James was still irritated that the Foundation wouldn’t pay for his new cell phone, but at least he had one again. Between an early upgrade and a rebate, he’d been able to get a decent enough price on it. And with his rent going down once he and Graham moved into the new apartment, it wasn’t going to hit his budget too hard. But regardless, he rolled his eyes as he scanned the rejected reimbursement submission, then deleted the email.

His new phone rang, and he glanced over at it. The number was blocked. So it could be anyone from a sales call to Polly Grace, who still hadn’t been found. He reluctantly picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, James?”

The voice was familiar. “Yes?”

“Hi. It’s Zach Delinsky.”

Part of him wanted to hang up immediately, part of him wanted to stay on the line all day. “Hi, Zach.”

“Hi.”

There was a moment of awkward silence. “Um, what can I do for you?” James finally asked.

“Oh, right. Um, I wanted to let you know that I quit the company.”

James walked over and closed his office door, then sat down on the couch. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Zach said. “I couldn’t be a part of that anymore. Even if I wasn’t the one directly hurting our employees, I was still part of it. And after everything that happened, I need to get away from all of that.”

“Good for you,” James said. “What are you going to do next?”

Zach laughed, the sound light and musical. “Oh, I have no idea,” he said. “I’m getting away today. Going to go somewhere warm and escape the cold for a little while while I decide.”

James glanced out the window, where the clouds were hanging low over the dirty gray snow lining the road. “Have fun,” he said, trying not to sound bitter.

If it showed, Zach ignored it. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll be doing a lot of thinking while I’m away. I’m so furious with my family, but I can’t leave them. Not when the kids…”

He trailed off, and James waited patiently for him to regroup. “I can’t leave the kids to grow up in that environment without a single adult who actually cares about them,” he said. “So I’m leaving the business, but I’m not cutting ties.”

He said it as though he was looking for James’s permission to do this. To stay with his awful family. “I mean, yeah, that’s a good thing to do for the kids,” James said.

“My cousin is still gone,” Zach said. “I’ve been in touch with him, but he’s cutting all ties now that I know he’s safe. I don’t know if it’s guilt, fear, who knows? But he’s gone now.”

James remembered the other man and his fear during that first meeting. He couldn’t say he was surprised by this news.

“My flight’s boarding,” Zach said. “I have to go. This has been terrible, but I’m really glad I met you.”

Shit, was Gabriella right? “I’m glad I met you too,” James said, and he meant it.

The call disconnected, and James set down his phone. Vacation. Maybe he should take his right now. He could call Zach back, ask him where he was going and if he wanted some company on whatever tropical island he was headed to. Use some of those hundred vacation days and bend his no-dating rule for a little bit.

But then James thought about the rest of the Delinskys, and that plan evaporated as quickly as it had arrived. No, it would never work. It was a nice dream, but not nice enough that he could ever tolerate a continued connection with the rest of them. If he ever saw Zach again, it’d be a pleasant surprise. But no, he wasn’t going there.

What he was going to do, however, was check his calendar and put in for a week’s vacation right now. Delete

James looked over at Amelia, who was staring in disbelief. Then he looked at Bradley, who was equally shocked. But he couldn’t blame them, not when he felt just as surprised.

They were standing on the lawn outside of Headquarters, looking at the van that was currently parked in front of them. The replacement for the old van had arrived.

“This is…” Amelia shook her head. “This is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Did they solder two vans together to make this?” Bradley asked.

The van looked new, at least from within the past five years. And this should have been an improvement over the old van. But as James looked at it, he thought maybe Bradley was right. The back half, up through the sliding door, didn’t seem to quite match the front half. Something about the shape of it was off. And the mustard yellow coloring seemed to change. But it ran, and it was theirs.

“Hey, did that… oh my God.”

Gabriella’s voice behind him made James turn around. She was wide-eyed as she stared at the atrocity in front of them. “This is it?” she asked.

“Apparently.”

“Hang on, the others need to see this.”

She darted back inside the house, leaving the other three out on the frozen grass. “Has it ever been inspected?” Amelia asked.

James opened the driver’s side door and slid into the seat. It smelled fresh in here and the dashboard was free of dust. When he looked down, the carpets were freshly vacuumed. And when he turned the key in the ignition, it came smoothly to life.

“Well, RIP to the old one, I guess,” he said.

Madelyn’s laughter drifted over to them as she and Graham walked out of the house. “That is hideous!” she declared with obvious delight, limping slowly toward them.

Graham stood back a little to give her space, but the mingled horror and amusement on his face was apparent even from here.

“It’s bigger,” James said. “And there’s cup holders in the back, look!”

He pressed the button to open the back door, but it stayed firmly shut. So instead, he hopped out of the van, went back, and opened it himself.

The two back rows were also freshly cleaned. As he climbed in, he noticed that the Foundation had replaced all the equipment that had been in the original van when it crashed. He could see a case of holy water and several blades he was pretty sure were actually the same ones he’d thought they lost.

“God, every monster in the county is going to see us coming,” Amelia said.

James was climbing back out when the front door opened and Gabriella came out, holding a piece of paper. “We have a case!” she called. “City Hall is closed because something keeps locking people in the offices. They want us to keep it as quiet as possible and get over there immediately.”

James looked at the hideous new van, then back at the team. This was the kind of case he wanted. Normal. Simple. Maybe he’d get to pick the lock to the mayor’s office and heroically save him.

“Alright,” James said. “Everyone get in the van.”

END

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CONTINUE TO HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY (NORTH COUNTY PARANORMAL UNIT #5)