking about this.”

“Oh, you’re right about that,” Lucia said. “When are you off work?”

“Ten.”

“Pretty late for you to be up at your age.”

Cody glared. “We graduated together.”

“And yet…” Lucia flashed a tight smile. “Enjoy the talk with your boss.”

He watched her walk away, her stride confident and purposeful. The khaki material of her uniform flattered her shoulders and ass. He wondered briefly if he should just give in and apply to the sheriff’s department himself. Demmy seemed to have a bit of a uniform fetish, so that might be fun.

“Mr.” Shanice paused for emphasis. “Bower.”

“Yep. I know. I’m coming.”

He sighed quietly as he walked down the aisle, passing Jugs who gave him a sympathetic look before he added another box to the shelf.

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