“Not too bad,” Aaron replied, scratching his head. “You wanna explain why Mr. Crosby thinks you’re gonna be out recovering from a knee replacement?”
Blushing, Tom replied, “Right. Uh, I told him I needed some time off.”
“Everything okay?”
“Uh, um, yeah. I just need to take care of some, well, some personal things.” Tom hated how bad he was at this. He trusted Aaron, but he didn’t want to get him involved in this.
“Does this have something to do with Junior?” Aaron accused.
Shit.
“No,” Tom weakly lied. “Why?”
“He dipped out yesterday in the middle of a service that I had to go cover, and no one’s seen him since.” Aaron crossed his arms. “Gerald’s out today, no doubt trying to find whatever gutter he’s crawled into, and now you’re taking off?”
“It’s personal, okay?” Tom said firmly, more confident now that he wasn’t technically lying. “I don’t know what’s going on with Junior. That’s none of my business, and it has nothing to do with me.”
“Shit, sorry.” Aaron cringed. “I know he’s been bugging you and wanted to make sure he hadn’t done something else.”
“I’m fine. I mean, I’m not fine, but I’m going to be.”
“Fair enough.” Aaron grinned. “Hey, I’m gonna miss you around here. For real. Enjoy your time off, dude.”
“Thanks.”
“Hey, uh, real quick.” Aaron took a few steps closer. “I’m having to cover for Gerald on the Ross family. Bosco’s personal effects said there was a watch?”
Tom’s heart stopped.
“I couldn’t find it in lockup, and Gerald said he didn’t know anything about it. Any idea where it is?”
“Uh.” Tom nearly dropped his brush. “Right, you see, it was dirty. Very dirty. And just, uh, I was washing it, and it… it fell. And then I put it in my pocket.”
“It fell? Like on the floor? Is it broken?” Aaron demanded, his eyes widening.
“No, no, no!” Tom said quickly. “It’s fine. I just, uh, I picked it up and put it in my pocket. Ha! Like an idiot!” He tried to laugh it off like it was all a silly mistake. “It must still be in my pocket. At home.”
“Uh huh.” Aaron looked confused and more than a bit concerned.
“I promise I’ll bring it back,” Tom swore. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s no big deal,” Aaron soothed. “His only family is an estranged nephew or something who lives out of town. He’s not coming in until Wednesday. Not even viewing him.”
“Shit. Then why did we embalm?”
“Mausoleum.”
“Ah.”
“Nephew was really chill. He only got uppity about the embalming. Had to explain to him the whole ‘embalming is not required by law but the mausoleum can require it’ bit. Think he was just trying to get money back from the preneed or something.”
“Right.” Tom cleared his throat. “Look, I swear I’ll bring the watch back as soon as I’m done. I’m so sorry. I swear I’m not a thief or something—”
“Dude, relax!” Aaron chuckled. “All this burglary stuff is making you paranoid.”
Tom was starting to sweat. He tried to smile, but it felt like a grimace. “Eh, yeah. Sorry.”
“Well, if I don’t see you before you go, have a good week off.” Aaron waved as he headed back to the door. “I’ll let Gerald know what’s up so he’s not freaking out where it is.”
