Vieux Carré Voodoo (19 page)

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Venus said, her voice shaking.

“What did you see, Scotty?” Colin asked softly. He was
stroking my forehead. “What did She tell you?”

“She—” I looked up into his eyes, and in that instant, I
knew.

He had lied. He had lied to me and broken my heart. My
heart, and Frank’s, and my family’s. But no matter how good an actor he was, he
couldn’t fake the love for me I saw in his eyes.

He hadn’t lied about that, and looking at him, I knew I’d
always known that in my heart.

I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, but I wasn’t about
to cry in front of Venus and Blaine. I struggled to sit up, and wiped at my
eyes.

I took a deep breath. “She told me to trust in my heart, and
it would show me the way.” I looked around at all of them. “Shouldn’t we be
getting over to my parents’?”

EIGHT OF WANDS

Approach to a goal

Venus and Blaine were conferring by the balcony doors. I
couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their whispers had an angry tone to
them that was impossible to miss. I felt my assumption that Blaine thought
stopping by my parents’ wasn’t necessary was probably correct. Venus might not
like me, or my family, for that matter, but she was always willing to listen to
me.

Blaine, on the other hand, could be a bit of a douche bag.
He’d tried to play me once during a case. Trying to get information, he’d
claimed we’d hooked up once when we were both wasted—which, I’m sad to admit,
was always a possibility with me. He
was
good looking, and nicely put
together—and when I was single, I was a bit of a slut. There were any number of
hot guys out there I’d hooked up with that I didn’t remember—the main drawback
to having such a checkered past. His plan had almost worked, too. Fortunately,
I’d caught on. Sure, he was just doing his job—but it was still a shitty thing
to do, and I never could bring myself to trust him again.

“Did you really shoot yourself?” I whispered to Colin.
“Wasn’t that a little bit on the extreme side?”

He didn’t take his eyes off Venus and Blaine. “Are you mad
at me?” he whispered back.

“I should be, but I’m not.” I was a little surprised myself.
I was still feeling the calming influence of the Goddess. When it wore off, I’d
probably be furious.

“I didn’t shoot myself,” he whispered, reaching out and
rubbing my arm. “I just am not ready to involve them that deeply yet. I’ll
explain everything later.”

That figured. It was always
I’ll explain later
with
him. Sometimes,
later
never came. It was frustrating, but I decided not to let it get to me.
Instead, I sighed and gave him a long, hard look. His right eye closed in a
wink. But before I could say anything, Venus and Blaine finished their
discussion and walked back over to us. Her face was its usual unreadable
stone—but he was pissed. His face was flushed, his lips pressed together into a
taut thin line. A muscle in his jaw was twitching.

“All right,” Venus said, glancing at Blaine. “Scotty, I’ll
drive you over to check on your parents. Agent Golden, would you mind staying
here? Blaine has some more questions for you.”

Agent.
Her tone was deferential—which was most definitely not like Venus. Who the
hell was he working for, anyway?

“That’s fine,” Colin replied with a gracious smile for
Blaine. “I’d be happy to answer your questions, Detective Tujague. Scotty, call
me and let me know they’re okay?”

I bit my lower lip.
They must be okay, otherwise he’d
never agree to stay here.
But how did he know? It was his idea in the first
place for us to go over there…

He just wanted to get Venus and Blaine out of my apartment.

What was he up to? Did he know more about Levi’s murder than
he was letting on?

My head was starting to hurt again.

I followed Venus down the back stairs and out to her SUV. As
I buckled myself in, I asked,” Why do you keep calling Colin
agent
?”
She started the engine, turned on her siren, and slammed it into drive. The
tires squealed as the SUV roared out onto Decatur Street. “What was that all
about? And why didn’t you arrest him?”

“That’s very simple, Scotty.” Venus didn’t look at me as she
turned onto Barracks. The car almost went up on two wheels. “I didn’t arrest him
because I can’t. There’s no warrant out for him.” She shook her head. We reached
the corner at Royal and this time we did go up on two wheels. I grabbed the
armrest and said a quick prayer. Her facial expression didn’t change as she
barely missed a bicycle delivery guy. He went down in a heap, waving his fist
after us. “A few days after Mardi Gras, Homeland Security took over his case
from us. You know all they have to do is say ‘terrorism’ and that’s it—we can’t
say a damned thing about it. They took our files, the evidence, everything. We
were told not to worry about it, and were told the charges against him were
being dropped.” She shrugged. “I thought we pretty much had him nailed for it,
frankly, but you don’t question Homeland Security. They notified us they had a
new suspect, they had him dead to rights, and all charges against Abram Golden,
aka Colin Cioni, were being dropped. Period, no questions asked—in fact, they
made it very clear that any questions asked would put
us
in deep shit.” She let out her breath in a deep sigh. “They don’t have to
explain anything to us. So, that’s why. I wish I had more to tell you, but
that’s all I know—and will probably ever know.” She gave me a sidelong glance,
and added, “I think there was a lot more going on there than we’ll ever know,
frankly.”

I took a deep breath as the implications sank in.

He’d been working for the U.S. government, I thought as she
made the turn onto Dumaine. What had he told me once? “The Blackledge Agency
often takes on governments as clients for work where they need plausible
deniability. They can just deny that we were working for them. There’s always a
way to hide the money trail.”

He’d even said so during that case. I’d just assumed that
was another lie.

Which logically led to the question, was he working for the
U.S. government now?

“I got the call this morning.” Venus shrugged as she turned
onto Dumaine Street. “We are to give Agent Golden whatever assistance he needs,
and our full cooperation is appreciated.” She made a face. “I hate working in
the dark—especially now that I have two homicides on my hands.”

“It’s kind of like last time,” I observed. I added to
myself,
but this time I’m getting to the bottom of the whole thing.

Venus pulled over onto the sidewalk in front of the gate to
my parents’ back stairs. She got out of the car and waved me off as I came to
the gate. “Stay here while I go up and knock,” she said, “and if everything’s
okay—”

“No need to knock.” I fished my keys out of my pocket. “I’ve
got keys.”

She gave me a look and held out her hands. “You heard me.
Don’t argue with me, Scotty.”

“Look, we don’t know anything’s really wrong,” I insisted.
“And I have keys. I have their permission to go in and out at will. You’re not
breaking any procedural rules by going in with me as a guest. And if there’s
nothing wrong up there, trust me, they’ll be in bed. They’ll never hear you
knocking.” I grinned at her. “And besides, the gate’s locked. They disconnect
the buzzer when they go to bed.” I pointed to a note next to their bell. It
instructed that any deliveries before noon were to be taken to the store.

Venus gave me a withering look and gestured to me to unlock
the gate. With a sigh of relief, I slid the key into the gate and turned it. I
ran up the back stairs. She was right behind me when I unlocked the back door
and pushed it open, then shouldered past me. Pulling her gun, she made a sweep
of the kitchen and waved me in. I followed her in as she checked the living
room. All the shutters were closed, all the lights off. I flicked on the
chandelier lights, flooding the room with light. Everything was the way it
should be. There was an empty wine bottle on the coffee table, along with two
glasses with little spots of wine in them. A volume of the encyclopedia was open
next to the wine bottle. I walked over and glanced down. It was open to the
Pleshiwar
entry. “I think everything’s okay,” I whispered. I picked the book up. The
entry was a short paragraph. There wasn’t even a corresponding map of the
country to go with it.

“Check out the bedrooms,” Venus whispered back. “And if
anything seems off—”

“Trust me, I’ll scream.”

The apartment was silent other than the ticking of clocks
and the sounds of the street outside. I turned on the hallway light and checked
out the bedrooms. Mom and Dad’s room was at the very end of the hall. When I
reached their door, I turned back and nodded to her, giving her the okay sign
with my right hand. I reached down and turned the knob gently, and pushed the
door open a little, just so I could get a look.

Mom and Dad were cuddled up into a ball, sleeping with a
wool blanket over them. In the gloom, I could see they were both breathing. I
pulled the door shut and walked back down to where she was standing. I shrugged.
“They’re asleep.”

Her lips tightened. There was an undercurrent of annoyance
in her voice. “Everything seems to be as it should be around here. Any thoughts
on why he sent us on this wild goose chase, Scotty?”

Oh, I have lots of those,
I thought. I smiled at
her and shrugged. “Well, to be fair, he said they were in danger, not that we’d
find bodies.” I walked back down the hall and took a deep breath. Nothing made
my parents angrier than being woken up before noon. Risking their wrath, I
started pounding on the door.
“Mom! Dad! Wake up!”
I yelled.

I heard movement inside the room. The door swung open. Dad
stood there, stark naked, hands on his hips and fire in his drowsy eyes.
“Scotty, what the hell are you doing here?” His eyes focused on Venus at the end
of the hall. She averted her eyes and stepped out of sight into the living room.
He dropped his hands strategically. He looked back at me, puzzled. “Why is Venus
here? What’s going on?”

“Mr. Bradley, would you mind getting dressed?” Venus called
from the living room. “I need to talk to you and your wife. It’s very important.
I apologize for having to wake you.”

Dad yawned and nodded. He closed the door, and I heard him
whispering to Mom. As soon as the door closed, Venus stepped back into the
hallway. She rolled her eyes and smiled.

I walked into my old bedroom, or as I called it, the Scotty
Shrine. I flipped on the light and went back in time. I’d moved out permanently
when I was eighteen, and nothing had been changed in the room since that day.
Posters of a shirtless Marky Mark still hung on the walls, the bookcases still
held my collection of Hardy Boys, and all my wrestling medals and trophies were
displayed on top of dressers. All my childhood toys and games were on the
shelves in the closet. It was a little unsettling—Storm and Rain’s rooms were
the same.

And sure enough, Mom had put the damned rabbit in the center
of my bed. I walked over and picked it up. It was so surreal to me that this
filthy, disgusting old relic of my childhood was something people were being
killed for. I closed my eyes and said a quick prayer, but felt nothing unusual.
I opened my eyes and turned it over in my hands. Mom hadn’t washed it, the way
she said she was going to—she probably hadn’t had time. Things had been moving
pretty fast since the parade ended. I held it up to the light. It still stank of
dust and mold. I squeezed it in a couple of places. It didn’t feel like anything
was inside it. I shook it a bit, feeling a little stupid.

Why would Doc put the Eye inside this thing? I wondered. I
was just starting to think Colin was wrong when I turned it over.

There was a place, just below the tail, where it had been
stitched back together. The thread looked new.

I squeezed it, but felt nothing but stuffing.

Venus is going to be pissed—there’s no jewel stuffed
inside this thing,
I thought as I carried it back into the living room with
me. I could smell coffee brewing in the kitchen. Venus was sitting on the couch,
her face unreadable as she was typing into her cell phone. She looked up and her
lip curled. “That’s the rabbit he was talking about?”

Before I could answer, Mom walked into the living room in
her tattered robe, yawning. “Scotty, why on earth are you waking us up at this
ungodly hour?” She was too sleepy to be angry—so far. She peered at the clock on
the mantelpiece. “Why, it’s barely eleven!” She rubbed her eyes. “Venus, is
there anything new on Doc’s murder? Is that what this is about?” She plopped
down into a wingback chair and yawned again. “And what are you doing with Mr.
Bunny?”

I was digging through a drawer in the coffee table, looking
for scissors. “Venus, you explain it to her?” There was a lot of crap in that
drawer. Mom was pretty fastidious, but the various junk drawers scattered
throughout the house were disorganized messes. I pawed through electrical cords,
vials of glitter, instruction manuals for electrical appliances, and batteries
before I finally put my hands on a pair of scissors. Dad walked in carrying mugs
of coffee as Venus was explaining to Mom Colin’s theory about Mr. Bunny. I
started cutting the thread.

“So Colin thinks this jewel is in Mr. Bunny?” Mom took a
swig from her coffee mug. She shuddered. “I’m not sure how I feel about having
that evil stone in my home.” She looked at Dad. “We’ll have to do a cleansing.”
He nodded back at her.

“The stone itself isn’t evil,” I pointed out. “But it makes
sense, doesn’t it?” I said as the thread snapped in two. I started pulling the
stitches out. “If it wasn’t in Doc’s apartment, he had to have gotten it out of
there somehow before.” I got the last of the thread out, and pulled the tear
apart, sticking my right hand into the nasty stuffing. The old material ripped
some more.