Page 29 of Dirty Valentine
The sound of the side door opening interrupted us, and we both turned to see Sheldon shuffling in.
“Good Lord, Sheldon,” Emmy Lu said.“What happened to you?”
Even on a good day, Sheldon was one of those people who never quite looked put together.Something was always out of alignment or a little bit wrinkled.But today he looked like a disaster.He was disheveled—his shirt wrinkled and stained, his hair sticking up at odd angles, his glasses crooked on his pale face.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.“I…lost track of time.I need coffee.”
I caught a whiff of something strange clinging to his clothes—woodsmoke and something herbal that made my nose wrinkle.“What’s that smell?”
He sniffed the sleeve of his shirt.“Must be the bonfire.”
Emmy Lu crossed her arms.“I thought you were allergic to woodsmoke.”
“I think it’s just an intolerance,” he said.“Did you know smoke from certain trees like the eucalyptus or cedar tree can cause a person to temporarily sing with natural vibrato?”
“I’ll remember that next time I feel like bursting into song out on the campground,” I said.
Sheldon sank onto the barstool next to me and Emmy Lu put a cup of coffee in front of both of us.“I think Leena might be out of my league.She’s actually a really nice girl, but she’s pretty intense.And she’s got a good sense of humor, but sometimes she gets this look in her eyes that scares me.Ever since that guy got murdered she’s gone kind of cuckoo.I thought it might be PMS and I told her so, but she threw a butter knife at my head so I’m guessing I was off the mark there.”
“A classic sign,” Emmy Lu said.“My ex-husband had the bad fortune to leave me when I had PMS and I tried to back over him with my car.I would have got him too except he hid behind a dumpster.”
I’d known Emmy Lu’s ex-husband and if there was anyone who deserved to be backed over it was him.
“Why’s she so interested in the murder?”I asked.
Sheldon shrugged.“I don’t know.But she’s totally obsessed with Bridget Ashworth.She believes in reincarnation and stuff and she says she knew Bridget in a past life and they were good friends.”
“You believe her?”Emmy Lu asked, brow arched.
“I’m Episcopalian,” he said, as if that explained everything.
“So how’d you end up at a bonfire?”I asked.
“Leena said Bridget has been trying to communicate with her, but she’s not very good at communing with the dead yet.So we went to see Madame Evangeline.”
“A psychic?”Emmy Lu asked.
“Something like that,” Sheldon said.“She lives in this old house out by the river.Leena said she could communicate with spirits so we drove out to see her.”
My grip tightened around my coffee cup.“And this woman claimed she could channel Bridget’s spirit?”
“Yeah, Leena says she’s been taking lessons from her.”
“Private necromancy lessons,” Emmy Lu said, clucking her tongue.“Can you imagine?The only lessons I ever had growing up were for piano.”
“Do you remember where her house was?”I asked.
“It’s all kind of blurred,” Sheldon said.“Leena was smoking, and it made my brain fuzzy.She said it’s for medicinal purposes.”
“Mmhmm,” I said.“Then what did you do?”
“We got to Madame Evangeline’s cabin and there was already this big bonfire laid out next to the river.Then she made me sit down on a pillow, and she took off my glasses and blindfolded me.Then she lit the bonfire and things got really weird.The fire was hot for just a couple of minutes and then things got really cold.She started talking in this low voice and then I felt like I was floating.Like a dream.”
“Sounds like a nightmare to me,” Emmy Lu said.“I hate being blindfolded.
“What did she say?”
Sheldon pushed his glasses up his nose.“She said justice had been denied for too long.That the first stone had been cast but more blood needed to be spilled to balance the scales.She said there are families with bad blood.I don’t remember all the names she said.Blackwood I think.Hill or Mill.Do you know what that means?”
