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MONDAY- When Sady entered her kitchen Monday morning Matt had already been busy. He handed her a cup of coffee and told her to hop to it as breakfast was almost ready.
When she sat down to eat she told him, "I don't know where you and Harry took lessons but I approve."
"I told you before I'm a man of many talents," he replied.
"Uh-huh. So you keep claiming." Then she smiled and thanked him for the meal and coffee. While she rinsed the breakfast dishes, she mentally planned her work day.
Matt grabbed his laptop and headed out the door with her when she left, then waited for her at the passenger side of her car. She gave him a dark look, and he just smiled so she unlocked the car with a shake of her head. He climbed into the passenger seat and immediately scoped the parking lot for danger. Sady ignored him and turned on the radio for the drive to work.
He leaned over and turned it down. "So what's the plan for today?"
"I'm leaving you at the office while I take a road trip," she informed him. No answer. She looked at him sideways and he shook his head no. With a huff of exasperation she said, "Okay, fine. We'll skip the office, then, and drive straight to Hell. I need to talk to Carol at the retirement home."
Matt interrupted her thoughts with his next comment. "Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you. CJ let me know the investigators on the house fire have ruled it an accident. I don't have the details but they went back over the house and found something they had missed the first time through."
"Wonderful. So my only chance at making an impression and keeping this job is finding whoever is burning the picnic tables in Hell?" Sady rolled her eyes at Matt. "Tell me if you know of anyone in the market for an ex-beauty queen with experience in the Dewey Decimal System."
"Don't be too hard on yourself, Morrow. You're showing great initiative," he said encouragingly.
Sady snorted and ignored his comment. When they arrived in Hell she parked at the retirement home and told Matt to get lost. "No one in the old folks' home is waiting to pick me off, I assure you," Sady insisted. "Besides, I need Carol to focus and she has a thing for hot men."
"You'd better be careful. You just skated dangerously close to a compliment," he teased.
"Don't flatter yourself. I'm looking at you through the eyes of a nearly blind senior citizen," she retorted. Matt got out of the car and went to check out the town while Sady headed into the retirement home to have a word with Carol.
Someone directed Sady to the game room where Carol played bingo. Sady chuckled when she saw the man sitting next to her, apparently the new resident hottie. Carol wasn't paying attention to the game. She missed several markers on her card but didn't seem to care. When the game finally finished the poor man sitting by her side was rushed by a group of women who swept him off for shuffleboard.
"Carol, you left your magnifier again," the aid on staff told her, tucking it into Carol's pocket. "If you won't wear your glasses you really should put that thing on a chain. You lose too many of them."
After the aid left Carol said to Sady, "Did you see him? Isn't he a dream?"
Sady coughed politely wondering if Carol had ever really seen him. "Uh, Carol. So you have glasses but you don't wear them?"
Carol swatted her arm. "They make me look like a bug. I can't have a handsome widower think I look like a bug. That's why I use the magnifier instead."
"Oh, I see. So you take your magnifier with you everywhere you go?" Sady inquired.
"Of course, dear. I'm almost blind without it." She giggled and said, "That's why I lose so many of them." Sady just rubbed her forehead with a sigh.
"Well, Carol, when I get back to Ann Arbor I'll find you a nice chain you can use for your magnifier. For now, I'll let you get to the shuffleboard game. You don't want those other women stealing that widower from you." Sady smiled while Carol waved and headed down the hall to join the game.
Sady went to the car, wondering if she could turn in that sweet old lady for destruction of public property. There was no doubt she'd been losing her magnifying glasses all over town.
Matt hopped in the car about a half hour later. "Any progress?" he asked.
"Well, I wouldn't take Carol's word on what constitutes a hot guy." Sady laughed while Matt looked offended. "Her hot widower is about five feet tall and missing most of his teeth. He has liver spots bigger than my thumb."
"I take it Carol has poor eyesight," Matt smiled.
"Unfortunately, yes." That was all she would say. Even if it meant not keeping a job with the Knight's she wouldn't report her findings to them. She'd buy a chain for Carol... several chains, and go back to the retirement home for a chat with the staff about Carol's absent minded habits, but she couldn't report her. She'd leave it to them to take away her magnifiers and make her wear eyeglasses.
"If it makes you feel better I'd do the same thing," Matt told her.
Sady groaned in disbelief. "Really? Am I that transparent? I suck at this job!"
"Sady, I read your file updates, including the details of your conversation with Carol. With the house taken out of the equation even the simplest of minds should be able to figure out what's happening in Hell."
"If that was supposed to make me feel better it didn't work. Add simple mind to my resume," Sady complained.
"I didn't mean it to sound like that," Matt apologized.
"Forget it, Meadows." Sady looked in the rear-view mirror and yelled, "What is it with you people? I'm not even on the expressway!"
Matt turned back to see a car with dark windows driving too close behind them to be a coincidence. "How's your defensive driving, Sady?" he asked, hoping it was on the same level as her knife throwing prowess.
"In a Ford sedan? Morrow should have got me a Mustang," she said, right before she jammed the gas pedal to the floor. By the time they made it the Ann Arbor city limits Matt was praying out loud with his eyes closed while he gripped the edge of his seat tightly. At least Sady hoped what had come out of his mouth was a prayer or she might have to turn around and leave him in Hell.
He turned to Sady, his face white. "You're insane. If Morrow ever puts you in a Mustang, I'm leaving the country, permanently."
She rolled her eyes. "Please, Meadows, don't be a baby. We lost them didn't we?"
"We?" he choked out. "Don't drag me into that episode you call driving. I've aged a decade in the last fifteen minutes. You should try out as a stunt driver, or maybe give NASCAR a call."
"Don't be rude, Matt. You're just jealous because I'm able to out-drive you and you know it."
"I'm not going to argue with you while you are still in control of this mechanized death trap. I need a drink. Take me to the office so I can get Harry to be my designated driver."
"Listen, you asked about my defensive driving and I showed you. So I happened to have taken a few lessons above and beyond what the average person takes. I'll have you know my instructors all said I have excellent driving skills."
"Well, I'll have to take their word for it then," he replied, still pale.
When they got back to the office Matt bolted from the car before Sady had even unbuckled. She giggled as she imagined the look on CJ's face about now. She reached to the back seat for her bag and the driver's side window crackled into hundreds of pieces, spider webbing out from a small hole. Sady scrunched down and hoped she wouldn't get her hand blown off as she laid on the horn. One more crackle and the window showered down bits of glass. Were they deaf, she wondered.
Finally she heard voices from the direction of the office. She wasn't about to lift her head to verify it was CJ and Matt. She prayed it was though. A second later the passenger door nearly jerked off the hinges as someone threw it open. After squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, she opened one cautiously and let out a pent up breath when she saw it was Matt and not a stranger with a gun.
"Are you okay?" he demanded to know, his blue eyes almost glowing with intensity. His face was white again, but this time it was with worry for her not himself. He reached over and wiped her forehead. When he pulled his hand away she saw the blood on his fingers. The falling glass must have caused that. She struggled to sit upright, and he held her head down.
"It's clear," she heard CJ say and then Matt pulled her out of the car. She saw CJ holster a pistol under her vest.
Sady looked back at the car with the shattered window, the front seat smeared with blood spatters and covered with glass. "I hope he paid for the extra insurance coverage," she muttered.
CJ shoved her and Matt through the back door of the office and locked it. Harry had been in the front reception area when CJ and Matt headed out the back door. Harry shook his head at them when they entered.
CJ sat Sady down in her office, grabbed a first aid kit, and dabbed at the cuts.
"I guess my driving wasn't all that great, huh?" she asked Matt. "I was sure I'd lost them. Maybe I should ask for a refund from the driving school."
CJ reached up to feel her forehead when Matt stopped her. "She's okay," he said quietly, explaining about the car that had followed them.
Sady seemed to be doing better than the rest of them. Harry paced, Matt appeared lost in thought, and CJ continued cleaning the same cut. They all froze when Sady's cell phone rang. Matt lunged for it and she pulled it away.
"It's just Amanda," she said, getting up to answer the call.
"Hey, Amanda. How was your weekend?... It was okay... That sounds good... Oh, wait I forgot- I kind of have a house guest... Are you sure?... Great, we'll see you tonight."
"We're having supper with Amanda," she told Matt.
"Not a good idea, Sady," CJ cautioned her. "It could put her in danger."
"Crap. I didn't think about that. Hang on, let me text her. If I call she'll want a detailed reason." Sady sent a text to Amanda and a minute later told them. "It's okay. I took a rain-check."
"Do you think those cuts should be looked at by a doctor?" Matt asked CJ.
"No," Sady said firmly. "Those cuts will be just fine if someone will please take care of the ones I can't reach."
When CJ finally finished Sady said, "I feel like a pincushion."
"You look like one," CJ smiled. "I'm glad you're okay, Sady."
"That makes two of us," Sady replied.
CJ shook her head and corrected Sady, "That makes four of us. I'm going to have Harry take you home. I'll call Morrow and tell him about your... car."