Page 28 of Deader than Dead

“So you should probably answer it.”

“Probably.” He stared at it for a few more seconds before snatching it up and pressing the button. “I’m sorry I hung up on you before, but something came up.” He put it on speaker so I could hear both sides of the conversation.

“I’m going to ask you a question, John,” the man said, “and I need you to tell the truth. Can you do that for me?”

I didn’t know this Cade guy, but even I could pick up on the urgency in his voice. He sounded like he was pacing, his footsteps heavy and his breathing more labored than it would be if he were sitting. Was he that pissed that John had hung up on him, or was it something more?

John frowned. “I guess.”

The man on the other end of the phone released a breath. “I had a call a few minutes ago.”

“Right,” John said, the face he pulled suggesting he didn’t know what else he was supposed to say.

“It was O’Reilly,” Cade went on, John’s expression mirroring the way my heart had gone into freefall at the mention of the name. “She’s not happy.”

Wait. She? Was it sexist that I’d assumed O’Reilly was a man? I guessed not when they’d deliberately led me into thinking that. It had been an actor that had spoken to me on the phone, not an actress. Presuming I was right about that not having been O’Reilly, which it couldn’t have been if she were a woman.

John and I exchanged a look. One that said he’d assumed the same. He obviously hadn’t met her. Had I? Not unless it had happened during the missing hours I couldn’t account for.

John’s fingers tightened around the phone. “Of course she’s not happy. I couldn’t do what she wanted me to do. They never are happy when the process fails, even with all the disclaimers.” His voice was tight, like there was more he wanted to say, but was holding back.

“You’re not listening, John.” Cade’s voice held an edge of something. Stress? Panic? I didn’t know him, so it was impossible to tell. Could John? “She’s not happy because the corpse you failed to raise yesterday, the one that was so important to them, went missing last night, and you’re the prime suspect in its disappearance.”

John’s gaze met mine, a slight tremor having started up in his fingers. “Why would they think it’s got anything to do with me?”

“You acted weird around it, apparently.”

“Him.”

“What?”

“It was a him, not an it.”

Cade let out a strangled laugh. “You see, that’s what I’m talking about. It was a dead body, John. You won’t offend it.”

I raised my eyebrows, John offering me an apologetic glance. I had more sense than to say anything, though.

“The dead deserve respect,” John ground out. “If I don’t give them that, I may as well be Griffin.”

I didn’t know who Griffin was, another necromancer presumably, but it wasn’t exactly a glowing reference for the man’s capacity to feel empathy.

“Yes… I’m sure they do,” Cade said. He paused, the seconds that passed long enough for John to drop his gaze to the phone to check that the call was still connected. Finally, Cade spoke again. “Forgive me. I’m not myself today.”

“What’s going on, Cade?” John asked.

“There are things you don’t understand about this situation. Things I won’t go into right now and you’re better off not knowing. What matters is that they’re convinced you had something to do with their corpse disappearing.”

“How?”

“What?”

“How do they think I got back into a heavily guarded building and carried a corpse out without anyone noticing?” He shot me another look of apology for using the word “corpse.” Despite the building tension, I managed a smile. One that hopefully communicated that I wouldn’t hold it against him.

“I don’t know,” Cade said. “They didn’t seem particularly interested in the how.” He sounded weary. “Did you have anything to do with it?”

The restless tap of John’s fingers against the table said he was picking his words carefully. “I can honestly tell you that there is no corpse in my apartment.”

I almost laughed, but I held it in. Nobody could say he wasn’t telling the truth. Bending it slightly, maybe, but it was still the truth. I might still be struggling to reconcile the fact that I’d apparently been clinically dead for however long, but I was a hundred percent sure that I wasn’t one of the walking dead.

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