Page 22 of Deeper Than the Dead

One or all of the above.

“You’re upset about the remains of your stepmother being found,” Suri suggested.

Eve leaned back against the cool black granite of her mother’s headstone. “It’s unsettling.” More than Suri would ever know. They had been friends since first grade, but there were some secrets Eve couldn’t share even with Suri.

“Perhaps part of it is Vee’s presence.”

Eve turned to her dear friend. “Vee is the only person in the world who loves me.”

She held her breath, wished with all her heart that Suri would tell her she was wrong and that she loved her too.

“That’s so not true.” Suri laughed. “Luna adores you. She thinks you’re a little strange, but she adores you just the same.”

“Maybe.” It had taken Eve a very long time to learn to like her little sister. In the beginning she had only tolerated her.

She supposed the softening had come somewhere around the time Eve turned twenty-eight, when Luna had been only sixteen and in the final weeks of her sophomore year in high school. Eve had stumbled and staggered her way into trouble at a motel over in Tullahoma. She’d gotten rip-roaring drunk with friends, and they’d rented a room where they could party. The police were called, but Eve sneaked out the bathroom window before the uniforms barged in. She was so drunk she could hardly walk. Worse, she was barefoot, and it was winter. She had no choice but to call someone for help.

Goody-two-shoes Luna came immediately. She took Eve home, slipped her into the house, and cleaned her up before putting her to bed. Most importantly, she never told their father. Eve had just accepted the position as mortician at Barrett’s Funeral Home. That kind of trouble would have cost her the job ... not to mention it would likely have cost her any future positions in the area.

That was the last time Eve got shit faced. She’d been managing her drinking for a few years prior to that. Limiting those over-the-edge moments. But she knew the morning after that night, when she had so very much to lose, that she couldn’t take those sorts of risks ever again. She had to be smart. She loved her work far too much to screw it up. For the first time since her mother died, she was content, and that was saying something. She would not let anything screw it up.

“And you know how much I care about you.” Suri leaned against the headstone and propped her head on Eve’s shoulder.

The words made Eve feel warm inside. “Ditto.”

“Imagine if anyone saw us here.” Suri giggled. “Sitting on your mother’s grave in the middle of the night like two ghouls.”

“This is where we belong,” Eve agreed. “Surrounded by the dead. It’s so much more peaceful than being crowded by the living.”

“Very true,” Suri murmured. “I’m glad we get to do what we do.”

Suri was the head mortician at Hurst, the largest funeral home in the county. Eve wondered if Suri saw the dead the same way she did. Eve could always tell the good ones from the bad ones. There was something about the bad ones ... she could sense the evil in their skin ... in their bodies. No matter. She gave the bad ones the same sort of service she gave the others.

They all deserved a proper preparation for their final presentation to those they’d left behind.

Eve rested her head against Suri’s. Right now, her life was pretty perfect—more perfect than she would have believed possible, considering the nightmare it had lapsed into after her mother’s death.

Surely fate would not be so cruel as to allow the return of that bitch Sheree to ruin everything all over again.

No. Eve couldn’t possibly go to that place again.

No way.

Her heart thundered so hard, she was stunned Suri didn’t hear it.

Eve struggled for calm. Told herself it would be okay. Deep breath. Vee was here. She would make everything okay.

She would save Eve ... just like before.

9

Twenty-Two Years Ago

April

Lincoln County High School

Fayetteville, Tennessee, 11:00 a.m.

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