Out of Body

“How come you didn’t call them as soon as you saw yourself on the news?” Gray said.

“I don’t watch the news,” Pipes said. “Bernie said they thought I was gone.”

“I’ll give the police a call for you,” Gray said.

“Why?” Pipes said. “I’m back now.”

“There are people out looking for you,” Gray said. He gave Marley an uncomfortably long sideways look—like he was trying to send her a message.

“Pipes took her little girl to stay with her folks,” Bernie said. “She didn’t know about the murder case till I told her.”

Marley heard the conversation, but there were more important things to deal with. She was getting a not very subtle battering at her mind. Someone was trying to make contact. It had to be Gray.

Effortlessly, she turned back his probing signals, but before she disengaged completely, she touched an image that held her. An image in his mind. It belonged to him because he was the one seeing bright colors and, for a brief moment, black hair flowing over silk pillows.

Marley cut herself off from him. The only place he could have gotten such a picture was from her and she didn’t like what that could mean. Only a rogue telepathic power on the hunt would break in and poach an experience that didn’t belong to him. Unless he was invited, or wandered in by accident.

Or unless he was shown the way.

“Marley?” Gray said.

“Yes.” She frowned at him.

There could be circumstances when one psychic actually allowed another to enter their private world. The circumstances weren’t anything Marley was ready for. When the joining happened between a male and a female subject, it was usually a sign of potent sexual desire.

“I don’t know why you left Erin with your folks,” Bernie said to Pipes. “You know she’s always welcome here. She’s no trouble. You’re goin’ to miss her and you don’t sing as good as you can when you’re sad.”

The unspoken exchange between Marley and Gray hadn’t interrupted the conversation, Marley realized. The other two hadn’t noticed anything.

“I surely will miss her,” Pipes said. “But a room behind a club is no place for a little girl to be for hours and hours.” She sounded as if she had rehearsed the last line.

“What’s her name?” Marley asked.

Pipes looked at her a while before she said, “She’s Erin Dupuis. She’s five and smart as can be. Erin knows how to do as she’s told. You learn early when you have to. Good thing, too, bein’ there’s times when it’s easier to just go along. You know what I mean?”

“Yes.” Did she?

Gray cleared his throat. “Was it you who reported Pipes missing?” he asked Bernie.

“Yes,” Bernie said, snickering. “But Pipes is here now and I have never been more relieved to see anyone.”

Straightening her shoulders, Pipes gave a big smile. “Erin needs to be with the folks for a bit.” She carried on as if she hadn’t heard Gray and Bernie talking. “I don’t have time to teach her some things. Like eatin’ the way she ought to, and speakin’ right. Growin’ up like a lady—stuff like that. She’ll learn quick.”

“Gray here wants to talk to you,” Bernie Bois said. “You all sit and I’ll bring a pitcher of somethin’.”

Pipes went straight for a table and slipped into a bamboo chair.

“Is she okay?” Gray said once the woman was out of hearing.

Bernie shrugged. “Pipes is Pipes. Who knows how okay she is, but she sure can sing. Who’s your lady here? You afraid to introduce her in case I steal her from you?”

Marley smiled at that and stuck out a hand. “Marley Millet.”

He shook and held her hand. “Like the antiques people? On Royal?”

“That’s us.” She didn’t get out so much. The idea that people who lived in this town knew her family always came as a surprise.

“That explains the hair,” he said. “My-oh-my, that is red. Never saw redder hair than that. Is it true you all have it—red hair?”

Marley cleared her throat. “Not quite all.” Bless Sykes for his black mane.

“And you are all cursed, right?”

Bernie slapped his thighs and laughed. He laughed till tears trickled from his squeezed-up eyes and ran down his bunched cheeks.

Bernie didn’t stop laughing until he finally noticed he was making a lot of noise in an otherwise silent room.

He shut his mouth over all that hilarity a good deal too late for Marley’s liking. She didn’t have a single idea where this man would get secret information about her family, but she hated it.

“Just kidding,” Bernie said. He coughed into a fist. “Lighten up, all of you. I made a little joke. You know how it is with me, Gray. Folks in the Quarter think I run all the gossip around so they tell me crazy stuff sometimes.”

“Right,” Gray said.

He glanced at Marley and her stomach turned. Bernie was protesting too much and too long and Gray knew it.

“Anyway,” Bernie said, chuckling in little bursts. “What difference would a little curse make among friends?”

Chapter 15

The approach of raised voices broke the tension. A man’s loud voice and quieter responses from a woman.

“It’s Danny,” Marley said, so grateful for the diversion she swallowed big gulps of air.

“I was expecting Nat Archer,” Gray told her. “Stay cool.”

As if she wasn’t already working on that.

Sidney, the female singer from Scully’s, was with Danny and he wasn’t making any secret about how mad he was at her. She glided ahead into the bar and he strode to keep up with her.

“It’s a lousy idea, I’m tellin’ you,” he shouted. “And it’s wrong. Why are you in such a goddamn hurry to move on? You think Amber’s dead, don’t you?”

“No,” Sidney said clearly.

Danny grabbed and swung her to face him. “Liar,” he said. “Off with the old and on with the new. That’s the kind of friend you are. She’ll not thank you for it when she comes back.”

“Ah, hell,” Gray muttered. “Angry people never make any sense. I need cool heads.”

“Uh-huh,” Marley said. “And loose tongues.”

Gray snorted. “You come up with the damnedest things.”

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

He put an arm around her shoulders. “Yes, you are.”

Marley turned rigid. He was warm against her side and his hand cupping her shoulder held her there—unless she decided to duck away, which would make her feel foolish. They must look like a couple. She thought about that and suddenly had to stop herself from threading her own arm behind his waist.

“Relax,” he whispered.

“I am relaxed.”

“Sure you are.”

“What are you two doing here?” Danny said. He came toward them, his hands curled into fists. “What the fuck are you doin’ here?”

“Watch your mouth,” Gray said. “We were here first, remember?”

“Did you call them, Bernie?” Danny said. “You did, didn’t you? You’ve got a big mouth, my man. Biggest mouth in town and it needs filling up.” He raised a large hand as if he intended to do just that.