“Yes, I want a voodoo doll of him. He deserves more pain. Can we cause him to throw-up? What about a migraine?” Lisa narrowed her eyes and made her way to the voodoo doll aisle.
“Be careful. You may want to hurt him, but I know you don’t want to cause anything serious to happen. Right?” I narrowed my eyes at her.
She was starting to worry me. So far, all she wanted was positive things for her friends. Now she seemed hell-bent on revenge. This was not the Lisa I had been getting to know.
“Sorry, you’re right. I just got carried away with it all. The potion should be good. If he doesn’t learn his lesson, let the next girl try the voodoo dolls.” Lisa put the doll back on the shelf.
“Come on. Think positive thoughts. The impotence potion will work. Samantha is lucky to find out now what he’s like. Just remember that. If he cheats now, he would do it later on after they’re married. Once a cheater, always a cheater.” Working in this shop, I had seen it too many times.
I rang up her sale and noticed that Kat was already chatting with two of the triplets. “That will be sixty dollars and sixty cents.”
Lisa handed me her credit card, and I ran it. Once the machine spit out the receipt I handed her the card, the receipt, and her bag. “Have a nice day! Let me know how Tom likes the potion.” I giggled and waved as she walked out the door.
I turned to Kat and the sisters. “So, what’s going on? I heard you whispering over there. What happened?”
“We need to close the shop, now.” Kat walked to the door and locked it before turning the sign to ‘Closed’.
“This must be bad if you’re closing the shop early. Tell me, where’s Acadia.” I started to bite my nails. It was a bad habit I thought I had stopped, but I guess not.
Amaline took a deep breath. “Acadia is missing.”
“What?” I cried and leaned against the counter for support. “When?”
“Almost two weeks ago,” Amaline said before I interrupted her again.
“Two weeks? You’re just telling us now? What did the cops say? Do they have any leads?” I was speaking a mile a minute and not giving them a chance to answer any of my questions.
Kat walked over and put her hand on my shoulder. “Jenna, take a deep breath. Let them tell you what happened. Better yet, wait until I can get Sam and Indie down here too. I think we are going to have to help the triplets.”
Kat took her phone out and called Indie. “Hey, I’m downstairs with Jenna, and we need your help. Grab Sam and come down.”
“Alright, they’ll be right down. Jenna, maybe you can start some tea? We should probably go to the back room.” Kat led us to our makeshift storeroom/breakroom.
We had a small set up in the corner to make tea and sit. There were only enough chairs in here for the four of us, normally. Lately, our new friends from the local wolf pack have spent a lot of time here, so we brought in a few extra chairs.
We had six fold-up chairs lined up against the wall. I pulled two of them over to our little sitting area. We had one small loveseat that could fit two people. Across from it were two wingback chairs we picked up from the local Goodwill.
Kat started the tea while I situated the chairs next to our sitting area. “Amaline, I’m sorry. I freaked out a little and didn’t even tell you how awful I feel. This must be horrible for you. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose someone who was a part of me.”
She looked like she had aged ten years since I saw her less than a month ago. She had bags under her eyes. Wrinkles which weren’t there a few weeks ago, now surrounded her mouth and eyes. We had to help them find their sister.
Amaline, Acadia, and Adalaide were triplets. They were closer than anyone I have ever known, which is saying a lot. My adopted sisters and I were super close. Growing up here in New Orleans, or NOLA as the locals called it, we were inseparable. Kat’s the oldest. She’s three years older than me. Sam and Indie are the same age as me, but Sam is the youngest by a few months.
In school, we always looked out for each other and tried to get the same lunch period. We had other friends, but no one understood what it was like to be abandoned by your birth parents. The four of us had this bond no one understood. I imagined it was something similar for the triplets. They had to be closer than the four of us.
“Thanks, Jenna. We haven’t lost her yet. I’m not giving up hope of finding my sister. Right Amaline?” Adalaide looked to her sister sitting in the fold-up chair.
“Right.” Amaline stood up and turned to the sound of feet pounding down the stairs from our apartment above.
Our adopted parents owned the block, and all of the stores. When they died a few years back, we inherited everything. We grew up living above our shop. Technically, we are the landlords to everyone on this block, but we use an agency to take care of rents and keeping everything fixed. It would be too much for us to take care of it all, plus our band.
“Amaline and Adalaide! Good to see you two. Where’s Acadia?” Sam came over and hugged the two girls.
“Ladies, so good to see you two! It’s been way too long. We need to all get together and go clubbing this weekend.” Indie hugged the two sisters.
“Hi, Sam and Indie. It’s going to be a while before we go out clubbing again. Acadia is missing.” Amaline twisted her mouth and ran a hand through her long, black hair.
“NO!” Sam yelled out.
“What?” Indie cried. She put her hands over her mouth to stifle a sob. Indie was the most sensitive of our group. It didn’t take much to make her cry. While this news had me on the verge of tears, Indie was in full-fledged blubbering mode.
Kat went to Indie and wrapped her in her arms. “Shh, Acadia will be fine. We’re going to help find her.” Kat ran her hands down Indie’s long, blonde hair, trying to calm her down.
After sniffling a few times, Indie wiped her eyes. “Sorry, I know crying isn’t going to help matters. What happened? How can we help?”
“I think we should all grab a cup of tea and take a seat. Then we can hear the whole story and figure out a way to help our friends.” I walked over to the whistling tea kettle and turned it off.
We used an electric tea kettle down here since we didn’t have a real kitchen. After pouring everyone tea, we all sat on the chairs and looked to Adalaide and Amaline. I took a sip of my hot rose tea and looked into Amaline’s eyes, trying to be patient.
Amaline took a sip of her tea and set the cup on the saucer in her lap. Then she took a deep breath. “It’s a strange story, actually. Like so many of the disappearances here in NOLA.”
I looked to Kat with wide eyes, and she gave me a very small nod. It sounded like this was going to be paranormal related. After our last encounter with vampires and an evil death curse that almost killed me, I wasn’t looking forward to this.
Chapter 2
Jenna
“What did the cops say? Why haven’t they found her yet?” I scratched my forehead. Two weeks was too long for the cops to take. Something wasn’t adding up.
“They found footage of Acadia leaving The Bikini Beach Bar with a guy. They showed us the image, but we didn’t recognize him.” Adalaide furrowed her brow.
“It doesn’t make sense. She had a date that night. They were supposed to go out for dinner and head to a jazz club, not a spring break bar.” Amaline shook her head.
“Wait, do you know the guy she went out with?” Kat asked.
“No, but her normal guys don’t look like they’re wearing a thousand dollar suit and a five thousand dollar watch.” Amaline was about to say something else when I interrupted.
“Excuse me, how do you know he was dressed in such expensive clothes? Who was she dating? Why was she with the guy in the video? Doesn’t she normally date poor guys who still live in their mother’s attic?” I knew the past few guys she’d dated still lived at home with their mom. Or at least that was her type before they’d spent a year in New York.
“Could this be a guy from New York?” I wondered a
loud.
“No, I knew all of the guys she dated in New York. She would never have anything to do with anyone from New York again. Not after that record company tried to split us up. I mean, who do they think we are? Gator hunters from the bayou?” Amaline laughed.
The three of them formed their own punk rock band and had gone to New York for a record contract. Sadly, once they got there, the agency tried to split them up. They came home instead.
“Yeah, those guys would turn on their family for a TV show deal, in a heartbeat. But not us. We won’t leave anyone behind.” Adalaide got up to refill her tea.
“Um, didn’t you used to date a gator-hunter from the bayou, Adalaide?” Kat looked at Adalaide and tried to hold back her smile.
“Yes, exactly!” She threw her hands in the air and turned around. “I dated a guy who dumped me the second he got a cable TV deal to hunt gators. Mike even dumped his partner. The network wanted him partnered with someone else, so he agreed. They might leave people behind, but we don’t.”
“Ah. Alright, we’ve gotten off track. Tell me more about this mysterious guy. Was he the one she was supposed to have dinner with?” Sam brought us all back to the current topic, which was finding Acadia, not dealing with Adalaide’s ex-boyfriend issues.
“We don’t know. Acadia hadn’t introduced us yet. They had gone out only a couple of times. She wanted to wait until she knew if she liked him or not. Which is why I don’t agree with the cops.” Amaline got up and paced the small space of our back room.
“They actually said she left with him of her own free will. The cops think she left us! Can you believe it? She would never leave us. Even if she wanted to go off with a guy, she would tell us, and we’d be happy for her.” Amaline huffed as she plopped back down on the chair.
“Does this mean they aren’t looking for her?” Indie asked with wide eyes.
“Yup. They said she’s not missing. She probably left with the rich guy and didn’t want to look back.” A tear made its way down Adalaide’s cheek.
“Oh, Adalaide. I know she wouldn’t leave you without at least saying something. Honestly, I don’t think she would have left at all. She would have wanted you to be with her, even if he did promise to jet her away to Paris or something. Acadia would never leave you willingly. Something else is going on here.” Kat went to Adalaide and hugged her.
“What about the CCTV cameras all over the place? Were the cops able to track their movement? What if she did leave the bar willingly, but he kidnapped her once they were outside?” It was sounding more like a kidnapping and less like something paranormal, or at least I hoped it was a kidnapping. If she was taken by a vampire, she might not be alive.
“The CCTV cameras don’t cover the entire city. Mostly just the tourist areas. The cops did track them as they headed north on I-10, but they got off somewhere around the New Orleans Country Club. They couldn’t find them again. So, the working theory is she is still in town but living with the guy.” Adalaide ran her hand through her hair.
“Have you searched the area around the country club?” I doubted it would be that easy, but we had to start somewhere.
“Yes, and so far nothing. The guy drove a black Cadillac. It appeared to be fairly new. The cops said it was a 2016 model. We didn’t see anything like it in the area. We have been systematically driving the area and marking off streets on a map as we searched.” Amaline pulled a map out of her purse.
It was a regular city map. The kind most tourists would buy at a gas station. However, this one was used. I mean seriously used. All of the corners were frayed, and it no longer folded on the original folds. They had definitely been working hard the past two weeks.
“See here.” Amaline pointed to the area on the map they searched. It was marked with two different highlighter colors.
“What do the different colors mean?” I walked closer to get a better look.
“We used yellow when we drove down a street. Then moved to pink when we walked a street. On the streets we walked, we were able to ask people about the car and if they knew of a guy who matched the mystery man’s description.” Adalaide pointed to the two colors on the map.
“Do you have a picture? It might help locate him faster.” Kat came closer and now we were all crammed around the unfolded map.
“The cops wouldn’t give us a copy, but they showed him to us. He looks about 27 or 28 with long, wavy brown hair. He’s a good looking guy with an easy smile. I can see why she would be attracted to him, but he’s not her normal kinda guy.” Amaline scratched her cheek and furrowed her brow.
“How so? Besides the appearance of being rich, what about him isn’t right?” Kat went back to her seat.
“He’s too pretty. Acadia would never go for a metro type of guy. She loves guys with scraggly beards or goatees. The kind of guy who has messy hair, like he just got out of bed, but still looks hot. A manly man. Not a guy who looks like he gets mani’s and pedi’s.” Adalaide smirked.
“Okay, so we’re probably looking for a guy with money, or least someone who wants to appear as though he has money. He’s also very pretty, and has excellent hygiene?” I tried not to laugh.
It wasn’t a funny situation but describing a guy like this with Acadia is weird. Most of her exes were the tattoo and piercing kind of guys. Or least that was what she was into before heading to New York. I had only seen her once since they returned.
“Yeah, it’s odd. Even in New York, she didn’t go for the suit and tie kinda guy. She has always liked manly men. I’m not sure what she was doing with that guy.” Adalaide shook her head.
“Maybe that’s why she didn’t want to introduce him to you? Could she have been afraid you wouldn’t like him?” Sam stood up and began pacing the floor, rubbing her neck. She furrowed her brow and bit the side of her lip as she paced the small space around us.
“Could she actually be dating this guy? Maybe she thought you wouldn’t like him? Although, the lack of phone calls or note is worrisome. She wouldn’t put you through something like this on purpose, even if she did fall for a pretty boy.” Sam stopped and stared at our group.
“There’s something else going on here. Jenna, can you call Rico and ask him for some advice? He knows this town better than the cops. If anyone could find her, it would be him or his pa…I mean crew.” Sam looked at me and squinted.
“Sure, I’ll give him a call. Rico’s a new friend of ours who runs an investigative services company here in town. When the cops can’t get something done, Rico and his team do.” I stood up and headed upstairs to my cell phone, so I could call him without the sisters hearing our conversation.
***
“Rico, hey. It’s Jenna.”
“I have caller ID, Jenna. Besides, I would know your voice anywhere. How are you?”
“I’m good, but I have a favor to ask.” I really hoped he could at least point us in the right direction.
“Anything for you.”
The girls all said that Rico had a thing for me, but I think we just bonded when he saved me from a vampire a few weeks ago. If he liked me, wouldn’t he have asked me out by now? Not that I wanted him to. He was like the big brother I always wanted.
“A good friend of mine has gone missing and the cops aren’t interested in finding her. They think she ran off with some rich guy. She wouldn’t do that. She’s a triplet. If she was going to run away with a guy, she would have told her sisters so they wouldn’t worry. I’m betting he kidnapped her after their date. Some things just aren’t adding up.” I sighed and sagged against the kitchen counter.
“What makes you think she was kidnapped?”
“There was a video of Acadia leaving The Bikini Beach Bar with a rich guy who was totally not her type. They headed north but don’t appear to have left town. If she was still in town, she would have called her sisters, at the very least. This group of girls is super tight. No way would she do what the cops say.” I still couldn’t believe Acadia hadn’t reached out to her sisters. Somethi
ng had to be off.
“The Bikini Beach Bar? When?” Rico sounded a bit more interested now.
“About two weeks ago. Do you know something?”
“Do you have a copy of the video?” I could hear clothes rustling in the background. It sounded as if he was pulling on his jacket.
“No, the cops wouldn’t give the sisters a copy. They did show them the tape to see if they recognized the guy. What’s going on? You sound like you’re interested all of a sudden. Was it the bar? Have women been disappearing from there lately?” I was hoping he knew something solid and could help us out.
“Actually, yes. Pretty good deductions, Watson.” Rico laughed, and I heard a door slam over the phone.
“Are you coming over?”
“First, I’m heading to the station. They’ll give me a copy of the tape if they think I’m involved in the search. Do you want to hire me?” He was expensive! His company was the equivalent of the paranormal Blackwater Agency.
“Rico, I don’t think I can afford you. Aren’t you guys like the Blackwater of private investigators? We have a very high mortgage, so while it might look like we have lots of money, we don’t.” This wasn’t going too well.
“I think we can come to some sort of deal. If you can afford me, will you hire me?” Rico’s voice was sultry and sexy. What was he going to want in exchange?
“Yes. If I can afford you, I would totally hire you.” I didn’t care what he wanted, as long he helped us to find Acadia, it would be worth it. Shoot, I’d marry the guy and give him pups if that’s what it took to get Acadia back safe and sound.
“Alright. Keep the sisters there with you until I come by. What’s their names?” Now he sounded all business. Just like Rico to go from flirty, sexy guy to business man at the drop of a hat.
I don’t know what I was thinking. He’ll probably want concert tickets or some of our special potions based on chemistry and science. He isn’t going to want me to be his baby momma. I almost laughed when I realized how silly I had been. However, that would not be good right now.
New Orleans Magic: Urban Fantasy Series (The Voodoo Dolls Book 1) Page 2
