Grave Dealings – AJ Aalto (1)

Morgan continued, “But I’ve also heard some ugly stories at the station. You’ve been shot on the job. Hood met you right after you’d been stabbed at a motel. You’re not invincible. If you’ve got a genuine concern, go talk to the sheriff and let him decide what to do with the information you feel you have.” “Sometimes you make sense, Deputy,” I said sourly, “and I don’t appreciate it.”

He smiled warily. “Does that mean you’re going to listen to me now?” I felt my shoulders fall. “Yes, officer.” “No, but, for real?” he said, mildly surprised. “Yes, officer.” He leaned over and looked deep into my eyes, in a way that was intense without being intimate or overly friendly.

“Promise?” Since he was right, and running off to chase a weird man who hated me was both ill-advised and possibly dangerous, I couldn’t see the sense in continuing the fight. “Yes,” I said genuinely. “I’ll let it go. It’s gone. I’m done. Besides, I like to look hot before I kick ass, and I left my favorite red lipstick at home, so…” I spread my hands up like I was totally out of luck.

“I’ll just cruise into Boulder, hit a bookstore, get that new Stephen King book and maybe a couple cozy mysteries, pop into the cheese shop, then swing home for an afternoon of reading and snacking.” “You’re gonna go all the way to Boulder for cheese?” “Dude, they’ve got this soft, two-layer stuff with an ash line in the middle, oh man.” I sighed dreamily. “I don’t even remember what it’s called, but it’s so good on a sesame rice cracker.”

He shook his head, and made a bit of space when the Doubter Guy unexpectedly came up behind him, passing us on his way out. Then Morgan said, “Cheddar.” “Huh?” I did a double-take, caught between trying to get a last look at the Doubter and what the deputy was saying. “My favorite cheese. Medium cheddar.” “Medium cheddar. The third-boringest cheese in the world?”

Copyright 2022 A.J. AALTO Cover Design by Angelica Hagman Edited by Rafe Brox Formatting by Kody Boye Publishing Services This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to similarly named places or to persons living or deceased is unintentional. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. OceanofPDF.com CONTENTS Author’s Note Grave Dealings About the Author OceanofPDF.com This story is dedicated to my writing group, the Quillies, and especially to Gordon Bonnett, KD McCrite, and Andrew Butters, my freedom fighters, my favourite word warriors. You folks always have my back, and you are so, so appreciated.

OceanofPDF.com AUTHOR’S NOTE For my regular readers, Grave Dealings, a “Between the Files” story, is the second short tale in the Grave Mistakes Duology, and takes place after the novel Kindred Spirits. It is preceded by Grave Mistakes. CW: Please do note that both of these stories were written in 2020-2021, during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and Marnie’s reality very much reflects this event. What Would Marnie Do?

Well, pretty much as she always does, except with a mask on. OceanofPDF.com GRAVE DEALINGS Ah, the glorious post-pandemic world, in which the birdsong was sweeter, the sun felt like a welcome-back hug, and the honeysuckle and rambling rose on the spriggan fence were blooming early. The world was Marnie B’s playground, yes it was, and I was eager to enjoy it once more. I had firmly rejected Dr. Delacovias’ creepy insistence that I subject myself to his experimental lycanthropy treatments, and instead got my COVID-19 vaccination as soon as I was able.

Folkenflik and his skulk were pleased with me for committing to embrace my new vixen life, Harry was pleased with me for protecting my health (and thereby protecting him), and I was pleased with my increasing ability to wrangle the lycanthropy under control.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 9380c66b09bb2b1d
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,389,573 bytes (3.233 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 53
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 89.55 minutes
• Total Words: 17,909
• Total Characters: 98,905
• Average Words per Page: 337.91
• Average Characters per Page: 1866.13

Most Frequent Words

said (62), like (60), back (53), one (48), i’d (44), time (42), get (41), hood (41), i’m (40), don’t (40), morgan (38), right (38), head (36), harry (34), now (33), good (33), know (33), going (32), you’re (32), cabin (28), deputy (27), it’s (26), eyes (26), still (26), way (25), didn’t (25), felt (24), let (24), myself (23), need (23), look (23), wasn’t (23), left (22), guy (22), sure (22), maybe (22), thought (22), much (21), got (21), around (21), sense (21), man (21), behind (20), sally (20), face (20), away (20), well (19), something (19), he’d (19), made (19), asked (19), looked (19), told (19), make (19), long (18), heard (18), took (18), two (18), tried (18), mountain (18), cat (18), sheriff (17), see (17), eye (17), lion (17), front (16), came (16), went (16), hard (16), say (15), hand (15), come (15), coffee (15), really (15), knew (15), that’s (15), shot (15), second (14), yes (14), couldn’t (14), hadn’t (14), hot (14), call (14), i’ll (14), without (14), gonna (14), probably (14), cheese (14), even (13), door (13), bit (13), though (13), deep (13), men (13), lions (13), across (12), many (12), lunch (12), turned (12), pulled (12).

PDF Download