Three Tequilas (Althea Rose 3)

by Tricia O'Malley

  “Was it Cash? Did you have a fight?”

  I caught Trace’s delighted smile.

  “Listen, it’s natural to think someone is upset about their boyfriend,” I hissed at him, and he held up his hands.

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  “I know what you were thinking.”

  “I wasn’t thinking anything.”

  “Yes, you were. Do I look like an idiot?”

  “Children, children,” Beau said, interrupting us. “Why don’t I get some food on? I’m assuming you haven’t eaten yet today. Lord knows that whiskey is going to go straight to your head with no food in your stomach.”

  “That’s fine. Miss Elva’s on her way too.”

  “Don’t say anything until I’m back. I’ll be quick. Promise.” Beau was already disappearing into the kitchen.

  “Honey, I closed the shop and everything. What’s up?” Luna asked, taking a stool next to me. She looked coolly elegant in a light blue linen sheath dress – unwrinkled, of course. It was positively unnatural. Linen was meant to wrinkle, I thought.

  I swear – pour a few shots in me on an empty stomach and I turn positively bitchy.

  I smiled gratefully as Beau returned from the kitchen long enough to slide a basket of chips and salsa at me.

  “Eat,” he ordered.

  I grabbed a chip and crunched down on it, the salty taste distracting me for a moment.

  “Althea?” Luna asked.

  “Our dive client was murdered. We found the body,” Trace said, snagging a chip.

  “Yup. What he said,” I mumbled over a mouthful of chips. Once I’d started eating, I wasn’t able to stop, and I kept cramming chips in my mouth.

  “Whoa, honey, slow down,” Luna said gently, putting her hand on my arm.

  “It was horrible,” I said softly, meeting her eyes.

  “What happened?”

  “No talking until I’m done in the kitchen,” Beau said, poking his head out of the door and yelling at us.

  “That’s fine. Miss Elva’s on the way anyway,” I said, grabbing another chip.

  “Fine, I’ll wait,” Luna said, studying the basket until she found the chip she was looking for. She picked it up and began nibbling delicately on a corner of it. I rolled my eyes.

  “What?”

  “Please, who eats chips like that?”

  “I do,” Luna smiled at me, clearly happy to see that some of my spunk was coming back.

  “Don’t get me started on the linen.” I pointed at her dress.

  “What’s wrong with linen? It’s perfect for this climate.”

  I was saved from answering when a delighted bark met my ears.

  “Hank!” I exclaimed, jumping up from the stool and crouching down on the floor to meet my delighted dog. He raced across the room and jumped on me, licking my face as he dissolved in wiggles of excitement.

  “Something told me he was needed here,” Miss Elva said, trailing behind him in a caftan of deep ocean blue shot with threads of purple. Her hair was wrapped in a floral scarf with blue, red, and yellow accents and she breezed into the restaurant without a care in the world.

  “Good call,” I said, snuggling my face against Hank’s chest. I didn’t care that I was sitting on the floor of the bar. I was still in my swimsuit and cover up anyway.

  “Did I hear Hank?” Beau called from the kitchen.

  “You most certainly did, sweetie pie,” Miss Elva called.

  “I’ll throw a mini burger on for him.”

  I swear Hank’s ears perked up at the word burger.

  “Can we move to a table so Hank can sit on a lower chair?” I asked.

  “Sounds good. I’ll grab us some drinks,” Luna said, moving behind the bar and pulling out a pitcher of iced tea. We both had grown up with Beau and were as at home in his bar as if it were our own.

  Just as we settled ourselves at a long table by the windows overlooking the water, Beau swung out of the kitchen with a tray full of food.

  “It’s all appetizers except for Hank’s burger – I wanted to be quick,” Beau apologized as he set the tray on the table and distributed baskets of food. Hank sat, alert in his chair, his eyes following every basket that was delivered.

  “Don’t think I forgot you, Hank buddy,” Beau said, sliding a basket in front of Hank. A small burger, no larger than a half dollar, and five French fries were presented as though he were a king. I laughed as Hank vibrated in his seat, looking to me for permission and then back at the basket of food.

  “Go ahead,” I told Hank, and he jumped in delight, placing his paws on the edge of the table and diving nose-first into the basket. His little body wiggled in pleasure – like all his Christmases had come at once.

  “Eat,” Beau instructed, pointing to the basket of mozzarella sticks in front of me. He knew me well. Melted cheese was the way to my heart.

  The table fell silent as we dug into our food, and I began to feel marginally better as my stomach filled.

  “Well, child, go ahead. Who died?” Miss Elva asked breezily, waving a French fry in the air. Hank followed its every move carefully.

  “You’re kidding, but someone really did,” I said to Miss Elva, and she shook her head at me.

  “I wasn’t kidding. But I want to hear the story.”

  I gestured to Trace. “Go ahead.”

  I continued to eat as Trace filled everyone in on our morning. Sneaking Hank a French fry, I ran my hand down his back, happy that Miss Elva had decided to bring him along.

  “Did I not tell you El Serpiente was bad news?” Miss Elva asked.

  Luna leveled a look at me.

  “You told Miss Elva about this and not me?”

  “It wasn’t like that… I saw her on the way home yesterday is all,” I said sheepishly, shrugging my shoulder at Luna’s glare.

  “And yet, here we are today with a dead body and I’m the last to know what’s going on,” Luna said, searching through her basket for the perfect French fry.

  “Well, not really; Cash is,” I said, scrunching my nose up. I was going to be in a world of trouble when he found out about this.

  “When does he get back from Miami?” Luna asked.

  “This afternoon.”

  “Perfect. Let’s double date tonight,” Luna said with a smile. She was currently dating a delightfully delicious urgent-care doctor who seemed to have no issues with Luna’s otherworldly powers. Unlike my man.

  Okay, maybe that wasn’t fair. Cash had always been understanding of what I did for a living. He just took issue with the fact that I often found myself in dangerous situations.

  “I’m not certain we need to drag Mathias into all this, either. I’m thinking the fewer people who know about it, the better. It’s obvious that whoever is after this stone is willing to kill for it.”

  “I don’t get it though.” Miss Elva leaned back and took a sip of her tea. “Why kill the professor now? Why not wait until he’s recovered the stone, then steal it from him and kill him then? Wouldn’t that make more sense?”

  It was a good question. We sat in silence for a moment as we contemplated it.

  “Maybe they just wanted his maps?” I asked, dipping another fry in ketchup.

  “But still. If they were willing to kill – why not just let someone else do the hard work and then take the bounty? Doesn’t make all that much sense,” Trace said.

  “Unless there was something in the maps they needed or wanted,” Miss Elva mused.

  “I don’t like the sound of this at all,” Luna said.

  “Well, I think we need to look at the calling card, so to speak. Why was an Aztec snake drawn on the wall? I think that’s going to lead us to more answers. Are there, like, Aztec gangs or something?” I snorted. I couldn’t help it. It was kind of a ridiculous thought – that long-lost Aztec gang members were walking around offing people.

  “Well, it’s actually not that far out of the picture. There’s probably somewhere around a million people who still
speak Nahautl, what’s thought to have been the primary Aztec language,” Miss Elva pointed out, and I looked at her in surprise. Why was I always caught off guard by the knowledge that came out of this woman?

  “Well, then,” I said, slightly miffed.

  “Yeah, didn’t you pay attention in history class? Just because the Aztec empire fell doesn’t mean there aren’t descendants,” Trace pointed out.

  “Well, excuuuuuse me. I must’ve missed that particular chapter in the book,” I said, giving Trace the stink eye.

  “It’s okay, sweets. It’s not easy to remember another country’s history. I certainly don’t recall it all,” Luna said soothingly, and I shot her a smile. “But, what Miss Elva is saying rings true. There very well could be someone with links to the Aztec empire who is after this… godstone.”

  “Godstone. I suppose that’s one way to describe it,” I said.

  “What do we know about El Serpiente again?” Luna asked, holding up her hand to tick off points on her fingers. “It’s an emerald. It’s as large as an ostrich egg. It’s rumored to have been worn by Quetzalcoatl himself. It was stolen from an ancient temple. It’s presumed to have been used by various rulers in many a ritual throughout the years. Yeah, I’d say it’s a godstone. Can you imagine the amount of power that stone has absorbed over the years? Especially as the Aztecs were known for ritual human sacrifice. You know as well as I do the type of power that death magick brings – and for all we know the stone could’ve absorbed the souls as well.”

  We all paused at that thought.

  “This is bad,” Trace said.

  My phone rang from my purse across the room and I jumped up. Hank hopped down and followed me across the room – my little shadow.

  “Hello?” I answered, not recognizing the number.

  “This is your ADT Security System calling to report a breach.”

  My breath caught in my throat.

  “A breach?”

  “I’ll have to ask you for your security code before we give any more details.”

  I rattled off my security code and waited, turning to look at the table, where the others had gone quiet.

  “Thank you. Yes, it looks like the back sliding door has been compromised. Are you at home at the moment?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Well, I can confirm a breach of the back door. The police have been notified and are on the way. Will you meet them there?”

  “Yes, I will. Thank you.”

  I turned to look at the table.

  “They found me already. There’s been a break-in at the house.” I looked at Miss Elva. “Unless you forgot to lock the back door?”

  “Child, I didn’t even use the back door. I came in the front and grabbed Hank. Something told me to bring him with me; now I’m glad I did.”

  My heart skipped a beat and I immediately knelt to the floor and wrapped my arms around Hank. If he had been home…

  I shook my head clear of any bad thoughts.

  “I have to meet the police there.”

  “We’ll all go. Take the Jeep,” Trace said.

  That lump the size of Texas was back in my throat, and I could only nod.

  Chapter Eight

  “So we meet again,” Chief Thomas said from where he stood on my front porch.

  “We’ve really got to stop meeting like this,” I replied, my joke falling flat as Chief Thomas just shook his head at me.

  “I see you’ve brought the team,” Chief Thomas said as he gestured to my friends piled in the Jeep.

  “Yeah, we’re kind of like the Scooby Doo gang,” I said, cracking another joke, then shook my head at myself and held up a hand to stop Chief Thomas from replying. “I’m sorry. I’m upset about this morning and now hearing this – well, I tend to make bad jokes when I’m nervous.”

  “I can tell you it’s not that bad, though I’m surprised they were able to shatter your sliding glass door.”

  “Shatter?” My voice rose on the last note.

  “It doesn’t look like they got too far before the alarm sounded, though.”

  I walked to the front door and pulled my key out, unlocking the door and pushing it open. Turning, I yelled to Miss Elva, “Keep Hank in the car. There’s broken glass everywhere.”

  Chief Thomas had been right when he said they’d shattered the back door. It looked like a bomb had gone off – shards of glass were strewn across my whole first floor.

  “I’m so confused. Aren’t those doors supposed to be shatterproof? Don’t they just sort of spiderweb crack? You know?” I asked Chief Thomas, shaking my head in bewilderment. I’d chosen those doors specifically for their safety rating.

  “That’s what I’m saying. It’s almost like they used a battering ram.” Chief Thomas shook his head, a concerned look on his face.

  “A battering ram? Lovely,” I said, taking a step into the house and then turning to look at the Chief. “Am I allowed in here?”

  “Yes, just don’t touch anything.”

  A police officer was taking photos of my door – well, what was left of it – and the surrounding damage. My gaze raced over my first floor – one large, wide open room with conversation nooks – and I blew out a sigh of relief when I saw that much of my art and collectibles had been left untouched.

  “Apparently a neighbor heard the glass shatter and called at the same time we got the ADT call,” Chief Thomas said, coming to stand next to me. “Which is why, I’m assuming, not much was damaged.”

  “What kind of burglar is willing to make that much noise mid-day?” Luna said from behind me, stepping inside to wrap her arm around my waist. I leaned into her for a moment, her question causing fear to knot in my gut.

  “Luna,” Chief Thomas nodded his hello at her.

  “Someone who has nothing to fear,” I murmured and Chief Thomas raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Know someone like that?”

  “I can only assume it’s the same person from this morning,” I said, walking across the room to look see if anything had been stolen.

  “You’ll want to get a door repairman in here asap. Especially as we don’t know who did it. Your safety is compromised,” Chief Thomas said.

  “On it,” Luna said, pulling out her cellphone and striding towards the front room. Say what you will about Luna’s perfect wardrobe and delicate build – she’s a bulldog in crisis situations.

  “Can I clean up the glass? Also, if I can’t get someone in here to fix the door, I suppose I’ll have to pack up my valuables,” I murmured, surprised to feel tears fill my eyes. It’s a violation to have your personal space broken into, and my usual cocky armor suddenly felt like it had a chink in it.

  “Miss Elva said to let you know she’s going to set up a protection spell,” a voice whispered in my ear and I jumped, glaring over my shoulder at the spot where Rafe, Miss Elva’s pirate ghost, hovered.

  “What’s wrong?” Chief Thomas asked; he couldn’t see Rafe.

  “Nothing. A fly buzzed by my ear,” I said quickly, moving to the counter to rip a paper towel off the roll and dab at my eyes.

  “A fly! As if. The most glorious pirate to ever sail the seven seas, more like it!” Rafe shouted, posing dramatically, and it took all my willpower not to snort.

  “Door guys will be here in an hour with three different sizes of doors,” Luna said, sizing up my doorframe. “That is a fairly standard-size sliding door, right?”

  “Yes, it is. Thank you,” I smiled at Luna gratefully.

  “Boss, take a look at this,” a cop called from the back yard, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Luna and I immediately followed Chief Thomas outside, tiptoeing gingerly over the glass and through the large hole in the door.

  “My fence!” I exclaimed.

  “Why didn’t you say something about this right away?” Chief Thomas asked the other officer.

  “I dunno. I just thought it was some of her whackadoodle art and psychic crap. But I remembered you mentioning somethi
ng like this from the murder this morning…” the man trailed off as his eyes landed on us.

  Luna and I made identical pictures, hands on hips, heads tilted as we looked at the officer in disbelief.

  “Whackadoodle?” Luna demanded.

  “Psychic crap?” I asked.

  “Errrm, uh…” The cop scratched his head and looked at Chief Thomas helplessly.

  “Jim, why don’t you head back to the station and get those photos loaded on the computer, then get a file started,” Chief Thomas said kindly, and the man hightailed it around the corner of my house.

  “Nice guy,” Luna snapped, and Chief Thomas smiled at her.

  “Sorry about him. Jim’s a fairly small-minded guy. Good at his job though.”

  “Well, this is certainly none of my whackadoodle art, that’s for sure,” I said, striding across the lawn to my privacy fence. I’d painted it a deep maroon when I’d moved in and I loved it. But now, white spray paint marred the wood – the drawing an almost exact replica of the one we’d seen on the wall in the motel this morning.

  “What the hell are they doing coming after me? I don’t even know anything,” I griped.

  “Who is ‘they’?” Luna asked.

  “I don’t know. Clearly the same person or group that killed the professor this morning. And now they think I know something and I don’t.”

  I whirled around and shouted over the fence. “Hear that? I don’t know anything! I don’t have your information!”

  “Nobody’s there,” Rafe said helpfully, sitting on top of the fence and picking at his teeth.

  “Bite me, Rafe,” I seethed, and Chief Thomas looked at me in confusion.

  “Chief, do you have any leads?” Luna jumped in smoothly, sending me a look.

  “Not so far. We’ve barely had time to gather evidence before this happened. In fact, right now our leads are Althea and Trace.” Chief Thomas looked at me. “Don’t take any sudden trips, okay? I’ll need you down at the station later today for your statement.”

  “I’ll be there. I’d like to wait for the door guys.”

  Chief Thomas waved at me as he went around the house. “Get secured up here. I’ll arrange for an extra officer to patrol your neighborhood for a while.”