Page 47 of Speak of the Devil
He came into the office and sat down in the lefthand chair facing her desk. “You’re doing a good job,” he said, and Delia raised an eyebrow.
“A good job of what?”
“Pretending I’m a normal guy.”
Before she could respond, Paige and her client appeared, and Delia uttered a silent thank-you to the universe for allowing her to dodge that particular comment.
She really hadn’t wanted to get into it with Caleb Lockwood. No, all she wanted to do was get the paperwork signed and the money handed over to the buyer, and then she could get on with her life.
Except she wouldn’t be done with Caleb, not by a long shot…not when she’d already agreed to provide what advice she could about getting the reno back up and running.
“Hello, Paige, Mr. Mackie,” she said. “Mr. Mackie, why don’t you take a seat next to Caleb? There’s a lot of paperwork to be signed.”
Which Paige handed over, setting it on the desk in front of her client. “And the check?”
“Right here,” Caleb said, then pulled an envelope out of the breast pocket of his leather jacket and set it down on the desktop. “Plus the additional ones for both your fees.”
In a regular transaction involving a mortgage, that money would have come out of the disbursement from the mortgage company. Because this was a cash transaction, though, he’d had to keep those funds separate.
Paige looked over his shoulder as though to confirm that the amounts were correct, then nodded. “Everything looks in order. Tim, it’s fine to go ahead and sign.”
And even though they didn’t have to sign a bunch of loan paperwork, there were still plenty of forms to sign — disclosures and amendments and all the other minutiae involved in any kind of property transaction.
Eventually, though, both Caleb and Tim Mackie had placed their signatures or initials on all the necessary papers.
Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys before handing them over to Caleb.
“Here you go,” he said. “Hope you have better luck with the place than I did.”
“I’m sure it’ll go smoothly,” Caleb responded as he sent Delia a significant glance.
Of course it would — the spirit of the serial killer had been banished and all his victims had been removed from the basement, so there was no reason to think they’d encounter any more supernatural activity at the property.
Unless Caleb brought it with him, she supposed.
They exchanged congratulations, and then Paige and her client left, no doubt to have an early celebratory lunch.
Caleb slipped the house keys into his pocket as Delia placed the cashier’s check for her agent fee in her purse. At some point, she’d need to go to the bank to deposit the thing; carrying around that much money, even if it wasn’t cash, made her nervous.
“Do you have a client lined up after this?” he asked, something in his manner almost diffident.
She halfway wanted to lie and say she did, if only to give her a little breathing space while she tried to sort out her thoughts on the subject of Caleb Lockwood.
That wouldn’t have been professional, though. She’d signed up to work with him, and had to hope that as the days and weeks wore on, she’d get so used to knowing he was part demon that it wouldn’t even register with her anymore.
“No,” she said, and forced another smile. “Let me guess — you want to go over to the property.”
“I do,” he replied, something about his expression telling her that he was amused by her obvious awkwardness. “I want to see if all that rain yesterday caused any problems.”
It might have, considering the roof was one of the first projects that needed to be tackled at the Pueblo Street house. Now that he owned the place free and clear, Delia could see why he’d want to go straight over and make sure the weather hadn’t caused another ten grand or so in damage.
“Then let’s take a look,” she said.
To Caleb’s obvious relief, the roof didn’t appear to have leaked at all. It still needed to be replaced, of course, but at least now they were assured it would hold until the new one could be installed.
They went back to the living room, where Delia pulled her phone out of her purse. “I’ve got the names of some G.C.s you can contact,” she said. “They may already be working on other projects, but I guess I’m hoping at least one of them will be available. Even if you don’t have the contractor nailed down, we can start putting together some mood boards and samples of the materials you want to use, since we can hit the ground running that way. And — ”
“Delia,” Caleb cut in, but almost gently. However, a belying twitch at the corner of his mouth seemed to signal that he knew she’d been talking so fast because she didn’t know what else to do with herself.
