Black Dust Mambo Read Online Free PDF Page B

shrugged one shoulder. “Well, okay, you’re welcome, but I didn’t do it for you.”
    “And now it’s your turn to be nice, Shug,” Belladonna murmured. “Give it a try.”
    “I am being nice.” Kallie swiveled around to face Belladonna. “I wanna take a look at the bed before everyone swoops in and tosses us out. See if there’s anything to indicate who mighta laid this goddamned trick.”
    Belladonna nodded, her curls bobbing. “Okay. And may I point out that we’re dealing with an enemy that wanted Gage more than dead—he wanted Gage erased from existence? That’s a very special kinda hating. It also means we’re in way over our heads.”
    “We need to contact our clan,” Layne said. “This is nomad business. We’ll deal with it.”
    “He’s right,” Mc Kenna said.
    “No offense, but where’s your clan at right now?” Belladonna asked.
    “Florida,” Layne replied.
    Belladonna perched a hand on her hip. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot they can do to help you at the moment. And something needs to be done now . Given that this is a murder-by-magic, I requested carnival authority, not the cops.”
    “Law involvement is the last thing we want,” Kallie agreed. “The switched-off may not believe in magic or the supernatural, but they do believe in Manson-style madness, and that’s how they’ll see this. We need to find who did this to Gage and why.”
    “Oh, we’ll find the bastard,” Layne said, his voice cold and flat.
    “Question is, how did the killer even know Gage would be here?” Kallie asked.
    Belladonna tapped a blue-lacquered fingernail against her chin, her gaze on Layne. “If Gage told you about hooking up with Kallie, maybe he told someone else too.”
    “And the word got to the wrong person,” Kallie said. “But why kill Gage with a potential witness present?”
    “Maybe being passed out in the can saved you from dying too,” Belladonna said. “Or maybe it made you convenient to pin the murder on. Did it look like anyone broke into the room? Was the door unlocked?”
    Kallie shook her head. “I don’t know. Not that I noticed, anyway. Maybe whoever it was had a passkey. Hell, what a mess.”
    “A mess ?” Layne repeated. He looked at Gage’s body on the bed. A muscle flexed in his jaw. “That what you call murder in your neck of the woods, hoodoo woman? A mess?”
    Kallie bit her lower lip, wishing she could take back her poor choice of words. But they were already out there, and she knew from personal experience that more words would only fan the flames into a heart-devouring bonfire.
    “ Yo’ mama wasn’t herself, honey-girl. You were de moon at night for her, de sun during the day. Her life done revolved around you.”
    “ Maybe it shouldn’t-a. Maybe that’s why she pulled the trigger. ”
    “ Kallie, no, don’t even t’ink dat—”
    “ No one should ever live for anyone else.”
    Nothing anyone could say would stitch together a grief-torn heart. Only time eroded the rough edges and smoothed them away, like a river over rocks. But also like a river, time deepened the crevices carved within by violent loss. By betrayal.
    “Sorry, baby, I ain’t got a choice.”
    Kallie shut the memory down. Over and done with a helluva long time ago.
    “No, I ain’t calling murder a mess, Layne Valin,” Kallie said, uncurling her fingers from her palms. “That wasn’t what I meant, and I apologize.”
    She felt Belladonna staring at her. “You . . . what was the word you just used? Apologize ? First ‘please’ and now ‘apologize’? I think I need to sit down.”
    Cheeks heating, Kallie growled, “We’re wasting time here, Bell.” She walked around to the other side of the bed and drew back the stiffening sheets. Underneath Gage’s body and the bloodstained sheets, she thought she saw something dark smeared on the mattress. Soul-eating juju. Her skin crawled.
    Belladonna joined her. “How you wanna do this? We can’t touch him without