Bitter Spirits Read Online Free PDF

bay. A splendid view. One of the best in the city. He never grew tired of it, and right now it was a small comfort he needed in order to ground himself after the evening’s unsettling events.
    The hot tea his housekeeper, Greta, had brought up was doing little to take the chill off his bones. He was slowly feeling normal again, but he couldn’t get the taste of Velma’s satanic brew out of his mouth.
    Once he got his hands around the party responsible for what happened tonight, he was going to choke the life out of them or break their neck trying. But he had his work cut out to find the culprit: all they had was the chop mark of the sorcerer who’d issued the spell, scribbled among the arcane symbols on the paper left on the table when he was poisoned.
    Black Star.
    Bo had never heard the name; maybe someone around Chinatown would know it.
    In the meantime, Winter wouldn’t be imbibing any more strange drinks. And there was still the matter of the resident ghost inside his study. “Maybe she can get rid of it, too,” Winter said, but he didn’t really have the ghost at the top of his mind. He was thinking of the way the spirit medium had looked at him in Velma’s bathroom. That look was telling. Maybe she didn’t find his scarred face attractive, but she was interested on some sort of base level. No virgin blush on that curious face of hers. No one had looked at him like that in years. Perhaps he’d been hallucinating under the poison’s dank influence.
    Leaning against the window frame nearby, Bo stuffed his hands in his pockets and said nothing for several moments. “She’s witty.”
    â€œShe’s got a sharp tongue. That’s always trouble.”
    â€œTrouble’s better than demure and boring. And I’ve never seen someone with so many freckles. Kind of exotic, don’t you think? Looks a bit like Louise Brooks.”
    â€œFar better-looking than Brooks.”
    â€œSame big brown eyes,” Bo argued.
    â€œMmm. Bigger, I think. Should probably ask her to come up here.”
    â€œYou mentioned that already. Are you sure you’re all right?”
    Winter felt himself becoming irritated. “Considering what I’ve been through tonight, I think I’m feeling pretty damn good. I won’t pretend to understand what happened to me tonight, but somebody’s screwing with me, and I don’t want to see another damn ghost again if I can help it. Miss Palmer is an expert on spiritual matters, and I want her to come out here and get rid of it. What’s wrong with that?”
    â€œNothing.”
    â€œThat’s right, nothing.”
    Bo gazed out the window. “She should come out here because she’s an expert.”
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œAnd her eyes are bigger than Louise Brooks’s, as well as her breasts.”
    Damn that impudent kid and his smart mouth. But he’d made his point, and now Winter was angry at himself for saying too much, maybe a little embarrassed as well. He also didn’t like Bo noticing her. At all.
    â€œMight take some convincing to get her out here,” Bo said. “Maybe
you
should go call on
her
. Apologize for flaunting your balls in her face and nearly smashing her to death.”
    He hazily remembered her last words to him—
I’d rather be horsewhipped
—and wondered if she’d already had her fill of him. She’d not only seen him naked; she’d seen him weak and sick and delusional. God only knew what she must think of him. His mood blackened.
    â€œI’m sure Miss Palmer—” Bo started.
    â€œEnough!” Winter snapped. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to hear her name again.
You
just concentrate on finding someone in Chinatown who knows the hellish name on that cursed piece of paper.”
    Winter fully expected the matter would be solved. People were always trying to muscle him out of business, and they always