Tequila for Two: An Althea Rose Mystery (The Althea Rose Series Book 2)

by Tricia O'Malley

  “It certainly doesn’t help. Gossip in this town spreads like wildfire,” Chief Thomas grumbled.

  “What can you tell us about the murder? Should we be worried for our safety?” I asked, deciding to take control of the situation and head the Chief down another path.

  “Any time there is a murderer at large, you should be concerned for your safety,” Chief Thomas said earnestly. I wanted to reach out and squeeze his cheeks. He really was too cute. I didn’t want to tell him that bad people were always out and about.

  “Absolutely, we’ll be extra careful,” Luna said, her voice syrupy sweet. “I really appreciate your coming by to warn us.”

  Luna can manipulate with the best of them too.

  “Oh, good. That’s good. Have you heard all the details then?” he asked, rocking back on his heels.

  “Just some pretty gruesome ones from Prudie. Seeds drilled into the head?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

  “Yes, well, that and laid out on a pentagram. Now…I don’t want to go making assumptions here,” Chief Thomas began.

  Luna and I looked at each other and simultaneously put our hands on our hips.

  Chief Thomas immediately raised his hands.

  “I’m not saying you did it. I am coming to ask if you could shed any light on what this could mean. I’m, uh – well, I don’t know much about devil worship and the like.”

  Devil worship. Really?

  “So you think Luna and I are devil worshipers?” My voice went up an octave.

  “No, no, no. Now, I didn’t say that,” Chief Thomas sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Listen, you’re the only ones I know in town who openly have a connection to this occult-type stuff. I just figured you might be able to help. That’s all, I swear.”

  I picked his brain and found a rush of panic and sincere affection for us, so I gave Luna a look and we both backed down a little.

  “Chief, there’s a world of difference between good rituals and dark rituals. Thea and I are not practitioners of the dark arts. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m not educated on them,” Luna said. Chief Thomas’s eyebrows shot up.

  “You are?”

  “I am. As I was just explaining to Althea, you can’t know the good without knowing the bad. Otherwise how would you know what lines to never cross?”

  “That’s a good point. Makes sense when you explain it like that. So, can you offer me any information?”

  “Do you have a photo?”

  Both Chief Thomas and I looked at Luna, our eyes wide.

  “Really? Ew,” I muttered, rubbing my hands up and down my arms. I caught a flash of movement over my shoulder. Great, now Rafe had joined the group. I bet he wanted to see the picture too.

  Wordlessly, Chief Thomas reached into the folder he was carrying and slid a photo out, placing it on the counter. We all turned to gaze down at the picture.

  It wasn’t pretty.

  There was our pentagram, clear as day, though the circle wasn’t visible, as Luna had cast it with her wand. A body was laid out, head facing downward from the point of the pentagram; dark sticky blotches stained the sand beneath his head. The man looked to be of Asian descent, a skinny man with tattoos snaking over his arms. Little seedlings poked out from his dark matted hair, making it look as if he wore some sort of leafy crown.

  Seeing it in real life, even second-hand through a photo, made it seem even worse to me, and sadness washed through me as I thought about his friends and family. Instinctively, I reached out and brushed my thumb over his head in the picture, murmuring a quick Gaelic phrase.

  “What did you say?” Chief Thomas had a suspicious look on his face.

  “An Irish blessing. Sort of like a last rite. It’s sad. Sad to see this. I don’t know how you do this job,” I admitted to him, turning away from the picture.

  “That’s two dead bodies you’ve seen recently,” he pointed out.

  “And hopefully the last,” I said, meeting his eyes straight on.

  Chief Thomas searched my eyes for a moment, then nodded.

  “Luna? What does this say to you?”

  “Well, the body is laid out facing downwards on the pentagram – which instantly signals dark ritual to me. I’ve only heard of the seeds in a body once or twice before. It’s supposed to be like an offering to the earth, but this is usually done when an elder has died of natural causes. Or in this case, with the way the body is facing, I would guess it is an offering to an evil god; you can assume which one, though I won’t say his name. The seeds growing from the brain though…that is kind of like a life-from-death cyclical offering to mother earth.”

  “The trees say new life to me. Growing from the earth – or from brain matter, in this instance,” Chief Thomas said.

  “Yes, new growth. New beginnings. Summoning of…things, you know…blood drained into the soil, gifts to the gods of below,” Luna shrugged, raising her hands helplessly in front of her.

  “Would these rituals be consistent with a Pagan religion?” he asked Luna.

  “Not typically. Pagans are very peaceful. I follow some Pagan beliefs and rituals myself. Usually it’s all about harnessing the energy for good, following the seasonal cycles, that kind of thing. It’s typically a very pure sort of religion, one that’s been around for centuries.”

  “I notice you’ve said ‘typically’ twice now,” Chief Thomas observed.

  Even I had missed that. Which was a reminder to me to stay on my toes with Chief Thomas. His boyish good looks belied a sharp mind.

  Luna shrugged lightly.

  “Isn’t it true that all religions have groups which break off and often become fanatical in their beliefs?”

  Chief Thomas left that question hanging in the air for a moment before nodding his understanding. Picking up the picture, he slid it back into the envelope and turned to leave the store. We watched him in silence, Rafe hovering over his head, until he was almost to the door.

  “Thanks, ladies. Oh – and one more question?”

  “Yes?” Luna smiled.

  “What size shoes do you wear?”

  I froze, ice moving up my spine as I fumbled with the idea of lying to him. Deciding against it, I kept my face smooth and tilted my head at him in question.

  “Nine and a half. Why do you ask?”

  “Seven for me,” Luna said quickly. Naturally Luna has dainty feet.

  “No reason. Have a nice day, ladies. Watch your backs, please.”

  And with that Chief Thomas left the building, taking with him all hope that we’d get out of this scot-free.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “WELL, I’M SCREWED,” I lamented, as soon as I saw his car drive away. Rafe swooped over and hovered nearby, twisting his hands nervously.

  “Is that the local Hermandad?”

  “The what?” I turned to look at Rafe in confusion.

  “The – how do you say – keepers of the peace?”

  “Oh, yes. We call them police now,” I said, making a mental note to look up the Hermandad.

  “Police, police, police,” I heard Rafe mutter to himself as he zipped around the room, looking at items on various shelves

  Ignoring him, I turned back to Luna.

  “He knows about the flip-flops,” I said.

  “Well, yes, but unless they were some rare brand of flips, pretty much everyone in Tequila owns them,” Luna pointed out.

  I thought back to the pair I had been wearing. They weren’t the cheapest brand, as leather was better in the heat of Tequila Key and wouldn’t melt on the pavement like cheaper flip-flops did. Still, there wasn’t enough to distinguish them from every other pair in town. I blew out a breath as the hammering of my heart began to slow down a bit.

  “I think I’m okay. Unless I dropped something along the way.”

  “Did you?”

  “I don’t know! There was a lot going on,” I said, my heart picking up speed again.

  “Why don’t you throw some cards on this?
”

  Luna had a good point. Being psychic was such second nature to me that I often forgot to use my skills to my own personal advantage. I pointed a finger at her.

  “You may have redeemed yourself for dumping Rafe on me,” I said as I crossed the room towards my shop.

  “I knew I’d get back into your good graces somehow,” Luna called after me.

  “Let’s see if you can stay there,” I said over my shoulder as I stepped to a shelf tucked away in the corner of my shop. This was my shelf of personal instruments, things I used only for my own readings. I prefer to channel with items that only I have touched. Instinctively, I reached for one of my favorite tarot card decks, one featuring Boston terriers as the characters drawn on them. What can I say? I’m a sucker for Boston terrier-branded merchandise.

  Instead, I found my hand hovering over my pendulum. A pendulum can be made of anything tied to a string; you use it by swinging it back and forth for the answers you need. My pendulum was given to me by my mother and featured a beautiful quartz skull at the end of a delicate chain. I loved my pendulum, as it always provided me with the answers I needed – good or bad. Pendulums are good for giving me yes or no answers, as well as allowing me to channel my energy so I could actually get a vision or two of the future.

  “Ohhh, a sparkly skull. I love it,” Rafe breathed from over my shoulder and I jumped.

  “Damn it, Rafe, would you please not do that?” If I had been a cat the fur on my spine would have been standing straight up and I’d have jumped across the room.

  “Sorry not sorry,” Rafe shrugged, and I turned to glare at him.

  “Excuse me? Where did you hear that phrase?”

  “From the talking box. With all the people in it? A woman kept saying ‘sorry not sorry’ while another yelled at her. It was quite fascinating. Though in my day, women dressed like that were only found in the most indiscreet of places. If you get what I’m saying…” Rafe leered at me, his eyes sparkling with delight.

  “Rafe, were you watching Shahs of Sunset on Bravo TV?”

  “Ah, yes. I think that was the name. Then they kept flashing some sort of lines crossed over each other in a square with the words ‘sorry not sorry’.”

  That stumped me for a second, then I smacked myself in the forehead.

  “Hashtag sorry not sorry.” I just shook my head. How could I explain to a ghost the direction our society had taken in the past few hundred years? This was his first time seeing a television. I wasn’t about to try explaining Twitter or the Internet to him.

  “Rafe, go bother Luna. I need some alone time, please.”

  “But I want to watch you do magick.”

  I blew out a breath and counted to five. Who actually counts to ten anyway? Meeting his eyes, I reached out my hands as though I was going to push him away.

  “Go. Away. Now.”

  “Fine,” Rafe flitted away while muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “Bitch has an attitude.” It appeared I would need to restrict his television viewing. Maybe I could install one of those programs on the television that forced him to watch only educational shows. Bravo TV probably wasn’t the best slice of society I could expose him to.

  Okay, I admit: I love Bravo. But only because I’m a student of human nature.

  I swear.

  Sitting down at my table, I pulled a small notepad from my drawer along with a pen. I began to sketch a diagram that would help interpret the pendulum’s movement. But instead of just the typical yes/no answers, I also added a square with a number on each side and a compass in the middle.

  Closing my eyes, I held my pendulum over the paper for a moment as I thought about the question I wanted to ask.

  “Are we in danger?”

  I breathed deeply and cleared my mind, allowing myself to be open to the universe. In a matter of moments, I opened my eyes to see my pendulum swinging decidedly in the direction of my YES sign.

  “Lovely,” I muttered.

  “Will someone else die?”

  Closing my eyes, I tried to clear my mind again but gasped this time when I got a flash of Rafe streaking across a moonlit beach and Miss Elva bellowing to the moon. When my eyes popped open, I saw the crystal skull circling the number two, signaling that there would be another death. The morbidity of the skull and the vision of another death on the beach sent a shiver through me as I tried to hone in on more details of my vision.

  “Find out anything?”

  Rafe popped in the room and the vision slipped from my mind. I glared at him and he floated backwards, his hands raised defensively.

  “Women in my day knew not to talk back to their men,” Rafe said.

  “Good thing you’re not my man then,” I retorted, closing my notebook and pushing away from my table.

  “I don’t see any man claiming you,” Rafe pointed out.

  “Rafe! Get out!” I all but shouted. I was annoyed with Rafe, scared from my vision – and frustrated by the grain of truth in Rafe’s words.

  Even though Cash had been consistent with his communication, I had to admit that I missed him. And that I was worried our budding relationship wouldn’t be able to manage distance like this when we were just starting out. Shaking my head, I shoved those thoughts aside. I had bigger things to worry about.

  “Luna,” I called.

  Luna stepped into my room, her eyebrows raised in question.

  “There’s going to be another death.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I SOMEHOW MANAGED to make it through my client readings that day, though my anxiety was beginning to kick up a notch. I was starting to think going to the Pagan festival would be an exercise in poor judgment.

  “How’d it go today?” Luna asked, having closed down her side of the shop already. She leaned against my wall, a white suede purse thrown over her shoulder.

  “A lot of people trying to contact their dead pets. The universe is teaching me a lesson,” I grumbled. A month or so ago, I had quickly answered a client’s question about her deceased show cat, and had put her at ease that her beloved Bitsy was doing well in the afterlife. Though it had been a teensy white lie, at the time, I’d felt no moral issues with it. It seemed as though the word had spread and now I was trying to pick up energy traces of deceased pets on the regular. Again, universe, I hear you, loud and clear.

  “I’m sure the novelty of that will pass and you’ll get back to reading regular clients again soon,” Luna soothed.

  “I certainly hope so,” I said as I tidied my table and then reached for my purse. I met Luna’s eyes as I crossed the room. “Are you sure we should go to this festival?”

  “I think we need to get a better read on Horace. I honestly don’t think this is going to be like any Pagan festival I’ve ever been to. Which worries me…I’m not sure what kind of rituals he will be invoking.”

  “Sweet, more rituals. Super excited about that,” I said as I pushed through my door and held it open for Luna.

  Luna smiled at me, her expression as peaceful as could be.

  “You get used to it. Sure, the word ‘ritual’ can be a little scary, especially after our experience last night, but not all rituals are bad. If you wanted to get down to the nitty gritty of it, Christians use ritual when they have you drink the ‘blood’ of Christ during communion. So, you know, it all depends on the setting and the intention,” Luna explained as she walked to her car.

  “That makes sense. But Horace creeps me out,” I pointed out as I hopped on my bike. “Hey, where’s Rafe?”

  “I told him there was a nude beach on the other side of town,” Luna shot me a grin before she got behind the wheel of her car.

  She’s a smart witch.

  I pedaled toward home, trying not to let my anxiety get the better of me, and tried to work through the vision that had come to me earlier in the day. So far as I could see it, as long as I kept us all away from that beach, we’d stay out of trouble.

  I slowed to a stop when I rounded a corner and sa
w the dreadlocked environmentalist from the night before. He wore the same outfit as yesterday and his dreadlocks were all but flying as he pointed angrily at Prudie Whittier’s shocked face.

  Would it be small of me to laugh?

  I smiled, watching as Prudie crossed her arms and shrunk back as Dreadlocks shoved papers in her face, pointing at something on the paper. Deciding to move on before they saw me, I pushed my pedals down and let them behind me.

  Who knows? Maybe Prudie would actually do some good in her life and help protect the turtles on that beach.

  Pulling up to my house, I saw Hank’s ears poke over the windowsill. How did he always know when I was coming home? I briefly wondered if Hank was also a psychic before I opened the door to his barks of joy.

  “Hey buddy,” I said, bending over to pet him before he raced across the room to find a toy to bring me.

  “Let’s get you outside,” I said, knowing we didn’t have much time before Luna would be here to pick me up. I opened the door for Hank, letting him race out into the backyard, while I considered whether I needed to change for tonight.

  What does one wear to a Pagan festival, anyway?

  Figuring the maxi dress I was wearing would be fine – I paused to think about shoe options. Wondering if there would be any chance of us needing to make a run for it, I slipped out of my flip-flops and slid my feet into a pair of Toms. Even if they weren’t the best with the dress, I knew I could run in them.

  “Hey,” Luna said, poking her head in the door. I paused, my mouth dropping open as I took in her outfit.

  She looked like a goddess. Threads of silver ran through the white robe that floated around her, while a nude bandage dress fitted her like a second skin, creating the illusion that she was naked under the robe. A huge statement necklace dripping in crystals hung around her neck, and she’d woven a sparkly crown through her hair.

  “Um, should I bow?” I asked and Luna laughed, before doing a little twirl that sent the robe flowing out around her in a graceful arc.