Page 143 of The Body in the Backyard

The basement went silent again. Nick punched his pillow again. Burt grumbled happily in his sleep.

“My night nanny used to sing lullabies to me. Do any of you know any Polish lullabies?”

“That’s. It.” Nick sprang to his feet.

Ferpwent the air mattress.

“Oh my. Did someone stinker?” Lily asked with a giggle.

“It was theair mattress,” Nick barked.

Burt woke and added his own half-hearted bark to the conversation directly into Riley’s ear.

“Would you people please keep it down? My pregnant wife is trying to—” Brian ripped off his headphones and eye mask, then screamed.

“Hi, bed buddy,” Griffin said, wiggling his fingers in a friendly wave.

“Where’s my wife, and why am I in bed with a man?” Brian asked.

“She’s upstairs foraging through my parents’ pantry, and don’t act like this is the first time you woke up next to a dude.”

“It’s the first time since college,” Brian insisted.

The patio door slid open, and everyone screamed. Nick pulled his gun out from under his pillow and pointed it.

“What’s all the racket?” Mrs. Penny strolled inside from the lower patio. She held two pizza boxes and a greasy paper bag.

“Where the hell were you?” Nick demanded. “What part of ‘Nobody leaves this house’ didn’t you understand?”

“Relax, Screamy McYelly Guy. I ordered DoorDash and met them in the driveway. I didn’t see any murderers.”

“Someone saywaffles?” Mr. Willicott asked again.

“No, but I got two heartburn-lover pizzas and twenty-two jalapeño poppers,” Mrs. Penny said.

“Brian,” Nick said through clenched teeth.

“Yeah?” Brian yawned.

“I need you to get in your chair and get ready to go.”

“Go where? Those poppers sound pretty good.”

“We’re gonna catch a murderer.”

“You can’t leave me here,”Riley said, following Nick outside into the dark as he wheeled Brian onto the basement patio. Burt jogged off to the closest flower bed and relieved himself on a bush.

“Relax. No one is going to try to murder Griffin at my parents’ house. And if they do, Josie will murder them first,” Nick insisted.

“No. Not that. You can’t leave me here with your parents. Specifically your mother.”

He turned around in the dark and cupped her face. “You’ve been chased. You’ve been shot. You’ve been abducted. You almost drowned in a fountainandgot blown up in a news studio. You can handle my mother.”

She was already shaking her head. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. I can’t handle your mother. She reminds me of my grandmother, only my grandmother has to love me. Your mother is still trying to set you up with other womenin front of me.”

“And I am trusting you to deal with her in whatever capacity you want while I go catch a murderer so we can get some fucking sleep in our own house.”

“But why can’t I go with you? You know I hate missing out on cool PI stuff.” Riley kicked at the patio tile with her socked foot.