Evidently, the wife didn’t take kindly to her husband starting to throw her things away, because the neighbors said they heard her screaming at him and saw her chasing him to the trash can. They had fought, and she tried to bring things back inside.
He went back in, and she ran after him. The neighbors heard more yelling, then a gunshot, followed shortly by another. It had been all over the news.
Our employees that handled the disposal of the hoarded belongings had already been in, and the dumpster in the driveway was full. It would get hauled off after we finished.
We got out of the vehicle, geared up, and went inside. “Holy mother of God,” Phoenix said in a muffled voice behind his mask.
“No shit,” I said as the smell hit me.
“Pussies,” Blade muttered as he went through the house to the room that was the scene of the crime.
Though the majority of the household goods had been removed, the ones around where the bodies had been were left so we could take care of them. Once we cleaned up the bodily bio scene, the guys could come back in and finish emptying the house. They would do a deep cleaning and then the children of the victims were having a renovation crew come in to remodel the things that weren’t salvageable so they could sell the house. The children specifically said they didn’t want anything left behind.
“I wouldn’t move into this house if someone paid me,” Phoenix said as we got to work.
A wave of sadness hit me, and I looked up to see a fuzzy figure of an older man staring at me. He appeared to sigh before he turned to walk off and disappear. I shook it off and got back to the job at hand.
“It’s just a house,” said Blade. He was a cold fucker.
Though it took a while, we were meticulous, and once satisfied with our results, we packed up. After everything was gathered up, we threw our trash in the dumpster and got back in the van.
“I still have that smell in my nose,” Phoenix complained.
“I’ve told you a million times to put vaporizing rub under your nose,” I said with a chuckle. He glared at me.
“I can’t. That stuff is gross.”
“Then don’t bitch about the smell.”
“I’m gonna invent something better,” he grumbled.
“Okay, sure,” I replied with a smirk.
Our next stop was an apartment complex where a party had gotten out of hand and a drunk guy fell over the railing of a fifth-story balcony. That one didn’t take as long. We were all glad to be done for the day and headed back to the farm, where we kept the vans parked in an oversized shop.
“You wanna shoot a game of pool after we shower?” Phoenix asked as he pulled on his helmet for the short trip over to the clubhouse.
“I’m game,” said Blade.
“Sure. Just let me check on Laila first,” I said, then tugged my helmet on too.
“Well, that’s gonna be a while,” he said with a chuckle before he started his bike. I followed him and Phoenix to the clubhouse, and we parked under the long carport at the end. Those of us who still lived there were allotted a spot to park a vehicle and our bikes. I backed in next to my Challenger with the new rear window Blade helped me replace.
“What was that last comment supposed to mean?” I asked as I hung my helmet on my handlebar.
He and Blade snickered. Then in a falsetto, he screamed, “Oh God, Lucian. Don’t you dare stop!”
With a chuckle, I gave him a shove. “Shut the fuck up.”
He gave me a shit-eating grin as I shook my head.
“You working at the bike shop tomorrow after the meet with her agent?” Phoenix asked as we approached the door. The cleanup business wasn’t a full-time gig for any of us.
“Depends on how things go,” I replied. He nodded.
The few members inside gave us a wave or called out as we passed through to the back hall. We split off to our rooms, and I stripped out of my clothes, then cranked the water up. No way was I going to see Laila without washing all that off first. Didn’t matter that we garbed up, it still made my skin crawl sometimes. Like the stench of death lingered.
The heat made me flinch initially, but I quickly became accustomed to it and washed my hair, then scrubbed my skin. Once I was clean, I closed my eyes to let the hot water beat over my tired muscles. The shower curtain opened and closed, and I smiled in the knowledge that Laila couldn’t resist joining me.