by Eric Wilder
Taj towered over the man and woman. Despite the alcohol they’d both consumed, nothing had prepared them for a meeting with a naked giant. They shouted for help as they hurried away. A dozen doors opened, staring out at the man with wild eyes and bare of clothes.
Hearing the commotion, Tommy came running. When he saw Taj standing naked in the hallway, he grabbed a terrycloth bathrobe from a service cart and tossed it to him. Before Taj could secure the tie around his waist, Tommy had pulled him into an elevator and punched the down button.
“What the hell? You gone crazy?”
“Son of a bitch!” Taj said. “You weren’t kidding. That room is haunted. I’ll be damned if I’m going back there.”
“Good God, man! What did you do to your foot?”
“Stepped on broken glass,” Taj said.
“You’re bleeding on the carpet. We need something to staunch it until I can get you downstairs to a doctor.”
Tommy stopped on a lower floor and found a handful of towels in a linen closet.
“Damn glad it was you that showed up and not the police,” Taj said. “My first day with the Pelicans might have been my last.”
“Got that right,” Tommy said. “You look like you been in a knife fight and got the worst of it.”
In the fluorescent lights of the elevator, Taj could see the little man was correct. By now, there was blood all over the bathrobe, and he felt light-headed.
“You’ll be okay,” Tommy said. “We got a doctor on staff downstairs. He’ll fix you up. What’s in your hand?”
Taj didn’t realize he was holding anything until he looked and saw it.
Recoiling, he let the object drop to his feet. “What in the hell is that thing?” he asked.
Before answering, Tommy stared with his mouth open as he nudged the gruesome item with the toe of his shoe.
“Good God almighty!” he said. “Looks like a voodoo doll that somebody just dunked in a bucket of blood. Where’d you get it?”
“No idea,” Taj said. “I know nothing about voodoo.”
“Then what about your tattoo?” Tommy asked.
The white terrycloth bathrobe had splayed open across Taj’s broad chest revealing a strange tattoo.
“I’ve had this thing since I was old enough to remember seeing it. Where it came from, I have no idea. You think you know what it is?”
“Voodoo symbol,” Tommy said. “Around here they call them veves.”
“Voodoo symbol? You’re shittin’ me,” Taj said.
“I’m not,” Tommy said.
Then what the hell does it mean?” Taj asked.
Tommy wrapped the bloody doll in a towel and picked it up. “Only one that knows that is the witch doctor that marked you with it.”
##
Book Notes
Honey Island Swamp, where much of the action in Sisters of the Mist occurs, is the best-preserved river swamp on earth. True to the story, it is a strange and mysterious place populated by many creatures. The Honey Island Swamp Monster is a well-known urban legend in the area, and there are numerous accounts from people that have purportedly seen the monster. Is it real? Bo Bodkin, a friend of mine, regularly hunts, fishes, and camps in the swamp said. This is what he told me when I asked him about the creatures of the swamp:
“There are sounds you hear at night in the swamp, some you recognize, some you don’t, and others you don’t even want to know.”
I hope you enjoyed reading Sisters of the Mist as much I enjoyed writing it, and that you liked Wyatt Thomas, my moody private investigator. If you did, please consider leaving a review, and reading the other five books in the French Quarter Mystery Series. You may also like my Paranormal Cowboy Series that includes Ghost of a Chance, Bones of Skeleton Creek, and Blink of an Eye and watch for New Orleans Dangerous, French Quarter Mystery #7 in 2018.
Thanks for being a fan. Without wonderful readers like you, my stories would be little more than morning fog wafting across a forgotten lawn and then disappearing forever into the Great Unknown.
Other Books by Eric Wilder
Ghost of a Chance
Murder Etouffee
Name of the Game
A Gathering of Diamonds
Over the Rainbow
Big Easy
Just East of Eden
Lily’s Little Cajun Cookbook
Of Love and Magic
Bones of Skeleton Creek
City of Spirits
Primal Creatures
Black Magic Woman
River Road
Blink of an Eye
About the Author
Born on a sleepy bayou, Louisiana Mystery Writer Eric Wilder grew up listening to tales of ghosts, magic, and voodoo. He's the author of eleven novels, four cookbooks, many short stories, and Murder Etouffee, a book that defies classification. His two series feature private investigators adept in the investigation of the paranormal. He lives in Oklahoma, near historic Route 66 with wife Marilyn, four wonderful dogs, and two great cats. If you liked Sisters of the Mist, please check out the rest of Eric’s French Quarter Mystery Series, and all of his books at his Smashwords homepage.
Erics Links
Website: EricWilder.com
Twitter: EricWilderOk
Blog: Eric's Blogspot
Facebook: Louisiana Mystery Writer
