Page 31 of The Hard Way

“Of course. I threw it all into the dumpster. Usually we’d use it for composting, but it was all wrapped and labeled so we put it in the dumpster.”

Zeus took that moment to tip his clipboard toward me. He traced some words with his finger, as though to underline them.Vaginal stimulation with a porcelain cupid statue.

I swallowed, trying not to look shocked. Then he moved his finger, and the next line was revealed.We will then hold you down, hold open your legs and rub you with the plastic cupid-head doll from Thor’s room until you beg. You will be begging us to let you come. You will do anything.

I widened my eyes, unsure what to say.

“What?” I looked up to find Andy staring at me. “What?”

“We’re just taking notes, lining up the facts,” Zeus said.

“Well, that’s the story. I dumped the warm cheese. Vanessa wanted me to change a light bulb in the main barn, and when I came back, she showed me the cases she wanted to send to the Pig. She said she stuck labels on them and cased them up. So I delivered those ones to the Pig. One of them must’ve taken them from the dumpster. It’s the only explanation.”

“Was Vanessa around when you loaded up the truck?”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m not saying anything. I’m asking if she was around to see you load the truck.”

“No, she went into town with Kaitlin. To the hardware store…what?”

“So she didn’t watch what you did.”

“I delivered the cases she directed me to deliver. I took them to the Piggly Wiggly. Why would I lie?”

“Your family put an offer in on their farm.”

Andy backed up. “We’d be idiots not to. If they’re going to sell. I’d think they’d rather have it go to us. Not everyone would keep that land nice.”

“But it is a stroke of good fortune.”

“You think I pulled those cheeses out of the trash and put them in the case?”

In a flash, Odin was on him, pressing him to the wall. I made to move at him, break them up, but Zeus had my arm in an iron grip. I looked up at him wildly.

Zeus shook his head at me.Let him do the work.

Odin said, “Are you telling me those girls pulled the cheese out and sold it?”

“It didn’t walk there itself.” Andy was trying to act tough, despite literally having his back against a wall, but I could smell his fear.

“Is that funny?”

“Fuck,” Andy said. “I’m not lying!”

“So you think the girls did it.”

“Honestly? Yeah. It was thousands of dollars’ worth of cheese. They were pretty fucking upset.”

There was this silence where Odin just watched his face.

“I swear to you,” Andy said. “I wouldn’t want their land that way.”

“And there’s the dead man, don’t forget that.”

“I’m not forgetting the dead man,” Andy gasped. Thor intervened now, pulling Odin off. “What kind of insurance investigators are you?”

“The kind that prefer the truth,” Zeus said.

---