Grave Destinations by Lori Sjoberg

came on the line, not bothering to mask his irritation.
    “Sorry to interrupt your fun, Soldier Boy.” Ruby smiled in spite of herself. She and David shared a long history, and it pleased her to see him finally happy. That said, she still enjoyed giving him grief every now and again. “It’s a little early to be knocking boots, don’t you think?”
    “It’s never too early. Or too late. You know better than that.”
    Ruby laughed. “Point taken.”
    “I assume you’re calling for a reason?” he asked, always one to cut to the chase.
    “You could say that.” Ruby kicked off her sandals and sat on the bed. She scooted back a bit so she could lean against the headboard. “I’m working a party of one and ended up double-booked. You ever run into that scenario?”
    Silence.
    “Never,” he said almost a full minute later. “Where are you?” Oh, he was going to love this one. “I’m on a cruise ship, somewhere off the coast of St. Angelique.”
    “But you hate—”
    “You don’t need to remind me,” Ruby said, cutting him off before he finished his sentence. “I suspect this is Samuel’s idea of a sick joke. He made Dmitri assign this one to me.”
    More silence. “What was the cause of death?”
    “I have no idea. There weren’t any obvious signs.”
    “Male or female?”
    “Female.” Ruby inhaled deeply before rattling off the pertinent facts. “I found her inside her cabin a little after three this morning, buck naked in bed with a grin on her face like she’d just won the Powerball. No obvious signs of damage to the body, no pills nearby, no suicide note.”
    “Huh. Hold on a sec.” There were a few moments of muffled conversation from David’s end of the line. “You sure it wasn’t natural causes?” The wariness in his voice put her on edge.
    “Positive. The expiration woke me from a sound sleep. If it was natural, the soul wouldn’t have been hanging around fifteen minutes later when I entered the room.”
    More muffled talking on David’s end. “Have you run this by Dmitri yet?”
    “I called him first but got voice mail. Since I couldn’t get hold of him, I thought I’d see if you’d ever run into anything like this.”
    “No. Never heard of it happening, either.” David blew out an audible breath. “This sounds really fucked up, Ruby. Let me make some calls, see if I can find out anything on my end. In the meantime, call Dmitri back. Leave a message if he doesn’t pick up. Otherwise, his nose will get pushed out of joint if he thinks you’re bypassing him and going directly to me with your problems.”
    When David and Sarah transferred to Miami, Dmitri became the leader of Ruby’s unit. She’d known Dmitri since the early eighties, and got along with him well enough, both on and off the job. As bosses go, he was fair but strict. By nature, he was more territorial than a wolverine.
    “You worry too much,” Ruby said. “Besides, I already left him a message.”
    “Good. The last thing I need is Dmitri crawling up my ass because he thinks I’m sticking my nose in his business. You know how he gets.” He said something to Sarah, too low and distorted for Ruby to make out. Then his voice came back over the phone, sounding the way he always did when he wanted to make you feel better about something. “Hang tight, Dawson, and be careful. Keep your eyes and ears open for anything out of the ordinary. I’ll pull in a few favors and get back to you as soon as I can.”

Chapter 7
    S ix hours and three showers later, Jack still felt like shit.
    Sated and satisfied, the curse lay dormant, the only good thing to come from the previous evening. Despite his best efforts, Jack’s thoughts dwelled on his nocturnal activities, of sex and sweat and tangled sheets. A desperate act to appease the beast before it staged a hostile takeover. Then he thought of Ruby and a fresh round of guilt gnawed away at his conscience.
    Accepting her invitation would have guaranteed disaster. She