Page 188 of Mayhem and Minnie

“He might have been buried in an unmarked grave.”

My lip twitches. I should have thought about that. But I doubt Minnie would have allowed his body to be thrown into a pit or in an unmarked grave.

“I’m quite certain he was not. You will find it.”

“By the end of the day you said?” Giles asks in a bored voice.

“Yes.”

“Fine,” he reluctantly acquiesces.

“Oh and, Giles? I’ll have my jet ready for use. Find a local grave digger to get the remains and have them flown to me here.”

“You do realize that’s a crime. Both of them. All of them.”

“When has a crime stopped me? Or you, for that matter?”

“You’ve asked me for many strange things in the past, but I think this has to be the most deranged. Why would you need a century-old skeleton, Marlowe?”

“I just do, all right?”

He takes a few seconds to answer.

“Fine. I’ll call you when I have something.”

“By the end of the day.”

“By the end of the day,” he confirms.

Satisfied, I turn my attention back to the ring-making machinery. I put on a YouTube tutorial and I get to work. The band is easy enough to make since I already have her ring size from when we went browsing for rings. It’s a tiny four and a half.

I spend a few hours polishing the band until the silver gleams. But this is just the base. The hard part is making it unique as she wants. To that end, I add an engraving on the inside of the band. I won’t win calligraphy contests anytime, but I hope she’ll be pleased with my effort.

Marlowe’s. She’ll get my meaning.

I nod to myself, satisfied. I wonder if this will yield me another kiss? I certainly hope so since I have the battle wounds to prove how much effort I put into this.

It’s late afternoon by the time I’m done. It might have sounded easy, but I scraped at least five bands that I messed up. The sixth one seems to be my lucky one.

Yet even then, there’s still something missing.

I could always add the most expensive diamond I could find. Perhaps a ruby. But she said unique and anyone can buy one of those—well, not anyone, but those who can afford it.

Since she’s not impressed with my money aside from my ability to provide cookies, I suppose she will not be impressed with an expensive jewel either.

I stare at the band for moments on end before I get an idea. Ah, but today is my day seeing as how I’m getting one good idea after another.

Doing a quick internet search, I find that it’s possible to infuse a jewel with bodily fluids. There are even online kits for it! I quickly order a bunch of them—my ring adventure has shown me I need backups—and check out choosing next day shipping. I’m an impatient bastard after all.

I lean back, a silly smile on my face.

She wanted unique? I’ll show her unique! And considering her favorite colors are white and red, I think we have a winner. One half of the jewel will be white, the other red—both bodily fluids courtesy of yours truly.

Giddiness surges inside of me, and I’m already counting down the minutes until the ring will be in her hands.

Ah, but I can almost imagine her expression. She might be confused at first—who wouldn’t? But when she realizes I’m gifting her parts of myself—literally—she might swoon. And when she does, I’ll be there to catch her like the gallant gentleman I am.

A sudden whooshing sound interrupts me from my—rather marvelous—thoughts.

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