Page 4 of The Body in the Backyard

Besides, not only did she not need Nick going to prison for murdering her deserving ex, but he’d promised to clean his office, and she was really,reallyinvested in not attracting more vermin.

“Fine. Have at it,partner,” he said to Mrs. Penny, then turned back to Riley. “I’m gonna go clean my office and pretend none of this mess exists. If this weasel breathes funny in your direction, you let me know. I’ll take care of him.”

Griffin swallowed audibly and sidestepped to the right until Riley was between him and Nick.

“My hero,” she said on a sigh. “Come on, Griffin. Let’s go inside.”

It tooka few minutes of vehicle jockeying to get everyone around Griffin’s terrible parking job and another five minutes of staring at the roof collapse and police presence next door.

By the time Riley headed inside, Mrs. Penny had Griffin settled on one of the green faux leather chairs in her office and was delivering a glass of water…by sloshing it over the rim every three steps.

Riley’s office was an organized room at the front of the house with tall windows, French doors that opened onto the side porch, the aforementioned visitors’ chairs, and a utilitarian desk that wasn’t so much an antique as it was just old and crappy. As the official office manager for Santiago Investigations, her days were spent scanning and filing paperwork, redirecting the elderly and the stubborn, and studying up on investigative techniques.

“I didn’t have sparkling water, so I got it out of the tap and blew bubbles in it through the straw,” Mrs. Penny announced, handing over the glass to Griffin.

“Psst.”

Nick was peering at Riley through a crack in the door that connected their offices. Burt’s nose appeared three feet below Nick’s face.

Riley sidled toward the door. “Need a shovel?” she teased. His office had been ground zero for a recent investigation that had involved many late nights and mountains of old takeout containers.

“Might go with the leaf blower.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to hear what Griffin has to say? I can help you clean later,” Riley offered.

“My mess, my responsibility. No one’s out to get him. His kind always sails through life without paying for their assholery. Besides, if I listen to one more word that human donkey has to say, I’ll end up stuffing his body into a UPS envelope and mailing him home.”

“Understood. You deal with your natural disaster. And I’ll deal with this one.”

He reached over and nudged her chin up. “You do know you have no obligation to waste another second of your life on this idiot, right? I can detach Brian and Josie at the mouth and make them babysit.”

“It’s fine,” she assured him.

“Are you one thousand percent sure you want to deal with this?” Nick asked again, concern lighting his eyes.

“I’m better at wrangling Mrs. Penny. Besides, a small mean part of me likes seeing Griffin freaked out,” she admitted.

The double-dimple flash and quick grin from Nick had a swoop of giddiness resurfacing.

“That’s my girl. If you need me for anything, especially an extra small UPS envelope, I’m one open door away.”

“I appreciate the offer…and you not committing murder in our house. Especially since we just got the smell of the last one out.”

A stack of sticky notes hit the back of Riley’s head.

“Enough lovey-dovey chitchat! We’ve got an attempted murder to solve,” Mrs. Penny bellowed.

Riley kissed Nick on his stubbly cheek, gave Burt a good scruff of the ears, then returned to take a sentry position behind the elderly woman, who had settled in behind her desk.

“Now what makes you think someone is trying to whack you? Put you in the ground? Turn you into worm food?” Mrs. Penny had to shout the last few terms for getting murdered over the groaning screech of a large piece of furniture being scooted across the floor in Nick’s office.

“This!” Griffin reached into his suit jacket and slapped a piece of paper on the desk.

Mrs. Penny snapped her fingers and pointed. Riley bit back a sigh and reached over her to pick it up. “You’ll pay,” she read aloud. “That’s all it says. Where did you find it?”

“I found it after Bella and I finished filming the morning show today. We’ve been shooting it at home since the studio blew up because we live in a very large and spacious house. A mansion, really,” he said, trying and failing to look humble.

“I remember. I used to live there,” she said dryly.