Page 10 of Immortal by Morning (Argeneau #37)

“And you can do them tomorrow,” Gina said firmly. “I’m your boss. What I say goes, and I say you’re taking the rest of the

day off and relaxing.”

“Okay. Thank you,” Abril said solemnly, her gaze wandering to the large picture window at the front of the living room.

It gave her a perfect view of Detective Delacort and his partner talking as they followed a leashed Lilith around the grass on this side of the yard.

She watched them for a moment, worrying over what they might be talking about.

Surely Delacort wouldn’t tell Roberts about what had happened in the laundry room, would he?

It had just been a kiss. One hell of an explosive, carnal kiss maybe, but still just a kiss.

Besides she was single and he was single.

.. Wasn’t he? How the hell would she know? She didn’t even know his name.

“Don’t you think?” Gina asked.

Pulled back to her conversation with her boss, Abril frowned as she tried to catch up on what she’d missed while distracted

by staring at Delacort. What had Gina been talking about?

“I mean, I gave him my number in case of emergencies . But Jackson deciding he wants to sit in on the casting for the commercial just doesn’t seem like an emergency to me,” Gina

continued. “Especially when that won’t be happening for another month at least. Honestly! People are such a pain in the ass

at times. I don’t have the patience for them. That’s why I usually make you deal with them. I should have done the same with

Jackson and given him your number instead of mine.

“Anyway,” Gina continued, “I explained I’m out of the country, can’t deal with him right now, and he should call the office.

Of course, he knows the offices are in my house, so immediately asked who was at the house if I was out of the country in

this ‘ Aha! I caught you! ’ voice. He’s such an ass,” she said with disgust. “So, of course, I told him it was you. That you’d be there overseeing the renos the entire time I’m gone.

Then he started asking all these questions.

What was going on at the house? Why was there an excavator there and people coming and going, etcetera.

I realized then that the real reason he called was to get the scoop on the renos, so cut him off, said my friends were waiting and I had to go and hung up.

“Annoying man,” Gina muttered. “Honestly, remind me never to accept a job with anyone who lives on my street again. He’s been

nothing but a pain in the ass from the beginning, sticking his nose in everywhere and wanting to know everything I was having

done at the house.” Gina huffed out an irritated breath, and then said apologetically, “So, I thought I’d better call and

give you a heads-up that Jackson will probably call, or maybe even show up at the door to grill you on what’s going on since

I didn’t answer any questions.”

“Thank you for the heads-up,” Abril said with real appreciation. She couldn’t stand Jackson either. There was just something

about him that gave her the heebie-jeebies.

“Feel free to let his calls go to voice mail and not answer the door to him,” Gina added. “At this point, I think I’d be fine

with losing him as a client. I just wish I could lose him as a neighbor too.”

Abril smiled faintly at the claim.

“Anyway, I should go. They’re waiting on me to go to dinner.”

Eyebrows rising, Abril glanced at her watch again. Italy was six hours ahead of London, Ontario. “Isn’t it a little after

9:00 there? That’s late for dinner.”

“Not in Italy. Italians usually have dinner between 8:30 and 10:30. The restaurants that open before 7:00 are catering to

tourists and we don’t want tourist food, we want real Italian food.”

“Ah,” Abril said with understanding. “Well, have a nice dinner then.”

“I will. Thanks. Call if there are any issues. Otherwise, I’ll call again tomorrow to check in.”

“Okay,” she said, and responded to Gina’s ciao with goodbye before hanging up.

Dropping back to lean against the couch, Abril considered everything for a moment. There were skeletal remains in the garden.

Police vehicles were cluttering the driveway with a swarm of forensics people presently all over the house, or at least the

side yard. A handsome detective who may or may not have a first name, and who may or may not be married had rocked her world

with a simple kiss. And she might have to deal with the creepy and annoying neighbor, Jackson, who presently was also a client.

Great, she thought. It was all kind of a mixed bag of crap to her mind. Although, the kiss hadn’t been crap. It was just that

she knew so little about the man who had done the kissing that she was feeling vulnerable and even a bit embarrassed, but

she still had to deal with him. Unless he too was embarrassed and uncomfortable and left his partner to deal with her from

now on, she thought. For some reason, that possibility alarmed her.

Muttering under her breath about her own wishy-washy nature, Abril pushed herself to her feet and headed for the kitchen,

only to change direction and head for the front door instead when the doorbell sounded. She’d expected it to be Detective

Delacort returning with Lilith, so was surprised to open the door and find Officer Peters there.

“Your coffee cup. Thank you. It was delicious and helped warm me up,” he said, holding out the empty cup.

“Oh, you’re welcome,” Abril said as she took the cold mug, and then feeling guilty, admitted, “Actually, I made the pot of coffee, but Detective Roberts was good enough to pour you a cup, and doctor it himself while I was busy getting info for them, so it’s really him you should actually thank.”

“He told me, and I did thank him,” Peters said with a smile.

“Oh, okay.” She paused briefly and then offered, “Would you like another cup?”

After a hesitation, he admitted, “I’d love another cup. But I’m afraid it would make me need to relieve myself and there won’t

be a porta potty here until tomorrow and—”

“What?” Abril interrupted with amazement. “A porta potty? And tomorrow? They won’t be done today?”

“Oh.” Peters blinked at her questions, glanced nervously toward where Detectives Delacort and Roberts were walking Lilith,

and then turned back with resignation and said, “I guess they didn’t tell you about the other skeleton.”

“The other skeleton?” Abril echoed with confusion. “What other skeleton?”

“Apparently, while working on the first set of skeletal remains—the skull Lilith first revealed,” he added to clarify for

her, “while working on that, they uncovered evidence of at least one more victim near it. So, if the hands in the other corner

don’t belong to the bones in the first area, then there are four sets of skeletal remains that need to be uncovered, catalogued,

photographed, and removed. It’s a pretty lengthy process.”

“How lengthy?” Abril asked, dread building in the pit of her stomach.

“Porta potty long,” Peters said simply.

Taking that to mean the man had no idea exactly how long it would take, Abril cleared her throat and asked, “You can’t even

give me an estimate?”

Peters shook his head. “Sorry. There’s only been one other case where a body had to be exhumed since I transferred here from

Windsor. It took two, maybe three days to handle that one, but it was only one body. They’re dealing with two to four here,

and possibly more. I really can’t say how long it will take.”

Abril was fretting over that when he added reassuringly, “It’ll get faster once the archeology students get here.”

“Archaeology students?” Abril echoed with confusion.

“Yes. I guess an archaeology professor at the university is a friend of Bill’s, the head of our forensics team, and the professor

has agreed to bring his class out tomorrow to help out. They both think it will be a learning experience for them.”

“A learning experience?” Abril tilted her head slightly as her mind raced. “Are they thinking this is an old gravesite for

native Americans, after all?”

“No,” he told her regretfully.

“Because the bones are too close to the house,” she said for him.

“Yes,” Peters agreed.

“Then how will it be a learning experience exactly?” she asked, not understanding that part.

“I gather that exhuming murder victims uses pretty much the same techniques as they use at archaeological digs. And this isn’t the first time the professor has brought his students to watch the retrieval of skeletal remains, although it was only one skeleton at a time before this.

So, of course, usually the students only get to watch, since all of them working around one body would be more disruptive than anything.

But Bill apparently plans to put the students to work this time to speed up the dig.

The professor’s graduating class will help remove the skeletons and the dirt around them. ”

“I’m sorry, the dirt around them?” Abril asked with uncertainty.

Peters nodded. “As well as the dirt from directly on top of them.” When she simply stared at him blankly, he realized more

explanation was needed. “You see when skeletal remains are found and foul play is suspected, they take any dirt around the

remains in case there is evidence in the soil that might help identify the victims, or explain how they died, or even help

identify the murderer.”

Abril considered his words, her mind slowly computing what she’d just learned. What it boiled down to was that it looked as

if there were going to be police, forensics people, and archaeological students around for quite a while. For days, possibly

weeks. Which meant the renovations would be delayed again... at least until the bodies were removed and the scene cleared

for the construction crew to continue their work.

None of this was good news, but there was nothing that could be done about it. The only way that might’ve avoided all of this

was if she had dug up and got rid of the bones herself rather than call the police. Which, of course, she would never have

done even had she known the trouble the bones were going to cause. Well... probably she wouldn’t have.

“Right,” she said finally, running a hand through her hair. Letting it drop to her side, she said, “You don’t need to bring in a porta potty. They can use the bathroom here. You too, of course, and any other officers who have to be on site.”

“Thank you, that’s very kind of you. I’ll let the others know.”

When he then hesitated on the step, she asked, “Do you need it now? You mentioned not wanting more coffee because then you’d

have to—”

“Yeah,” Peters interrupted with a smile. “If you don’t mind?”

“Not at all,” she assured him and stepped back to let him enter, saying, “I’ll make you that second coffee in the meantime.”

She closed the door behind him once Peters was in. When he paused in the entry, she assumed he was going to take his shoes

off. As she started into the kitchen, she pointed out, “There’s a bench right there that you can sit on to take off your shoes.”

“Yeah.”

It was the concerned sound to his voice more than anything that made her pause to look at him. He was still standing, staring

into the living room with a frown.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, returning to his side and peering at the room now as well. The entry was actually almost part of

the living room. The only thing delineating the two spaces being the flooring, marble in the entry area, carpet in the living

room.

Her gaze sliding back to Peters, she realized that it was the floor he was staring at with an unhappy expression.

“You have cream-colored carpet here,” he said finally.

“Yes,” she agreed.

“Well, I don’t think anybody working in the excavation should be coming in here and crossing the carpet. Even if they take

their boots off they might carry in dirt on their clothes and track it through the house. Even I shouldn’t be in here right

now. I was down in the hole earlier. I don’t wanna mess up the carpet.”

“I think you’re safe if you take your shoes off. I don’t see any dirt on you,” she said, glancing over his clothing. When

he gave in and sat down on the bench to remove his shoes, she added, “But if you’re concerned about the others who are actually

doing the digging, there’s a side door on the same side as the excavation, but closer to the back of the house. It enters

into a short hall between the laundry room and another bathroom. The floor there is engineered hardwood. We can throw some

plastic down, or use that heavy paper—dry sheathing I think they call it. The stuff they use to protect flooring during construction.

There’s still a roll of it here from when they were doing the interior renovations.”

“That might be okay.” Peters finished removing his shoes and stood. “Maybe show it to me before you go make that coffee, so

I can see if it will work.”

“Sure,” she said lightly and started to lead him through the house.