A Classic Case (Busybodies Collection, #6)

by Alicia Thompson

“Routines make the world go round, my dear. Grocery shopping Fridays right when Publix opens. White toast with crunchy peanut butter for breakfast each morning. And my date with She Who Laughs Last every Wednesday.

He had a bandage around the knuckles of one of his hands, which made her think suddenly of the violence that hands could inflict too.

“Mr. Hoffman,” Grant said, “once saw me taking out the trash and said it inspired him to make me a pallbearer at his funeral. He told me to make sure they played ‘At Last’ by Etta James because that’s what everyone in town would be thinking when he finally keeled over. He wanted Get Off My Lawn engraved on his headstone to scare kids away from standing on his grave.

The detail of this though. 😂

She couldn’t shake the feeling that she would appreciate it, knowing that someone noticed her enough to clock if something was off, cared enough to do something about it.

She didn’t quite know Mr. Hoffman’s story, but something had to draw him to the rental shop in the same way, compelling him to rent one movie over and over just so he’d have something to do, somewhere to go. She knew he wouldn’t miss that for any “perfectly innocuous” reason, whatever Grant might think.