Barbara Monajem [Bayou Gavott Sunrise in a Garden of Love

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.“He asked me who lives over yonder, and I told him Plato can’t see nothing from his house, and he works evenings, so he’s asleep all day.”Violet put an arm through Donnie’s and steered him onto the lawn.“Tell me all about it…” Smitten as always, Donnie let out a long ecstatic breath as they strolled away.Zelda’s eyes held a touch of moisture.“Am I allowed to give the cop some tea?”“Oh, sweetie,” Ophelia said.“Of course you are.Just because I’m pissed off with him doesn’t mean you have to be rude.” She put an arm around Zelda’s bony shoulders and squeezed.“I’m being such a bitch, aren’t I?” This was what fear did: screwed up everything, even the relationships with people you loved.“I can’t think of a better way to get rid of him.I’m sorry about Joanna Wyler, too.”“No skin off my back,” Zelda said.“I’ll be nice to her.She’ll get over being such a dope.”“You are really amazing,” Ophelia said.“But don’t be surprised if she’s not nice back to you.Last week Wyler told me never to speak to his kids again.He wouldn’t say why.” She hunched her shoulders.“He and Lisa used to ask me to watch them sometimes.I don’t know what’s got into that family all of a sudden.This whole thing really stinks.”“Art, baby, no one’s going to take her children away!”Ophelia’s heart clenched as Gideon’s voice sounded clearly up the driveway.“Thanks for serving the drinks, sweetie,” she told Zelda as the detective meandered back toward them, still talking.“I’d better get some work done.”She slopped through the mud into her ravaged garden and tossed a few woody turnip plants to the side, then worked her way along the flattened mounds row by row as Gideon spoke and listened and belittled his sister’s concerns.Ophelia came to the marijuana just as the detective hung up, and she pulled back and gaped at the disgruntled little plants that she had certainly not put there.“Where the hell did these come from?” she muttered.Gideon was suddenly beside her.“Your neighbor lady pointed them out to me.” He ripped one from the mud and tossed it aside, sounding way too amused.“Of course, I have no proof either way who planted them, you or one of the Wylers, but—”“If I had planted them, they would be healthy! So, are you going to arrest me?” She glared at him and bit her lip hard.Then her fangs slid down and she turned away.“Of course not.I’m corrupt, remember?”Her voice shaking traitorously, she said, “Right.I suppose I have to sleep with you instead.”“You’ll never have to sleep with me.”Ophelia cringed at the disgust in the lawman’s voice.Well, what did she expect? She had done her best to turn him off.Mission accomplished.She flung the remaining marijuana plants onto the mounting pile of debris.Zelda, bless her, showed up with Oreos.“Help yourself, Mr.O’Toole.Are you gay?”Ophelia sputtered, and Gideon blinked.“What? Why would you think that?”“That person you were talking to.Art.You called him baby.That sounds gay to me.”“Artemisia.” Gideon smiled down at her.“My little sister.” He picked up two Oreos.“Artemisia O’Toole,” Zelda said.“Cool name.Have a cookie, Ophelia.Want one, Mom?”Violet was hurrying toward them, the wriggling Psyche clutched to her breast and Donnie close behind.“Ophelia, are you sure you won’t come and stay with me while this nice policeman takes care of things? Even better, why not sell your place to Donnie and move back to town? He’d be glad to buy it, wouldn’t you, Donnie darling?”“Be a bit of a pinch right this moment.” Donnie glanced at Violet, quivered deeply and visibly, and added, “But I can find a way to swing it.Anything you need.”“Don’t worry, Donnie,” Ophelia said.“I’m not selling.” She couldn’t.Violet pouted.“You could run your landscaping business just as well from town, and also come to the club sometimes.It would be perfect!”“No,” Ophelia said.“I’m staying here.”Violet’s sigh betrayed more than a hint of annoyance.“When Ophelia speaks in that tone, it’s a waste of time to argue.” She looked into Gideon’s eyes with a gaze calculated to enthrall.“Mr.O’Toole, before you leave, I need your advice about a suspicious visitor at my club.”Gideon strolled down the driveway beside Violet, wishing he could brush her off the way she’d dismissed Donnie Donaldson, waiting for her to stop yammering so he could go home.Not that he didn’t sympathize with her.The clubs in Bayou Gavotte were subject to endless scrutiny by moralizers who believed they were dens of sin.Of course, some of the clubs were dens of sin, but not, according to Violet, her precious Blood and Velvet.“It’s all tourists and posers, just silly people who want to pretend they’re vampires or watch other people pretend they’re vampires.What harm is there in that? We only serve drinks and bar food.The only drugs are the ones the customers bring in, and of course we try to discourage that, but what can we do? Certainly not confiscate every pill in everyone’s purse or pocket! We have no whips and chains, no juveniles, no spectator sex in back rooms like some places I could name, and although vampire posers tend to get overexcited and bite their dates, our emergency care is excellent.”“In other words,” Zelda piped up from the side, “it’s a sissy club.” In a darkling voice, she added, “But I still wish I could work there.Five more long, long years.”Gideon grinned at Zelda.She was a nice kid, and her mother wasn’t too bad, if only she’d lay off the sexy stuff, which was not only annoying but unnecessary, since she was drop-dead gorgeous.Maybe she’d been putting on this act for so long she didn’t know how to stop.He tried to ignore the visceral effect it had on him, fortunately nowhere near as strong as Ophelia’s.But Ophelia had gone inside, thank God, so now he could get his head straight and go home and never have to see her again.At the thought of never seeing her again something twisted in his gut, but he ignored that, too.Never seeing her again was a consummation devoutly to be wished.Not the ideal to-be-wished-for consummation, but never mind.Once you got past the incredible sex, she’d undoubtedly be a bore.Dogs, beer, steak.That was the life.“Get a private detective,” he said, when Violet took a breath.“Some guy asking nosy questions at your club isn’t a job for the police.He hasn’t done anything disruptive or illegal, so start with a background check.” He reached for the door handle of his Mercedes.“We already did that,” Violet said.“His story checks out.I hope he’s not a Fed.They’re such a nuisance, and we do so much better without them.” She slipped her fingers through the crook in Gideon’s arm and steered him back up the driveway.That was for damn sure.Gideon didn’t know by what means, fair or foul, the underworld had convinced the Feds to mind their own business [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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