In Search of the Dove Read Online Free PDF

too long.”
    “Aunt Edna’s funeral.”
    Jessica’s arms dropped to her sides. Both women were silent for a moment.
    “You don’t come back here unless there’s trouble,” the black woman observed.
    “Then you heard about Aubrey?”
    “Uh-huh. New Orleans may be a big city, but bad news travels like it’s still a small town.”
    Jessica wiped her soapy hands on jeans-clad thighs. Over the past few days, she’d been putting her brother’s apartment in order. Heaven knows, the place had needed it. Even though she hated house cleaning, she’d been glad to have something to do in the evenings after she’d come back from nosing around the Chartres campus. “Could I get you a cup of tea?” she asked her old friend.
    “If you’re going to have one.”
    “I was about to take a break.” She stopped and moved the scrub bucket into the corner. “Make yourself comfortable. I hope lemon spice is okay. That’s all I’ve bought.”
    “Lemon spice is fine.” Simone pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down. “So how is Aubrey doing?” she asked.
    “They’re still pretty guarded in their prognosis. I guess I just have to wait and see.” Jessica put the kettle on the burner. “You know, I can’t figure this whole thing out. Aubrey is the last person I’d think would get mixed up with drugs. And almost everybody I’ve tried to talk to at the university is acting as if they’re afraid of something.”
    “Maybe with good reason.”
    Jessica’s brows lifted. “What do you mean?”
    “Honey, organized crime controls the drug market down here. Poking into their territory isn’t good for your life expectancy.”
    Jessica could sense undercurrents of fear in her words. There was something here that she couldn’t quite get a handle on, and she didn’t like the feeling. “That sounds like a warning.”
    “It’s just a piece of friendly advice.”
    “Well, what would you do if it were your brother?”
    Simone’s mahogany eyes clouded for a moment. “Nurse him back to health and stay clear of more trouble.”
    “The doctor says my coming to see him is making him worse.”
    “His own kin?”
    The teakettle whistled and Jessica was glad of the excuse to turn away to get mugs and teabags from the cabinet. “Sugar?”
    “No, this is fine.” Simone accepted the mug of hot fragrant liquid. Leaning over it, she inhaled the citrus scent. “This reminds me of the time we decided to give our legs a hot-wax beauty treatment and melted down my mom’s favorite lemon-scented candles.”
    Jessica laughed. “That stuff sure did burn! To this day I won’t let a beautician come near me with hot wax.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    Jessica took a meditative sip of her tea. She and Simone had met and become fast friends the first summer her parents had let her go alone to Aunt Edna’s summer place in the country. Simone was a full-time resident of the rural area. Every year the two girls had renewed the relationship right up until Jessica had gone away to college. “Those were good times.”
    “The best.”
    “Honey, we go back a long way. That’s why I stopped by when I heard you were in town. If there’s anything you need, and I mean anything, I want you to give me a holler. Let me give you my phone numbers.” She took a small lilac-colored card out of her purse and handed it across the table.
    “I don’t suppose that means you’re going to tell me where to ask some questions about Aubrey’s drug problem now that I’ve drawn a blank at the university?”
    “No way. Take my advice, girl, and stay away from that part of town.”
    Jessica nodded. There was no point in getting into an argument with her old friend. Instead she scanned the ornate script on the front of Simone’s card. It advertised a boutique on Royal Street called This Is the Place. “Are you in business for yourself now?” she asked.
    “Sure am. Selling cosmetics, soaps—” Simone paused “—and uh, charms. You know, things tourists