Tell her something she didn’t know.
“Thanks for reminding me. Riddle me this, MATE. How long would it take an out-of-shape person to dig a casket-sized hole by hand?”
She did the math.
“Ten hours.”
“How long would it take a person in excellent shape to dig a hole the same size?”
She did the math again.
“Four hours. If it was say, Ivan, it would take more towards four. If it was Gene, somewhere right behind him. It would take Callen more like eight.”
That the AI was throwing shade made Callen gasp.
“What the hell?” he asked.
MATE was to the point.
“You’d bitch, moan, try to find someone to pay to do it, and talk the entire time. Ivan would do it fast because he’s a Marine, and Gene would be pissed that he had to do it, but he’d do it, nonetheless. You’re a pussy.”
Elizabeth laughed.
How could she not?
The look on her one husband’s face was priceless, mostly because he wasn’t arguing that point. He absolutely would bitch, moan, hire someone, and talk the whole time.
Instead of waiting for Callen to start, she went there.
“So we left at four, and Jeffrey left at the same time, so that means the killer got here sometime after, and completed not that long ago. I’m going to say he’s in good shape. This isn’t the first grave he’s opened.”
No one argued that.
Elizabeth pulled out her phone, and she dialed her husband. She was going to have to get this situation handled.
By situation, she needed an ME.
On the second ring, Chris answered, and she could hear him packing up for the night. There was the very familiar telltale zip of his gear bag.
“Hey! I was just going to call. I’m on my way in five minutes. You owe me cuddle time.”
Well, about that.
She was going to have to take a rain check, and she was betting he wasn’t going to be thrilled.
“We have a problem.”
He said one thing.
“Oh, for fucks sake. What now?” he asked. “If you tell me you’re hurt, again, I’m grounding you.”
She snorted.
The annoyance and frustration were evident in his voice, and she knew why.
‘Cuddle time’was canceled, and he knew it.
No one was getting laid until they figured this nightmare out.
