One Tequila: An Althea Rose Mystery (The Althea Rose Series Book 1) by Tricia O'Malley

Author:Tricia O'Malley [O'Malley, Tricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B0106QTOAO
Publisher: Lovewrite Publishing
Published: 2015-07-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

I hopped on my bike and tore away from the wharf, wanting to leave the sadness and intensity behind me as I struggled to understand what I had just learned on the dock. Keeping my eyes on the ground in front of me, I rushed my bike down the street toward our shop, hoping that Luna was still at work.

“Shit,” I said, and whipped a quick u-turn and raced my bike down another block, sweat beginning to trickle down my back beneath the dive bag on my shoulders. I skidded to a stop in front of a ramshackle house with a wide wrap-around porch.

“Miss Elva!” I yelled, not caring who heard me. “Miss Elva!”

“Shoosh, girl, you gonna get the whole neighborhood running out here,” Miss Elva called from around the side of her house. I got off of my bike and walked over to where she stood behind her chain-link fence, a vine of flowers intertwined amidst the links. A thin sheen of sweat covered Miss Elva's face and she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, the moisture dampening the gardening gloves she wore.

“You were right,” I said stoically, coming to stand against the fence, intertwining my fingers among the links.

“Sure, I could have told you that, child,” Miss Elva scoffed and then took a closer look at my face. “There's death on your face, honeychild. There's death right there that I see. Who was it?”

I told her everything, as I pressed into the fence, tears streaming down my face again as the aftershock of what I had been through hit me.

“It's gonna get worse before it gets better, child,” Miss Elva said, reaching out to smooth my hair back from my face.

“I know it is,” I whispered, “it's one of us.”

“You come back to me after you tell Miss Luna what's what. We'll figure this out together,” Miss Elva promised.

“Thanks, Miss Elva,” I said, and pushed away from the fence, feeling marginally better.

“You wear that gris-gris now, girl,” she called after me and I turned, smiling at her.

“Don't think I won't. I learned the hard way today,” I said.

“Hmpf, that's right you did,” Miss Elva said, shooing me on my way, already focusing back on her garden.

Moments later, I skidded to a stop in front of our shop, only to see that the lights were off. Unsure if Luna was hunkered down inside, I tried the door to find it locked. Sliding my key in, I opened the door and poked my head in.

“Luna? Are you here? It's an emergency!” I called, knowing that she would never ignore those words. Silence greeted me and I eased back out, locking the door after me.

Next stop, Luna's condo, I thought as I eased myself onto the bike and began to pedal towards Luna's side of town, wishing I had eaten more today as my energy was beginning to lag.

Tired, I pulled up to her sleek unit and, not even getting off of my bike, opened my mind to scan her building, looking for her brain signature to see if she was inside.

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