Olympus Drive Book 3: According to Plan

Chapter 61

Detective Stamos

"This is Felix's house---he's the only one with a shot gun----he fired it off here too, but he missed," Luna says, sniffing the air.

"Okay, cool, is he in there now?" I ask.

"No, no one's home," Rhea says, frowning, "The parents haven't been for a week."

"He was taking the trash out—Phe must've confronted him," Luna says, pacing in the yard.

"Do you know where he might be?" I ask.

"The Walls house---where you can't get a subpoena to?" she says, raising her eyebrows, "I'm sure he's holed up in there with his friends. They're gonna deny he's there just like they did with the hit and run."

"I don't care. I'm getting him, tonight," for everyone's protection, "I can bully my way in places how do you think I got your dad home every night from age seventeen to twenty four?"

"Not easily," Luna says, almost smiling.

"All right, so I'm gonna take you home to your mom, and then I'll go get him," I say, "Let's go back to the car."

"Promise?" Luna asks.

"I promise. Let me handle this," I say.

"I'll go with him," Rhea says, and since it pacifies her, I don't argue. We barely get Luna dropped off home, though, before of course I get one of the weirder phone calls of my career.

"Someone stole his body," Reynolds says, "The ME had to take it---him---after the family was done and someone broke into the morgue and stabbed the ME with scalpel and took him."

"Did he?" Rhea, not at all surprised.

"I may know where I'm going---I'll call you back," I say, and stare at Rhea pointedly.

"Five will get you ten it's the little boyfriend."

"He's not big enough to carry him ---where?"

"To his house. Took him home with him. He's like a cat, really."

"He can't have, not without being noticed."

Of course he did.

"You don't have any right to question our son—," a very self-righteous Mr. Neman very offended despite being fully awake and dressed at this time of night, right behind him is his wife, equally dressed and lucid.

"Step aside I think he stole a body," I say, pushing past him, "Where's his room?"

"We're not telling you where our son's room is!!"

"It's the middle of the night!!"

"Where the moaning and sobbing is coming from, right," I say, walking past them.

"WHO IS THIS??" they object to Rhea.

"My associate."

"Aw, that's the nicest thing you've ever called me Detective."

"My prisoner."

"And the kink is back."

"Which one is his—there he is," I push into one of the rooms. Sure enough, Riviera's body is on the bed, now nicely tucked under a blue comforter, while Axel curls up with it, like a child holding a favorite toy. Riviera is done up in bandages, his wounds washed and his hair fixed properly.

"Really?" I sigh.

"Sorry," the girl is in a corner of the room, just slumped there, "I told him not to."

"That's nice---Axel you cannot keep him. He's not there anymore," I sigh, sitting down on the bed. Axel is draped across the body, sobbing quietly into his chest.