Dead Girls Are Easy

by Terri Garey

  Granny Julep stood alone, the flames from the fire pit making her face glisten with moisture. She looked furious, angry in a way I’d never seen. She glanced at me from the corner of her eye, and my heart began to pound, the sluggishness that gripped it earlier overcome by pure, primal fear. For a moment I couldn’t breathe, as though my chest were squeezed in a vise.

  I’m not sure what would’ve happened next. What did happen is that Granny Julep’s face contorted into an expression of agony. She stumbled, clutched at her chest with a cry of pain, and crumpled to the ground like a wilted flower. Her cotton headdress flew off as she hit the ground, leaving her crown of braids dragging in the dust.

  The drums stopped.

  Albert gave a shout and was at her side in an instant. Just as quickly, whatever hold she’d had over me was gone, and so was the pressure in my chest. My body was my own again, and I dragged in a deep breath, feeling like it was the first oxygen I’d had in hours.

  I scrambled to my feet, hearing uneasy murmurs all around. The people who’d been ignoring me as if I were invisible now backed away from me as if I was contagious. Many shot me dirty looks, muttering behind their hands.

  My knees were shaking. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t leave an old woman lying in the dirt. Besides, where would I go? Albert had the car keys and we were in the middle of nowhere.

  I went to Albert’s side and saw that Granny’s eyes were open. Her lips were moving. She was alive, but her mahogany skin was an ashy gray color.

  “She needs an ambulance!” My throat was so dry I could barely get the words out. It didn’t matter…the people around looked at me as if I spoke another language.

  “Julep Joan Johnson, don’t you go nowhere without me.” Albert’s words were fierce but his hands were tender, holding the old woman’s head from the ground. He had eyes for no one but her.

  There wasn’t gonna be any ambulance, that much was obvious. And I wanted out of there. “Let’s get her in the car,” I dared to snap at the nearest guy, a younger man wearing a ball cap. “She needs a doctor.”

  Surprisingly enough, three guys stepped from the crowd and did as I said. The first man approached Granny and Albert, and when Albert gave him a warning glare, the man touched his fingers respectfully to the bill of his cap. Then he bent and eased himself into Albert’s place. Another man slid his arms beneath Granny’s knees, careful to preserve her modesty by scooping up her dress. The third man went ahead of us and opened the car doors, helping to ease the old woman into the backseat.

  A few seconds later we were pulling out of the parking lot of Big Daddy’s Bar-B-Q, Albert driving like a bat out of hell. I was in the back with Granny, cradling her head in my lap.

  “I’m sorry,” she rasped, eyes closed. Her face looked sunken, like someone who was already dead. “I had to do it.”

  I blinked back tears, but I didn’t know if they were from rage or sorrow. It was too hard to tell.

  “I needed your strength to do what I had to do. You was never in any danger,” she murmured.

  I swallowed hard and took the high road, not wanting the last words an old woman heard to be profane ones.

  “It’s okay, Granny Julep,” I murmured, brushing a bit of dirt from her forehead. “It’s okay.”

  “Now I know,” she whispered. “Now I know.” Her hands were veined and gnarled, laying limp against her chest. “My Caprice was a good girl. They’s someone else got her, name of Felicia.” In a voice so faint I could barely hear it, she said, “I done told her not to mess around with them Sect Rouge.”

  I had no idea what she was talking about, and was too shaken to care.

  She was quiet for a little while. We rocked along the back roads in silence, leaving a cloud of red clay dust to mark our speed. If it weren’t for the even rise and fall of her scrawny chest, I’d have thought she was gone, and I was panicky at the thought that she’d die in my arms before we could reach help.

  “It’s up to you now, child,” Granny Julep murmured. “You gonna have to do it.”

  “Leave be, woman.” Albert’s voice came from the front, gruff with emotion. “You done give enough of yourself to help Caprice. Hush up.” The old man kept glancing in the rearview mirror as he drove. He’d angled it down at Granny Julep. I just hoped the battered old Lincoln could keep it together until we reached the highway.

  Granny ignored him, I’m sure not for the first time. Her eyes were open but she was staring blindly at the roof of the car.

  “Chains, child. You got to bind her with chains.”

  Surely the old woman was delirious.

  “You the only one who can do it.”

  I had a hugely inappropriate urge to laugh, and then wondered if maybe I was the one who was delirious. The situation was surreal enough to be a dream, wasn’t it?

  But since one didn’t tell a dying old woman that she was crazy, I said, “Shh, Granny Julep. Save your strength.” She weighed almost nothing against my thighs. The back of her skull was cradled in my palm.

  “I’m better now,” she murmured. “The pain’s gone.” Her eyes fluttered shut. “Just tired.”

  I knew the feeling, and I hadn’t forgotten what Granny’d tried to do to me.

  “Guess you didn’t count on me having a bad heart when you tried to steal my strength,” I muttered, knowing I shouldn’t.

  Granny Julep smiled, eyes still closed.

  “No. I counted on a good one.”

  “Which hospital was she taken to?”

  Joe had his arm around me, and while I appreciated the snuggling, I was better now. I buried my nose against his chest anyway, breathing in man, medicine, and hand soap.

  “Grady Memorial.” I’d called Evan, and he’d come to get me, listening to me rage and cry all the way back to Joe’s apartment. He’d doctored me with tea and sympathy until Joe got home from his shift, and now that he was gone, I was all cried out. “We found a walk-in clinic near I–85, and they called an ambulance. It got there quick.”

  “Grady’s got a first-class E.R. I’m sure they’ll take good care of her.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” I didn’t bother to tell him it would do no good. Granny Julep’s light was dimming, and soon it would go out.

  She wouldn’t have been so desperate to use me otherwise. Somehow, I knew that was the truth. But it hurt nonetheless.

  I’d only known the old woman a little over a week. She’d lied to me, tricked me, scared me half to death. I still didn’t know if she’d be going to the “good place” or the “bad place.”

  I should dust her from my hands like cornmeal, I thought, but I couldn’t help but hope that the old woman’s twisted, double-sided spirituality paid off, and she’d be “home with Jesus” in the end.

  “How about I order us a pizza?” Joe was rubbing my back. It felt great.

  “Will there be beer?” I asked.

  “Absolutely. Ice cold.”

  “Mmmmm. You talked me into it.” I let go of him reluctantly. He kissed the top of my head and slid from the couch, then walked toward the kitchen, looking for the phone.

  I’d never noticed before how sexy surgical scrubs could be, particularly from the rear. When the kitchen counter hid my view, I turned my eyes toward the sliding glass doors that led to the balcony. It was twilight now, the sky a mixture of gray and orange.

  I could hear Joe ordering pizza, but my thoughts were on the future. Where would I sleep tomorrow, now that the rest of Granny’s plans for nine-night would never happen? Her efforts to put Caprice to rest were over. Had they been enough?

  Joe came back. “You okay?”

  I gave him a halfhearted smile. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

  “I can’t believe you drove off into the boondocks with that creepy old couple, Nicki. You could’ve been robbed, raped…murdered. You have no idea the kind of things we see in the emergency room.” Joe’s face was grim?the tea and sympathy were obviously over.

  “It was stupid of me, I know. I’m sorry.”


  “I want you to stay with me for the next few days.” He pulled me up from the couch and wound my arms around his neck. I went willingly, leaning my weight against him. “And don’t try any of that ‘tough chick’ routine with me this time…I want you to stay here for a while. We’ll go to your house and pick up a few of your things, and anytime you absolutely have to go back there I’ll go with you…no more running off by yourself.”

  “Who died and made you boss?” I didn’t really mean it, of course. It felt good to know he cared enough to get bossy.

  “Nobody’s dying if I can help it,” he said grimly.

  “That’s why I want you to stay here, with me.”

  “Granny Julep’s dying,” I said thoughtfully. “I should probably talk to her one more time, before it’s too late.”

  “No.”

  Despite the warm fuzzies I got from being held in his arms, I didn’t care to be told what I could or couldn’t do. “No?”

  Joe gave me an exasperated look but didn’t let go of my waist. “She’s a liar, Nicki. She put you at risk today, big-time. God knows what she put in that rum to cause temporary paralysis?things like that are not the kind of stuff you mess around with.” His voice softened. “I’m running tox screens on you tomorrow, by the way.”

  Bossiness could be kind of cute. “I’m only giving in because I want to, Joe,” I said with a smile. “I’ll stay here for a few days, but that’s it.”

  “Uh-huh.” He was unimpressed with my reasoning. “Because you don’t need anybody to protect you, right?”

  “Because sleeping with you beats the hell out of sleeping alone. And I’m not hiding from the world forever?you can’t protect me every minute, and I have a shop to run.”

  “I’ll take what I can get.” Joe reached out and smoothed my hair behind an ear, kissing me to take the sting from his words.

  A sweet kiss, devoid of passion, yet one of the best I’d ever had. I buried my face in his neck and held on, feeling safe for the first time that day.

  “You’re a lot of trouble, Nicki Styx.”

  “I am.”

  “You make me crazy.”

  “I do.”

  I would’ve agreed to anything as long he held me like this, his body warm and strong against mine, his heart thumping steadily against my ear.

  Joe sighed into my hair. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “I can think of several things,” I said, voice muffled against his chest.

  “Later,” he murmured, continuing to hold me close.

  CHAPTER 16

  As usual, whenever something significant happened in my life, I used music to work myself through it.

  Today it was Bob Marley and the Wailers, and the song was “People Get Ready.” By the time Bob and his backup singers got to the “train to Jordan” part, I was bopping and singing all over the store. I opened the front doors and let the music spill out into Little Five Points, knowing it would blend and melt into the crowd just like the incense from Crystalline Blue, the metaphysical shop on the corner.

  Indigo was still closed. I had no idea what would happen to it. Somebody would probably buy it and turn it into a Smoothie Queen or something.

  It didn’t matter. I was done with that dark chapter of my life. Now all I wanted was the upbeat side of the Caribbean experience. No more bad mojo for me.

  Maybe I’d even take a Jamaican cruise.

  “Must you be so cheerful in the mornings?” Evan’s eyes were still a bit puffy with sleep, but I’d never be so cruel as to tell him so. He walked in the front door while I was opening the register.

  “There’s fresh coffee in the back, Mr. Grumpy. Get us both a cup and come help me celebrate.”

  Evan’s eyes opened marginally wider. “What are we celebrating?” The Wailers wailed in the background, and my body moved to the beat even as my mind kept track of the cash I was handling.

  “One week of duppy-free, spirit-free existence,” I said with satisfaction. “No ghosts, no zombies, no boogeymen, no bumps in the night.” I laughed, thinking of Joe, and added a provisional, “No bumps I didn’t ask for, anyway.”

  Evan shook his head, clearly not up to envisioning straight sex before caffeine, and went in the back room. He came back out a few minutes later with two steaming mugs of coffee and a slightly better attitude.

  “So tell me again…you’re all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed because the dearly departed are leaving you alone, or because you’re getting laid regularly? Which is it?”

  I took the mug he offered. It was my favorite, black with red lettering: VENI, VEDI, VISA. I CAME, I SAW, I DID A LITTLE SHOPPING.

  “I’ve reached a milestone, don’t you see? A whole week!” I grinned at him over the rim of my cup. “Maybe I just had some temporary thing switch on inside my brain and now it’s switched off again. No more dead people.”

  “Don’t say that so loudly,” Evan said. Our first customers were browsing the racks already, two middle-aged women in jeans and tie-dye.

  “No whispers, no smells, no strangers asking for favors.” I lowered my voice but went on talking. It was my third cup of coffee this morning; I’d been up since four-thirty. “No lost souls seeking redemption.”

  If I could just get rid of a weird sense of unease, everything would be perfect.

  It was like having a hangnail after an otherwise flawless manicure. You could pick and chew at the problem until you’d ruined the shiny polish, or you could ignore it by drenching yourself in caffeine and reggae music.

  Or something like that.

  “Can we help you ladies with anything?” I stayed behind the counter but made myself available. Most people liked to have their space when they were browsing.

  Evan beamed at them, then settled himself in the catbird seat.

  “So you’re back to normal, then. Thank God.” He crossed his legs and flicked an imaginary speck of dust off his favorite Cavalli jeans. The lime green T-shirt he wore was tight, showing off his upper body. I felt a little guilty when I realized I’d never seen it before. When had Evan gone shopping without me? Just showed how far I’d had my head up my…

  “Have you been working out?”

  Evan’s mood immediately perked up. “Can you tell? Really?” He preened a little, obviously pleased. “Butch has an exercise room set up in the basement. We’ve been using it together pretty regularly.”

  “Oooh.” I gave a mock shudder. “Two handsome, sweaty men giving their muscles a workout. Sounds like heaven to me.”

  “You know it.” Evan winked at me as he swallowed a sip of coffee. “And the showers are to die for.”

  “Excuse me.” One of the tie-dye ladies was holding up a pair of jeans. “Is there a dressing room?”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “I’ll show you.”

  I left Evan in charge of the register while I took care of business. By the time the two women were finished shopping, I’d sold them each a pair of jeans and unloaded some funky Lucite earrings I’d picked up at a garage sale about a month earlier. That was one of the great things about garage sales: one man’s junk was another man’s treasure?particularly if you had an eye for vintage treasure.

  “With hair that red, she shouldn’t be wearing purple tie-dye,” Evan commented absently as soon as the door closed behind the two women. “And a hot oil treatment wouldn’t hurt…did you see that frizz?”

  “I liked the color, though.” I smiled at the cash register, glad the day’s profits had begun, and added, “Nothing a good stylist couldn’t fix. I’d forgotten about those earrings…I think I’ll go rearrange the jewelry in the display case.”

  “Ooh, that reminds me.” Evan popped up from his seat and headed toward the back room. His voice drifted to me as he rounded the counter. “Butch and I were in Buckhead this weekend and we saw a sign for an estate sale. I got some great stuff?you’re gonna love it.” He came back with a box, still talking. “Those rich people sure know how to live. You should’ve seen the size of this house…it w
as gy-normous. We could’ve lived happily ever after in one of their bathrooms.”

  I laughed at the image. “Particularly if the showers are to die for, right?”

  “You know it, devil doll. Now come look at this.”

  Evan opened the box and started laying costume jewelry out on the counter.

  “You’re right…this is great stuff.” I picked up a delicate filigree necklace and admired the workmanship, turning it toward the light so the rhinestones sparkled. “Pure forties glam. I love it.”

  “Check out these cameo cuff links,” Evan said. “I can see them on Butch.”

  I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. While the black and white cuff links were great, their vibe was a little feminine, and so not Butch. “Oh, just admit it. They’d look great on you, not Butch…you’re coveting the merchandise.”

  Evan sighed, eyeing the cuff links again under the light. “They would look great on me, wouldn’t they?”

  “We’ve had this talk before,” I teased. “There’s only so much jewelry a man can own before it just gets downright weird. Back away from the cuff links.”

  With a moue of regret, Evan put them aside and went back to digging in the box. “I know. I can’t help it. Shiny things make me lose my head.” He pulled out a bracelet and held it up for me to see. “Remember this?”

  I did, actually. Vintage Juliana, very collectible. Amethysts and citrines set in japanned lacquer. It was a valuable piece, and looked just like a bracelet I’d had in the fine jewelry case for a while.

  “That can’t be the same one.” I took it and examined it closely. “I sold that bracelet a couple of weeks ago to one of those Red Hat ladies.”

  Evan shrugged. “It was an estate sale, Nicki. Somebody died, and they were clearing out the house. I don’t know if it’s the same bracelet or not, but it sure looks like it. Anyway, it’s a great piece…somebody else will want it.”

  A involuntary shudder rippled through me, as though someone had walked over my grave.

  “I got the whole box for less than a hundred dollars. I could hardly believe it,” Evan said. “I’ll take all this in the back and start cleaning it up. I just wanted you to see it first.”