Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
“Stay here, I’ll go get her,” I instructed him and hopped out. Climbing the porch stairs quickly, I knocked on the weathered door and waited until I heard Miss Elva call for me to come in.
“Hey, Miss Elva,” I called, stepping into her house.
Okay, so maybe I’m downplaying that a little a bit. Stepping from Miss Elva’s porch into her house is like stepping from everyday life into an Alice in Wonderland room.
There is just so much stuff. Everywhere.
It’s like stimulation overload with no rhyme or reason to it.
It’s not like it’s a hoarder’s paradise or anything like that; it’s just that every available space is filled with something.
Next to a sofa straight out of a Restoration Hardware catalog was an old medicine cabinet hanging on the wall, its shelves crammed with bottles full of who-knows-what and animal skulls.
Other shelves held prayer candles to every saint you could imagine.
It didn’t matter where you looked, there would be something intriguing there to grab your interest. One of these days I was going to actually come hang out at Miss Elva’s and have her tell me the stories behind the goods that cluttered her room.
“I don’t have a good feeling about Luna,” Miss Elva announced, coming in from the kitchen, carrying a few pouches that she shoved into her cross-body leather satchel. Today she wore a long caftan in muted purple, looking positively demure by her standards.
“Where’s Rafe?” I asked.
“I sent him out to do some searching for me. He can get into places unseen that I can’t,” Miss Elva explained, smoothing back her hair, which today was unleashed in a riot of ringlets and held back with a jeweled headband.
“Smart,” I said, then stopped at the front door.
“Cash is in the car. My…boyfriend,” I said, pausing to think about what I wanted to say.
“And you don’t want me say anything too crazy to scare him off,” Miss Elva said, waving her hand in the air. “Child, I know.”
“Please don’t be offended, it’s not like that. You know I love you,” I protested, immediately feeling guilty. “I just want to kind of ease him into all this magickal stuff. He’s not used to this world.”
Miss Elva shot me a glance, her hands on her hips.
“And you’re gonna hide yourself from him? I don’t know if I hold with that, now.” She was right, but I didn’t want to get into it at the moment.
“No, I’m not hiding. We just haven’t been together long enough for him to learn it all at once. This is still pretty new to him,” I said.
“Well, he’ll learn soon enough. We’ll just have to see how he weathers the storm,” Miss Elva said, breezing past me and onto the porch.
I wasn’t sure if I liked what that meant, but I was unwilling to leave Miss Elva alone with Cash for long, so I dashed after her and opened the front door of Cash’s Jeep for her.
“Cash, this is the esteemed Miss Elva, the best voodoo priestess in Florida,” I said, meeting her eyes to let her know I wasn’t trying to hide what she was from Cash.
Miss Elva harrumphed and then slid into the front seat, reaching out a hand to Cash.
“That’s in all the States, honey, and don’t let Miss Marie in N’awlins tell you any different,” she said, settling in comfortably.
I saw Cash’s lips quirk and I blew out a breath.
“I’m sure you’re the best at what you do,” Cash said magnanimously, and pulled away from the curb.
“Where are we going first?” I asked.
“I’ve got to get Dylan. He’s been kicking his heels at the coffee shop waiting on me,” Cash said, and I immediately felt bad.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about that,” I said, immediately chagrined and a little embarrassed. Now Dylan was going to get caught up in our little drama and I could only imagine what Cash’s mama was going to hear about me.
One thing at a time, I reminded myself. We needed to figure out where Luna was.
“When’s the last time you heard from Luna?” Miss Elva asked, turning to look at me.
“She texted to check on me earlier today, but since then it’s been silence. And her phone’s going to voicemail, which never happens because of Granny Lavelle up at Seashores.”
Miss Elva nodded, not saying anything.
The houses of Tequila Key flashed by my window, all cluttered together, clambering for space on this scrap of land in the Keys. I prayed that Luna wasn’t going to be the third dead body to end up at that beach.
Something niggled in the back of my mind, but just as I was grasping at it, we pulled onto the main drag and I saw Dylan leaning against the front wall of Beau’s new restaurant, talking animatedly to Beau.
“Looks like Dylan has already met Beau,” I said, smiling as I saw them both laugh at the same time. They’d make a handsome couple, all bronzed and well-dressed.
“Damn it. I wanted to be the one to introduce them. Leave it to Dylan to steal my thunder,” Cash griped, swinging the car into a spot right in front of the restaurant. The men looked over and smiled at us as we got out of the Jeep.
“Hi, Beau,” I said, smiling when he came over to pull me into a hug.
“Can you believe how freakin’ hot Dylan is?” Beau hissed into my ear, and my smile grew even wider as I looked up at Beau.
“Trust me, I get it,” I replied, and Beau shook his head in disbelief before turning to hug Miss Elva.
“Child, I’ve been meaning to come look at the renovations,” Miss Elva said after being introduced to Dylan, who looked at her curiously but refrained from commenting.
“Yes, please, come in. Sorry it’s such a mess in here, but it’s still a construction zone,” Beau explained, ushering us in and locking the door behind us.
“Sorry to lock the door, but you know how the looky-loo’s are in this town.
I swear Prudie hovers outside the front door, just waiting for a glimpse inside.
” Beau gestured to where he had tacked up brown butcher paper over all the windows and the glass doors to prevent prying eyes from seeing inside.
“That woman is on my list,” I declared.
“Your hit list or your shit list?” Beau joked, then stiffened when I glared at him. The last thing I needed was for Dylan to think I actually went around trying to kill people.
“My shit list. She’s a mean old gossip,” I said, then turned to look at the space. “Holy crap, you’ve done a ton of work since I was last in here.”
The restaurant that had originally been Luca’s Deli had transformed from a small deli with a long counter and glass food case on one wall to a sleek, elegant, and slightly edgy restaurant.
Beau had removed the counters, knocked out the back wall and added a second-floor kitchen.
What had once been the back stockroom was now a wall of windows, opening the entire room to a view of cerulean blue waves crashing against a rocky beach.
“Beau, this is fantastic,” I breathed, walking around to look at the newly added second floor. “The second floor doesn’t even cut into the space at all.”
“Right? I really wanted to add that view. Plus, with moving the kitchen upstairs, I was able to get the view and add a small eating area outside as well,” Beau said.
“So will the waiters have to run up and downstairs with trays of food?” I asked, knowing that if I was tasked with that job, I’d be dropping trays left and right.
I may be a wee bit klutzy.
“Nope, get this,” Beau said, leading me back to where a wall, about a foot taller than my head, separated an area of the room. Behind it, I found a serving station for drinks and a huge dumbwaiter tucked into the wall.
“A dumbwaiter! Makes total sense,” I said, approving it.
“I can’t wait to get into the design palette, but first the construction needed to be finished. I meant to ask you…could I commission you for the art? I want only your underwater photographs on the wall. But like huge…going all the way up the wall.”
I brought my hand to my mouth, surprised and flattered that he would want my photographs in his elegant restaurant.
“Really? You want my pictures in here? I don’t know if they’re good enough,” I began and Beau hushed me with a finger on my lips.
“They’re stunning. I just am going to have to decide if I want to do all black and white or if I want to do color,” Beau mused as we walked around the wall and back towards where the rest of the group was standing.
“Color what?” Cash asked.
“I want Althea’s underwater photography on the walls. Huge,” Beau said, gesturing at the walls.
“That’s a great idea, she has a fantastic eye,” Cash agreed and I turned to him, surprised.
“Really?”
“Really. I was going to commission a few of your pieces for a club in Miami too, but haven’t had a chance to bring it up. We’ve been a little distracted today,” Cash reminded me.
Oh crap. Luna.
“Yeah, so, uh, what was that all about this morning, if you don’t mind me asking?” There was a slightly aggressive edge to Dylan’s tone, and Beau immediately planted his hand on his hips.
“What are you talking about?”
“Chief Thomas pulled me in for questioning on those murders,” I quickly explained to Beau before he got snarky with Dylan. I didn’t want him to ruin a potential love match because of me.
“Why did he pull you in?” Beau asked, swinging back to me.
“Because Luna and I had been at the beach the night before they found the dead body,” I admitted and I saw Dylan shake his head.
“Well, that doesn’t mean squat,” Beau said, always on my side.
“I know. Which is why I’m here and not under arrest. At least this sheriff is better than our last one,” I pointed out. Beau rolled his eyes and nodded in agreement.
“We’ve got a major problem though,” I began, shooting a glance at Dylan before turning back to Beau.
“What’s wrong?” Beau asked, immediately running his hands up and down my arms to soothe me.
“They found another body over in the same area this morning, and Luna’s missing now too.” The words rushed out and Beau stiffened.
“How do you know she’s missing?”
“Her phone’s turned off.”
“That never happens,” Beau said immediately and I nodded.
“Who’s Luna?” Dylan asked, looking between us.
“Our best friend,” Beau and I answered simultaneously.
My phone beeped from my purse, and I raced across the room to where I had dropped it on a small table.
“This is probably her now, and we’ll have been worried over nothing,” I called over my shoulder.
Pulling my phone from my bag, I swiped to read the text.
Chills raced through me and I almost dropped the phone. Horrified, I looked up helplessly at Cash.
“Luna’s been taken.”