We walked to the other two graves, and I took the names, dates, and lot numbers down.

“I have a feeling that once we find your body, we’ll find the others, and these two have been here awhile. I’m thinking someone who works here is stealing them.”

“But why wait until they’re buried?” Cookie asked. “Wouldn’t it be much easier to steal bodies while they’re in the morgue?”

“If my assumption is right, which it usually is, this is someone who has access to the equipment here and knows the schedule. It’s a lot harder to sneak a body out of a morgue than one might think. It’s better to steal the bodies after they are in the ground where no one will notice they’re missing, don’t you think? Much less likely to get caught that way.”

“True. Sick, but true.”

We took another trip through Albuquerque in the dark, but this time we had to make a quick pit stop at a convenience store, one that I happened to know used fake cameras out front, and called the police. We told them someone was digging up a grave at the Sunset Cemetery. We told them to hurry. Then I called Ubie from my cell and explained what was about to happen, how there would be a grave robbery soon and that the detective on the case needed to look into the cemetery’s employees, specifically groundskeepers, and to check out the culprit’s property once he was found, as there were two more missing bodies.

The horizon was just beginning to brighten when we pulled up to the apartment building. We hurried in, and I fought Osh for the first shower. Literally and quietly, so as not to wake up the demon in the next room. I went for the hair. Grabbed handfuls. It was a dirty trick, but I was a dirty girl. Again, literally. I had dirt in places I didn’t know existed.

Once victory was mine, I closed the bathroom door, flipped on the light, then pulled back the curtain to turn on the shower. Reyes stood there. Leaning against the tile. Arms crossed. Deadpan expression in place.

“Oh, hey,” I said, smiling brightly. “I was just looking for you.” When he didn’t say anything, I continued. “You would not believe what happened while I was taking out the trash.” I scoffed and pointed to my hair. “Yuck. That’s all I have to say.”

“Grave robbing is a federal offense.”

I gasped. “What? I would never. We weren’t robbing. We were just digging. Exercise is good for Beep. And did you follow me?”

“Your every move.”

My jaw fell open. “I am so indignant right now. I was trying to let you rest.”

“Mm-hm.”

“And if you were there, why didn’t you help us dig?”

“Because it was far too amusing watching you do it.” He stepped out of the tub and kept walking until he’d backed me against the wall. “And you left without me. At night. When the hellhounds are free to roam the lands and eat little girls for breakfast.”

“I took Osh.” I couldn’t imagine how bad I looked.

“You left. At night.”

“Are we going to have this conversation again? I. Took. Osh.”

“Why?” he asked, seeming genuinely confused. “Why would you take a risk like that for a dead body?”

I tried to push past him. He didn’t let me. “It’s what I do, Reyes. Someone stole that sweet girl’s body.”

“She took her own life.”

“Reyes,” I said, scolding. “She had a disability. She felt hopeless and lost. You cannot fault her for that.”

“And what about me?” he asked, leaning closer, but not to seduce. Not to lure. To intimidate. He slipped a hand around my throat, gently and methodically, his signature move. “Do you know how I would feel if the Twelve got to you? Hopeless and lost doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

“There’s a guy out there stealing the bodies of young girls out of their graves.”

“And they are already dead. It couldn’t have waited until after we settled the matter with the Twelve?”

“You get ahead of yourself. That should be if we settle the matter with the Twelve. What if I don’t make it? I could do this now. I could solve this case now, so I did. Why put off until tomorrow…,” I said, letting my voice trail off.

“Then why would you not wake me? Why would you risk your life and the life of our child for something so inconsequential?”

“I couldn’t risk you, too,” I said quietly. “I’m compelled to help the departed, Reyes. It’s like my calling. If they are in pain, in need, in straits, I feel compelled to the marrow of my bones to help them. It’s just who I am.”

He dropped his arm and stepped back. “I think I know why your people let you come. Why they let you leave your plane to come here for what amounts to menial labor.”

This was going to be interesting. “Okay, I’ll bite.”

“You’re a god, and yet you want to help. Gods don’t help, Dutch. Gods have to know when to aid their people and when to step back and let them learn from their mistakes.”

“So my stint on Earth is supposed to help me become a better god?”

“Yes. Because no being can live in a perfect world. Life is destined to fight to survive. To thrive. To prosper. To have more than the have-nots. All life destroys in order to live. You can’t fix everything, but you would try.”

“Are you saying I’d be a horrible god?”

“I’m saying you are a horrible god. You risk the wrong things for the wrong causes. You strive for perfection instead of taking pleasure in the imperfect.”