Eat Crow (Cheap Thrills 6)

“Are they all up to code?”

Smiling at me, he got up and walked over to his desk, then picked up a folder and waved it at me. “Seems he has the same inspection officers do a majority of the work for him. On the occasions where they couldn’t get those officers, their inspections failed.”

“Does that have the inspections for the new builds we’re looking at as a hiding place for Jordy?”

“It does. All of them failed the first inspection, so some token adjustments were done, and their favored inspectors passed them on the next inspection. One of them failed because the basement wasn’t done correctly, which would compromise the integrity of the structure of the house itself.”

“Damn,” I breathed. “Did that house pass the follow-up inspection?”

Shaking his head, he reached into the file and pulled out a piece of paper. “Funny thing that, apparently they said that they were going to allocate extra time to secure it all properly, so the inspectors didn’t look at it. It’s currently listed as a no-entry zone to most of the workers unless they’ve specifically been given the job for it.”

Grabbing up the printouts from the printer, I moved quickly to where he was standing and pointed at DB’s office. “We’re going to let him know all of this, drop off these plans, and then we’re headed out to the building site for a look around.”

I hated that all of this had been going on right under our noses, but then all crime did. How deep did the Kirkwood rabbit hole go?

I was about to find out the answer to that was: fucking deep.

Chapter Eighteen

Bexley

Tony’s list said to get canned beans.

That was it: canned beans.

Did he mean baked beans, Mexican salad mix beans, red beans… Why were there so many types?

While I waited for an answer to my frantic text asking for clarification, I walked around the store doing what everyone does at some point—picking up shit I didn’t need but wanted to have in the pantry just in case.

The floor guy was coming in two days, so I had to be smart about what I bought. The problem was, now that I’d successfully cooked one meal, I wanted to make more.

Ooo, a Crock-Pot, I need one of those.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” an angry voice hissed behind me. “Teaching kids about rape and how it’s funny?”

Turning around, I took a step back when I saw how closely Piersville’s mayor, Dirk Kirkwood, was standing.

“I didn’t teach them that. I taught them about a book called The Rape Of The Lock and stressed how different society was back then to now.”

His lip lifted in a sneer as he looked at me from head to toe, making me feel dirty just by looking at me. “I’d have thought that your grandpa and parents would have raised you better, but obviously, they aren’t what we thought they were.”

“Mayor Kirkwood, I had written permission from the parents before even mentioning the book due to the controversy of the title. But if you’d just let me explain why we were teaching them that, I’m sure you’d understand and appreciate the weight of it. I can also promise you that my grandfather and parents, as well as myself, are upstanding citizens who only—”

“I have complaints, Mizz Heath, from the parents your purportedly got permission from. Some of them even state that their kids are idolizing rape now, thanks to you.”

“What?” I breathed, my heart plummeting into my feet. That wasn’t the object of the lesson. Why would that be what they took away from it?

“I’m also in discussions with a highly respected judge to have your grandfather’s remains exhumed and banned from being buried in the town.”

Could they do that?

In just a few allegations, my world was literally crashing down around me. Pops loved our town. My whole family loved it. Why would they want to remove his body from his grave?

I couldn’t breathe.

“Well, Mayor Kirkwood,” a deep voice said beside me, and I turned to see Hurst Townsend standing with his grandson Cole. “Fancy bumping into you here.”

“I need to get groceries just like everyone else,” he sniffed, just as Cole moved in next to me and squeezed my shoulder.