Crosswords
She was only two minutes late, but everyone else was already at the booth, looking at her expectantly when she turned up.
"Strangled by a scarf under a bus wheel."
"Ooh," Mason made a face. "That's messy." He scooted a little closer to Daisy and George sat down, looking for Kiffany to flag her down for a cup of coffee.
"We don't have the time, pumpkin." Rube pulled a blue duffel bag from under the table and set it right in the middle of the table. "Know what's in this bag?"
"Is it a thousand dollars?" Mason asked hopefully.
"A thousand dollars wouldn't fill that bag," Daisy corrected. "Unless it was in something silly, like nickels. Is it dirty laundry?"
"Close," Rube smiled. He glanced at Roxy and George. "Any more guesses?"
"I hate guessing games," Roxy muttered. George just shrugged.
"I couldn't get twenty-eight down this morning. What makes you think I'll get this?"
"Tsk tsk, Georgia. You're awfully cranky."
"Just tell us what's in the bag, Rube," Roxy snapped. "I had to make up some half-assed excuse to get out of my beat this afternoon."
"Welcome to my world," George nuttered under her breath. In a flash, Roxie pulled out her gun and pointed it just inches away from George's nose.
"You care to repeat that comment?" she snarled.
"They're t-shirts," Rube said loudly, unzippering the duffel. He pulled out an orange wad of clothing and threw it at Mason. "One for each of us." He tossed one to Daisy, who unrolled it and held it up.
"The Leewood family reunion? Is this some sort of joke?"
"Noooo," Mason whined, holding up his shirt. "Not a family reunion!"
"I thought we didn't do group reaps." George stared at the shirt in her hands. The last family reunion she had been at had been with Betty and Rube, but it seemed like ages ago. Beside, they had only reaped one soul at that one. And it had been messy.
"We do now, pumpkin." Rube handed a shirt to Roxy, then pulled out his own. "I warned you knuckleheads this morning." He paused and held his shirt up to his chest. "Besides, I think orange looks good on me."
"You're joking," Roxy muttered. "Can't I just show up on a beat?"
"Nope." Rube re-zippered the duffel bag and stood up. "Too suspicious. Now, if I'm not taking up too much of your precious time, we have some souls to collect."
The Leewood family reunion was being held at a park about twenty minutes from Der Wafflehaus. The car ride over had been excruciating, with Rube whistling cheerfully behind the wheel of the van they had hijacked from a used car lot. When they pulled up to the park, George's heart sank. At least a hundred people, all clad in the same orange shirts, milled around. People were playing Frisbee on a green patch, grilling by a pavilion, standing in groups chatting. With so many people, they'd be lucky if they found their reaps in time. George checked her post-its again. There were two of them: J. R. Leewood, ETD: 3:35 p.m. North Shore Park and T.J. Leewood, ETD: 3:35 p.m. North Shore Park. In their matching shirts, the reapers stood beside the van and surveyed the scene.
"It's an orange nightmare," Mason moaned, clutching his post-its.
"Okay gang," Rube ignored Mason's comment. "Divide and conquer. Look for high risk spots and find the others if you get a lead. Go to it." Miserable, the reapers crossed the street to merge with the celebrating family. George felt slightly guilty, dirty, walking towards the party. Here, the group was supposed to be enjoying a carefree day. Nothing bad was supposed to happen. Instead, by the end of the day, twelve people would be dead.
"What sort of death trap are we supposed to be looking for?" Daisy, even in the orange shirt, managed to look composed and beautiful. George just felt like a wolf in sheep's clothing.
"Not sure," she muttered, scanning the crowd. There was so much that could happen. Grills could explode, a tango line could snake across the highway and be hit by a semi, death by Frisbee. But this had to be something really big.
"Well," Daisy sighed. "Time to mingle." Smiling, she sidled up to a group of elderly family members gathered around a picnic table playing cards. George walked further into the crowd, then looked at her post-its again. The only way to go about this to ask. Screwing up her courage, George approached a woman near the buffet tables.
"Well, hi there!" The woman was middle aged, a little grey showing in her hair. George sincerely hoped she was neither J.R. nor T.J. Leewood. But there was only one way to find out.
"Hi," George murmured.
"Belle Leewood." So, she was safe. "What side of the family are you from?"
"Well, actually, I'm not related," George lied. She was so used to it all by now. A million Happy Times excuses had paid off. "I'm just here with Dan." There had to be a Dan at a reunion like this. Belle Leewood's eyes widened.
"You mean Karen and Micheal's Dan?"
"Yep," George lied cheerfully. "He said he would introduce me to people, but I lost him already." She smiled a strained smile. "All the orange." Belle Leewood continued to stare at George, a funny expression on her face.
"David," she called an older man over from the buffet. "Come here and meet…" She hesitated, and then smiled widely at George. "What was your name again, hun?"
"Betty," George lied quickly, then regretted blurting out that name.
"Betty," Belle Leewood repeated, then smiled again. The middle-aged man shuffled over with a plate of barbeque chicken. "David, this is Betty. She's here with Dan." Belle Leewood's smile changed a little. "Karen and Micheal's Dan." The middle-aged man swallowed a large mouthful of chicken, then stuck out his hand, giving George a bright, barbeque-sauce smile.
"Nice to meet you. Are you and Dan dating?"
"Well, sort of," George lied, regretting ever choosing to say she had come with Dan. Whoever this guy was, he seemed like a bad choice. The Leewood's smiled at her, a pair of grinning maniacs.
"He hasn't brought you to church yet?" Belle asked. "We're at St. Pius, right on the square?"
"Oh…"George bit her lip. "We're trying to keep it quiet right now."
"Ah." David smiled. "Gotcha." He winked at George. "We hadn't even heard about his breakup with Aaron. Did you meet Aaron at all?"
"Erin?" George fumbled for a moment, then recovered. "No, I didn't meet her." Belle and David Leewood exchanged a look George couldn't read. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to get back to her search for the J. R. and T. J. on her post-its.
"Not 'her'," Belle Leewood said finally. "Him. Aaron."
"What?" George dragged her gaze away from Rube mingling at the horseshoe pit to stare at Belle Leewood.
"Sweety," Belle pulled a concerned face. Her tone and look reminded her so much of Delores, right when she was about to tell her something terrible and awkward. "Dan's gay." There was a huge moment of silence as George mentally traced how she had gotten herself into this fucked up situation. She tried to fake surprise.
"Oh…oh! That Aaron!" George's teeth clenched as she smiled broadly at the Leewoods. "We don't talk about that anymore." Belle Leewood studied George for a long moment, and, to George's horror, allowed her face to crumple into a sob.
"We were,"she sniffled. "We were so hoping he would find a nice young lady and settle down!" In a horrifying Delores-like motion, Belle Leewood wrapped both of her arms around George and squeezed, sniffling into her ear.
"That's…nice." Awkwardly, George patted Belle on her back. "Uh, just…just don't spread this around? Okay?" Belle finally let go and shuffled back a little, dabbing at her eyes with a crumpled napkin. "I mean, it's just that Dan wants to make the announcement later." From behind Belle, David Leewood nodded sagely to her and wandered back over to the buffet table, the drama unfolding clearly not enough to keep him occupied. Belle, however, was still sniffling. "Um," George stole a quick glance at the crumpled post-its in her hands. J.R. and T.J. "Dan told me I have to meet T.J., but I wasn't really paying attention to where he was pointing." Belle Leewood was wiping the tears from her face with an orange sleeve, nodded at George's lie.
"That would be Terry. He's over there with the boys." She pointed at a spot behind George and, before George coud turn and look, had her wrapped in a tight hug. "Honey, when this all works out," she sniffled in George's ear. "Come by St. Paul's church and we'll hold a pot-luck for you." George tried not wince as Belle sobbed loudly in her ear. "I'm just happy Dan found such a nice young lady." Awkwardly, George nodded and carefully tried to untangle herself from Belle's embrace. The older woman nodded and walked back towards her husband and the buffet table, giving George the chance to turn around and look at where T.J. Leewood was.
