Fool Me Once: A Tarot Mystery

by Steve Hockensmith

  I kept looking straight ahead.

  Something shifted in the shadows far back in the bushes.

  “But,” Victor said, “I have never seen anyone stick their neck out for a friend the way you did for Marsha Riggs. You are an amazingly loyal and brave and tenacious person. And, yes—you still scare me. But I like you, Alanis. I like you a lot. And I’m going to try to work on the being scared part.”

  I didn’t—couldn’t—say anything for a moment.

  “That’s…not what I was expecting,” I finally said.

  “What were you expecting?” Victor asked.

  I shushed him.

  The movement in the shadows was coming closer.

  “Mew,” it said.

  A few seconds later, a tabby as big and blocky as a microwave oven came trotting out of the bushes. It began rubbing itself against our knees and thighs, purring so loudly it sounded like an outboard motor.

  “My god, that’s a big cat,” Victor said.

  “And a lucky one. Come on, buddy. You’re going home.”

  I picked up Son of Kong, and we headed back to Berdache.

  Life was quiet. I actually managed to keep the store open for eight hours at a time. It helped that I wasn’t running around chasing murderers. Plus I had a new assistant manager backing me up: Marsha Kurland. (Marsha had gone back to her maiden name. It was time, she decided, to leave the Riggs part of her life behind.)

  I was still helping my mother’s former clients/victims, but in small ways now. A discount here, a free reading there, advice, a smile. I stayed out of Burby’s way as much as I could, I tried not to think about the Grandis, and I started paying more attention to when Clarice went to bed and whether her homework was done or not.

  “Bored yet?” I asked my mother.

  An air bubble escaped from the little pirate ship that housed her ashes at the bottom of the fish tank.

  I took that as a yes.

  “Good,” I said.

  The front door opened, and I turned to face the White Magic Five and Dime’s final customer of the day. It was almost time to turn the sign off and head upstairs and make dinner for Clarice and continue boring my mother’s restless spirit to ghostly tears.

  “And what might you be looking for this evening?” I asked.

  I was looking at a seventyish black man with a beard and glasses and a wry smile on his handsome, weathered face.

  “You, actually,” he said.

  The voice. The smile.

  It was impossible—yet instantly I knew it was true.

  It took all my old training to stay calm, keep breathing, not faint, not scream.

  I smiled back.

  “Hello, Biddle,” I said.

  the end

  Acknowledgments

  This book would not have been possible without the able assistance (and ample patience) of Toni LoTempio, Mar Ortmann, Christian Falco, Danielle Burby, Josh Getzler, Rebecca Zins, and Terri Bischoff. Thank you!

  About the Authors

  Steve Hockensmith (California) is the author of the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies novels Dawn of the Dreadfuls (Quirk Classics, 2010) and Dreadfully Ever After (Quirk Classics, 2011). His book Holmes on the Range (Minotaur Books, 2006) was a finalist for the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel. He also writes a series of middle-grade mysteries with “Science Bob” Pflugfelder. For more information, visit his website at stevehockensmith.com.

  Lisa Falco (Los Angeles) received her first tarot deck at the age of eight years old. She holds degrees from both Northwestern University and Cal State University Northridge, and is the author of A Mother’s Promise (Illumination Arts, 2004).