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confused. “What a strange . . . the Rubik’s Cube?”
    Grady appeared at their side.
    “I saw you with the Cube yesterday. I thought maybe it was a, um, talisman or something. A keepsake.”
    Grady’s eyes widened at the unusual topic. He frowned at Arie, then reached forward and shook Neal’s hand. Neal, so distracted he actually consented to the skin contact, continued staring at Arie like the imbecile she already felt like. Clipboard in one hand, Grady put his other on Neal’s shoulder, guiding him toward the front door. They’d gone about three feet when Neal stopped and turned back.
    “It was a Christmas present.”
    They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment, then Grady nudged him forward, casting a distinct WTF glare over his shoulder. Arie slunk behind, but Grady stopped her.
    “Why don’t you wait outside, Arie?” Technically, it was a question, but his tone made it obvious that it wasn’t.
    “I’m supposed to watch you in case I have to do the walk-through someday.”
    He gave an “as if” snort.
    “I’ll be quiet. I promise.”
    As Grady started shaking his head again, Arie added, “And I have to go to the bathroom. Really bad.”
    He closed his eyes in exasperation, but the “I have to go to the bathroom” excuse—bane of teachers and parents putting their kids to bed—was impossible to ignore. Arie considered giving a little pee-pee dance hip wiggle just to seal the deal, but didn’t want to be disrespectful. The man standing next to them had just lost his father, after all.
    Grady stepped back with a sigh, letting her enter.
    “We only have the one bathroom,” Neal said.
    Arie scooted down the hall, leaving Grady and Neal to go over the trash removal estimate. Despite her earlier assertion that she was supposed to listen, Grady wasn’t waiting. Arie couldn’t blame him. She felt like such a moron.
    That feeling didn’t change when she finally pushed the thumb lock on the bathroom door. Chandra had made it sound so simple, but now that she was there, staring blankly at the clean tile, she was at a loss. Arie walked over to the bit of wall where she’d had the vision. She remembered to take cleansing breaths and tried to concentrate. Or wait—was she supposed to concentrate or not? She couldn’t remember.
    Someone knocked on the bathroom door, and Arie almost collapsed into the tub. It didn’t matter how well she had cleaned it. That tub was not her happy place.
    “I’m in here,” Arie called.
    “No kidding,” Grady said. “Are you planning on ever coming out? ‘Cause Mr. Petranik needs to sign off on the Completed Work form, and to do that, we need to inspect the work.”
    Grady’s voice left no doubt as to his irritation.
    Arie was going to lose her job for sure.
    She whipped open the door to find the two men waiting in the cramped, overstuffed hallway.
    “I’m so sorry,” Arie said. “I just . . . This is my first job and, uh, I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t missed a single thing. I wanted it to be perfect.”
    Grady’s face relaxed a bit, and he shot a glance at Neal.
    Neal smiled. “That’s very nice, Miss . . . uh, Amy. I’m sure you’ve done a fine job.”
    Neither Grady nor Arie corrected his error about her name. Instead, Arie slid past the men and headed for the exit. It would probably be best if she stayed out of the way. Way out of the way.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    BioClean didn’t get the trash removal job, but at least Arie didn’t get fired. If the Petraniks had gone with a different cleaning company, she probably would have been, but the family took what Guts called the cheap route and decided to take care of the trash themselves. It was a shame because Arie could sure have used the money.
    As she had quickly learned, biohazard cleaning paid well but, unfortunately, not often. It also didn’t help that Grady and Arie were only called out for every other case, alternating jobs with the other team. Both suspected Guts of funneling