Page 109 of Cash

“Whatever, it was late as fuck. We don’t usually go out to do arrangements at the house, you see, but the Finches are big money, and Ramp was willing to make an exception. Well, he shows up to the house, and he pisses them right the fuck off.” Ziggy rolled his eyes. “So, then they call me, wake me up out of my nice warm bed, and then I’ve gotta go out there in the middle of the damn night to smooth shit over.”

“What happened?” Brick frowned. “I mean, what did Ramp do?”

“Probably tried to upsell them on shit.” Ziggy snorted dryly. “That’s not how you handle a family like the Finches. They’ve got more money than sense, but they got sense enough to keep it. They never spend shit on funerals. I went out there, got them all calmed down, and I got them to agree to meet with me later that week. We couldn’t get the damn body no way from the ME’s office, so I wasn’t in no damn rush.”

“They love them some Ziggy,” Noah teased. “All those big families do.”

Brick turned the receipt over. “Why would Trixie write down Mr. Finch’s date of death? Wait, is that the time he died? Ten o’clock?”

“Mrs. Finch claims that she heard the gunshot at ten o’ten on the dot.” Ziggy’s brow wrinkled up. “Huh. I know Trixie was real worked up over his death bein’ a murder—”

“I’m startin’ to fuckin’ believe her,” Noah cut in. “She was runnin’ her mouth and then got attacked? Come on.”

Ziggy sighed heavily, and he grimaced as if he was still skeptical.

“She wrote this shit after we left the garden center,” Noah went on. “I remember her askin’ me for a pen on the way back. We’d just seen Ramp up there. He was grabbing some new planters for the front of the funeral home, and him and Trixie were talkin’ about some restaurant.”

“Do you remember which one?” Brick asked hopefully.

“Nah, sorry.” Noah shrugged. “I won’t payin’ them any attention. Ramp starts talkin’ and my ears shut off.”

“Well, shit.”

“If Trixie happens to recall what was so important about this, we’ll let you know,” Ziggy said. “Sorry for talkin’ y’all’s heads off.”

“Hey, no need to apologize.” Brick smiled. “Thank you for coming by. I’ll try to come up later this week and see Trixie again. Maybe seeing me will jog her memory or something.”

“Might do.” Ziggy waved. “It was nice meetin’ you, Mr. Price. You take care of our Brick, now. He’s a real special fella.”

“Don’t worry,” Jules spoke up, smiling warmly. “I will.”

“Bye, y’all!” Noah waved and followed Ziggy back across the street to the funeral home.

“Bye!” Brick shut the door, still focused on the receipt.

It had to mean something.

Having Finch’s date and time of death was too much of a coincidence, but the letters didn’t make any sense. It could be MKK, MRK, MKR, or MRR. One of the R’s might even be a P. Perhaps it was someone’s initials or shorthand for a location. If Trixie had been in a hurry, it made sense that she jotted this note down quickly so she wouldn’t forget later.

Too bad that didn’t help any of them now.

“What do you think?” Brick showed Jules the receipt. “Any idea what it means?”

“I think it’s a bunch of chicken scratch and it means it’s time for lunch.” Jules ruffled Brick’s hair. “We already know who killed the old man, baby boy. I don’t think it’s nothin’ to worry about.”

“I guess.”

“Come on. We got bigger things to sort out. Like what we’re havin’ for lunch.”

Brick put the receipt in his pocket, and they eventually decided on pizza. They ordered enough for Junior and Erasmus to have some when they came back from finishing up with their packing. Brick had a few slices and then returned to his office to finish working for the day.

After Brick was done, he hopped on the couch to cuddle with Jules. He wanted to spend as much time with him as he could before Jules had his mysterious meeting to attend. They binged more episodes of The Romance of Tiger and Rose, and they’d just made it to a new season before Jules took note of the time.

“Gotta get going, baby boy,” Jules said, pressing a kiss to Brick’s hair. “Don’t watch this episode without me. I wanna see how the writer chick gets herself outta that shit.”

“I won’t. I promise.” Brick tried to snuggle in closer even as Jules pulled away. “You really have to go?”

“Yeah, but hey, it ain’t too far away. Erasmus is comin’ with me, but I’m leavin’ Junior here with you.”

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