Vieux Carré Detective
Page 20
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Author Answers
Over the years, my readers have engaged with me, and I’m always happy to hear from you. I’ve been asked. Is that true? Did that happen? What’s the address of the restaurant you wrote about in New Orleans? Four of my books are based in New Orleans and there are more to come.
I’m happy to share with my readers what encouraged me to write about a street, a building, a restaurant, or a person. There are exciting facts about why these places or people get into my books. It might encourage you to visit the beautiful state of Louisiana, especially New Orleans, the French Quarter and the Garden District, Gonzales, Baton Rouge, Mandeville, and St. Francisville. I was born and raised in New Orleans and moved after fifty-eight years to Baton Rouge because of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Chapter 4: Pirate Alley. French Quarter, New Orleans. Why it was called Pirate Alley is left to conjecture, but there are facts to consider. Looking down the alley, you will notice that the St. Louis Cathedral is on one side. On the other is the Cabildo (the Spanish governor’s mansion), and directly behind the Cabildo was the Spanish dungeon. Some find it hard to believe that pirates would hang out between a dungeon and a church. Its official name was Orleans Alley until the mid-1960s when the city changed it to Pirate Alley. This was to reflect its name of common usage and to make it easier for tourists to find.
Chapter 4: Royal Street. It is one of the original streets of New Orleans, dating from the early eighteenth century. It is known today for its antique shops, art galleries, and hotels. It’s also famous for restaurants, art galleries, and shopping.
Chapter 4: Shotgun house. This building is a narrow, domestic residence, usually no more than about twelve feet wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house. It was the most popular style of home in the Southern United States after the end of the American Civil War
Chapter 7: Sazerac cocktail. The Sazerac cocktail was reportedly invented in the mid-1800s at the Sazerac Coffee House in New Orleans. The cocktail is now made at most French Quarter bars. My favorite is Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street.
Chapter 7: Hotel Monteleone Carousel Bar & Lounge. 214 Royal Street, New Orleans. This classic haunt has a circular bar that revolves like a carousel. The bar overlooks Royal Street in the heart of the French Quarter.
Chapter 7: Warehouse District. The trendy Warehouse District has converted brick warehouses housing innovative restaurants, sleek coffee shops, eclectic boutiques, and BBQ joints. Warplanes hang in a soaring pavilion at the renowned National WWII Museum, while the Ogden Museum of Southern Art shows regional works. Julia Street is lined with modern art galleries, and vendors hawk local produce and home-baked treats at Crescent City Farmers Market.
Chapter 17: Morning Call. 56 Dreyfous Drive, New Orleans. Open 24/7, this cash-only coffee shop with local roots known for chicory coffee and beignets. It’s a must-visit location, when you’re in New Orleans, near City Park.
Chapter 20: Venezia Restaurant. 134 N. Carrollton Avenue, New Orleans. Home of the business since 1957 that serves Italian dishes and handmade pizza, a place I remember since I was a teenager.
Chapter 21: Jackson Square. This historic park in the French Quarter of New Orleans was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960, for its central role in the city’s history. It was the site where, in 1803, Louisiana was made US territory under the Louisiana Purchase.
Chapter 22: Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home. 5100 Pontchartrain Boulevard, New Orleans. When Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home opened in 1979, it was the first funeral home in New Orleans to be built on the grounds of a cemetery. Famous New Orleans residents who have been laid to rest here are Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints, in 2017, and Al Copeland, founder of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and its Famous Fried Chicken, in 2008.
Chapter 24: New Orleans Public Library. The main library, in the Central Business District, opened in December 1958. The building, encompassing three main floors and two sub-basements, is the library’s flagship location, providing the system’s most extensive collection of popular and research sources.
Chapter 25: Audi S5. This is a favorite—as a general manager for an Audi dealership for ten years, it became my vehicle brand of choice.
Chapter 33: St. Charles Avenue colleges. The most famous colleges in New Orleans on St. Charles Avenue are Tulane University and Loyola University.
Enjoy the first chapter of the Voodoo Lucy series and get the book FREE.
Voodoo Lucy Series
Book 1
Tupelo Gypsy
Vito Zuppardo
Chapter One
The French Quarter never slept. Jazz music wafted out of clubs until the first sign of morning, to be replaced by the much less agreeable clanks and screeches of a garbage truck picking up trash in the alleyway that separated Bourbon and Royal. One side of the alley was lined with trash cans from some of the hottest nightclubs on Bourbon Street, the other with mostly boxes from the art galleries that faced Royal Street. With a hydraulic whine, the truck crushed cans, bottles, and boxes into its steel belly.
The sanitation truck was a block away, and that was the sound she was waiting for. “Anything you’d like to say?” Lucy asked. Her real name was Lucinda Jones, but some called her Lucia, and most recently, she was known as Voodoo Lucy to street punks like Picklehead, who seemed to struggle to process her question. She had several names. The one she used at any moment depended on what con she was running.
Twisting around on a flat cart used to move heavy furniture, Picklehead tugged at his head, which was tightly held by a donkey harness attached to the handles of the steel cart.
“Well?” she asked, squeezing his neck with her foot.
“Yeah, I’ve got something to say. You’re a dead bitch.”
Lucy smiled at Picklehead. His eyes were blinking rapidly, and he had a stone gray look on his face. He must be coming down from his big rush, something he’d enjoyed only a short time ago.
“Didn’t that little hit of coke take the edge off?”
With eyes to kill, Picklehead asked, “What do you want?”
“You can’t take advantage of women without consequence.”
Judging by the increasingly loud clatter of trash cans, the garbage truck was one building away. Standing in front of the cart staring at Picklehead, Lucy wondered what made people do such horrible things. The truck’s brakes squealed, as it stopped in the alley near the furniture shop’s door. Shortly after, as she expected, the truck’s hydraulics kicked in, the crusher’s noise deafening.
Lucy pulled a syringe from her pocket, checked for an air bubble, and plunged it into his arm. That’s when Picklehead let out a scream and then another, only to be drowned out by the sound of the truck’s hydraulics, which lasted for twenty seconds. By the time the clatter stopped, so had Picklehead’s heart.
The sound of the truck receded, as it rumbled down to the next block. Her heart beating fast, Lucy eyeballed the alleyway, then pushed the cart carrying Picklehead out to it. Flipping his body to the ground, she propped him against a building. Working quickly, she placed Picklehead’s thumb on the syringe, with the needle pushed into his arm. His hand dropped to the ground, the needle dangling from his skin, as if Picklehead had squeezed every last ounce of juice from the syringe.
The furniture cart cleaned of fingerprints and rolled back into place as if it had never moved, Voodoo Lucy walked through the building and out the front door to Royal Street. She crossed the street and took her usual seat at Café Beignet. Now it was a waiting game—to see how long it would take for someone to discover what appeared to be another junkie overdosed in an alley.
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Author’s Note
I love to write, and I like to hear from my readers. If you enjoyed this book or any of my others, send me an e
mail, and I will respond. vito@vitozuppardobooks.com Thank you!
About the Author
Vito Zuppardo retired in 2003 after twenty-five years in the casino business, operating high-limit gaming customers in various casinos around the world.
Vito wrote in 1986, collecting pieces of information from each trip to Las Vegas, Bahamas, Monte Carlo, and the other many casinos he represented. His primary job was keeping his clients happy, which was a full-time job while they were vacationing at luxury casino resorts.