like?”
“It was a signed copy of
“I don’t remember ever seeing it,” Julie said, “but I’ll look on this side of the room, and you look through the bookcase.”
I went to his desk and systematically went through the drawers. The top right-side drawer was locked with no key in sight, so I got Diesel to do his magical unlocking thing. He opened the drawer, and we stared at a leather- bound book that I suspected might be similar to the book of sonnets. Hand-tooled cover and a small locking clasp. In this case, the cover design was an elaborate
“It’s Abner’s diary,” Julie said, looking across the desk. “Dr. Reedy stumbled onto it when he was in Abner’s attic. Among other things, it describes the final days of Lovey’s life and details what Lovey told Abner Goodfellow moments before Lovey’s death. Dr. Reedy took it as gospel, but I thought it sounded like a very sick old man returning to a favorite childhood fairy tale.” Julie did a fast scan of the room. “I’m not sure you’re going to find your book here. Maybe you’d like to take the diary in its place. It was one of Dr. Reedy’s most prized possessions. I believe the little key is in the drawer with the diary.”
“I’d love to have the diary,” Diesel said, taking the diary and the key. “That’s very generous of you. I appreciate all your help.”
“Perhaps you could locate the rest of his family and let them know he has some wonderful things here.”
“For sure,” Diesel said. “Thanks again.”
Deirdre Early lived on Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay section of Boston. It was a short distance from Harvard, but it had taken us over an hour in rush-hour traffic that included a car fire on the Harry Houdini bridge. Fortunately, the car had pretty much burned itself out by the time we reached the bridge, and traffic was moving. Diesel circled Early’s block once looking for a parking place. When he returned to her address the second time, there was a car missing, and he pulled in.
“How do you always manage to get a parking place?” I asked him, halfway afraid that some unsuspecting car had gotten beamed up into space by an unknown entity.
“Positive thinking,” Diesel said. “And I’m exceptionally lucky… usually.”
“Usually?”
“There’s been the occasional lapse.”
Early’s narrow, three-story row house had a postage-stamp front yard that might have been amazing in the summer, but at present time was a tangle of dead vines and shriveled shrubs. The facade was dark gray stone. The roof was gray slate. There were drapes on the windows with no light shining through. The door and wood trim were black.
“Holy cats,” I said to Diesel, taking the house in.
“Grim,” Diesel said.
We walked to the front door, rang the bell, and a woman answered. She was movie star beautiful, with glossy midnight black hair cut into a short bob. She had long black lashes, and she was wearing bright red lip gloss. She was my height but much more voluptuous in a silky low-cut black shirt, tight black pencil skirt, and four-inch spike- heeled pumps.
“Deirdre Early?” Diesel asked.
“Yes,” she said. “And you?”
“Diesel.”
Her smile was small and didn’t reach her eyes. “Interesting,” she said.
Diesel didn’t return the smile. “I’d like to talk to you about Gilbert Reedy.”
“Poor man,” she said. “Would you like to come in?”
We stepped into her foyer and stopped there. I could see her living room and dining room from where I was standing. Very formal. Oriental rugs. Fabrics were burgundy and gold. Dark woods. Crystal chandelier over the table.
“I believe you dated Reedy,” Diesel said.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Briefly. He’s dead, you know.”
“You have a lovely home,” I said to her.
She flicked her eyes to me. “Thank you. I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“Lizzy Tucker.”
She studied me for a moment and turned back to Diesel. “Your move,” she said to him.
“Were you looking for true love?” Diesel asked her.
“Of course. Isn’t that everyone’s goal? Do you want true love?”
“Not at the moment,” Diesel said.
She looked at him from under lowered lashes. “Pity.”
“And what about nineteenth-century poets?” Diesel asked Early. “Are you fond of them?”
“With a passion. And you?”
“Not so much.”
“Hmm. I thought we would’ve had more in common,” Early said. “If you’ll excuse me now, I have a dinner engagement.”
We left Back Bay, and we didn’t speak until we were on the 1A, heading home.
“That was weird,” I said to Diesel. “The house was pretty inside but oppressive. And I had the feeling you knew each other.”
“We’ve never met, but it’s possible she’s heard of me. And the negative energy you felt was from her. It was rolling off her in waves. If I stayed there much longer, I would have started bleeding from my ears.”
“Omigod. Would you really bleed from your ears?”
Diesel grinned at me. “No. I was exaggerating.”
“Deirdre Early isn’t normal.”
“Not even a little,” Diesel said.
“I suppose we aren’t normal, either.”
“The only normal people are people you don’t know very well.”
“That’s a quote from a famous person,” I told him.
“Yeah. I think it was either Andy Griffith or Yoda.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Diesel took me back to my car and I went straight home. I made a grilled cheese for dinner, cleaned the kitchen, and threw some laundry in the washer. I surfed through a bunch of channels on television and gave up. Diesel was in his apartment reading the Goodfellow diary, and I was finding that while I’d wished for a quiet night to myself, it wasn’t working. I couldn’t get my mind off Gilbert Reedy, Deirdre Early, Lovey, and the Luxuria Stone. It was all in a mix in my head, going round and round. I called Glo and asked how late the Exotica Shoppe stayed open.
“Usually until nine o’clock,” Glo said. “Sometimes later in October because of Halloween. I could go with you if you’re thinking of shopping.”
“Don’t you have a date tonight?”
“No. He called to say he was being detained, and I didn’t have enough money to bail him out. I never bail someone out on the first date anymore. Been there, done that.”
Thirty minutes later, I had Glo and her broom in my car, and we were headed for the Exotica Shoppe.
“This is way exciting,” Glo said. “I wanted the sonnets because they were hot, but this is better. They’re like magical and mystical. And I’m really into this whole saving mankind from descending into hell. I mean, it’s one thing to go green, but rescuing mankind from Satan is
Ye Olde Exotica Shoppe is located two blocks south of Dazzle’s Bakery. The name is written in gold script above the ancient wood door. The sign in the window reads OPEN and dares people to come inside. Exotica gets a lot of tourist trade, but believers in the occult and history buffs shop there as well. It’s a small store stocked floor to
