Free Vieux Carré Voodoo by Greg Herren Page B

cell phone as she
waved me to come down the passage and join her in the dark courtyard. She was
standing inside a yellow cone of light being cast from one of the fixtures on
the back staircase—but it was much darker back there than usual. Millie and
Velma liked to keep all the courtyard lights on all night.
    My legs were wobbly. I let the gate slam shut behind me. I
put my hands against the walls on either side of the passageway to help me keep
my balance. When I reached Venus, she was putting her gun back into its holster.
    “Is he—” I asked, afraid to hear her answer.
    “He’s not there,” she said, giving me a look I didn’t like.
“His door is wide open, but there’s no sign of him.” She folded her arms, her
face carved from stone. “Why don’t you start at the beginning? And don’t leave
anything out.”

Chapter Four
    THE MOON
    Unforeseen perils
    Venus finally left just before midnight.
    Frankly, I was beginning to think she would never leave.
She’s a good cop, which means she is very thorough. She’d made me go over my
encounter with Levi so many times I’d begun to feel like I was reciting from a
script. She’d taken lots of notes, her face impassive. Any time I started
speculating, she’d cut me off with a curt “Stick to the facts, Scotty.” Properly
humbled, I’d shut up and wait for her next question. Finally, she closed her
notepad and put it into her jacket pocket.
    “So, what do we do now?” I asked.
    She gave me a look that made me squirm a bit. “We?” she
replied, a faint smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “
We
aren’t
going to do anything. You, on the other hand, are going to play nice with the
police for once.”
    “I’ve always played nice with the police,” I objected. “Name
one time I didn’t cooperate.”
    Her smile broadened. “I don’t have all night.” She stood up
and stretched. “All right. This is what I’m going to do. I’ll get in touch with
the police up in Ohio and see what I can find out about this Marty Gretsch’s
murder, okay? There may be a connection, there may not be.” I started to protest
but she held her hand up for silence. “It’s a starting place, at any rate. But
from all indications, Garrett
wasn’t
tortured before he went off the
balcony. And you only have this Levi’s word about this murder in Ohio.” Her
forehead wrinkled. “I would like to talk to him.”
    “Are you going to put out an APB?”
    Her smile faded a bit. “Don’t use police lingo, Scotty.” She
sighed. “I really can’t do a whole lot until he’s been missing for twenty-four
hours. For all we know, he might be out on Bourbon Street and just left his door
unlocked.”
    “But—”
    She held up her hand again. “If he shows up, call me. I
don’t care what time it is, you call me. Got it?”
    I nodded.
    She glanced at her watch. “All right, I’m heading back to
the station.”
    I walked her out and shut the gate behind her.
    I took a deep breath and started climbing the back stairs. I
thought about knocking on Millie and Velma’s door, but it was late. They hadn’t
responded earlier when we’d knocked, but they might have come back home while
Venus was grilling me. They wouldn’t be happy to be awakened—they never were—and
I was too tired to deal with a pair of angry lesbians.
    All I wanted to do was take a long, hot shower and go to
bed.
You need to call your mother and tell her about Doc,
I lectured
myself.
    I didn’t want to make the call.
    But when I got to my own door, I hesitated. I looked up the
stairs. Venus was a good cop, which meant she never bent the rules. She had
probably just gone up there, made sure he wasn’t there, and that was it. Bound
by rules of admissible evidence, she wouldn’t have searched the place. My word
was not enough probable cause for her to search the place, and if there was no
“in plain sight” evidence that Levi had been taken against his will, her