The Muse (Interracial Mystery Romance) (Dark Art Mystery Series) (29 page)

That’s not right, Al. That’s wrong and unfair.”

“Grandma, come here.”

She shifted to laying forks in weird little piles. “Everywhere we go, the soil dies right under our feet. Our poor family is smaller and smaller. Our women are either sterile or dying from illness. What Snyder and Dayanara did was wrong, and now we all have to pay for it.”

I went to my grandma, stopped her fork-piling, turned her around, and wrapped my arms around her small frame. “Grandma, this isn’t your fault. This is no one’s fault. In fact, this isn’t the gods. This is some crazy person on our property, trying to hurt us.”

“If only that were true.”

“It is.”

“No. Five more will die. I already saw that tonight. It’s why I called in more support.

They’ll be here to help me spread more well-wishes to the gods. We think we’ve found a spell that can lift the curse. I’ll need the hearts and other things.”

“I’m not comfortable with more people being on this property. I need fewer—”

“I won’t be ignored anymore. Besides, you’re busy. I can smell orange blossoms all over you.” She leaned back and looked into my eyes. “I knew something was odd when my oldest grandson bought a bunch of candles and lit them, when he’s never lit or enjoyed a candle in his life. You got those candles because of that new girl, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but let’s not get off topic—”

“You like her?”

“Yes. Maybe even more.”

“She’s the light in your darkness,” Grandma said.

“Yes. She is.”

“There’s a bad man coming for her. Do you know that?”

I tensed. There were times when I pretended to ignore my grandma’s visions and then there were moments when I listened wholeheartedly. In the end, I never disregarded what she said. I didn’t practice this weird religion of hers, but it could never be denied that when Grandma claimed something was going to happen, it tended to be a fifty-fifty chance that it would. “When you first saw her you said that a bad man was coming. Do you still see him?”

“Give me the hand you’ve touched her with tonight.” She extended hers.

I’d touched Elle everywhere and with almost every part of me, but I didn’t tell Grandma that. I offered my right hand to her. “Here.”

That white film spread over her eyes and concealed her brown pupils. Humming left her lips. A cold thickness seeped into me like tiny icicles digging into my skin. “Oh yes. Ellie, he’s screaming. Ellie. Ellie. Over and over again.”

“What does he look like?”

“He has black hair like yours but longer. He’s white and wild. He’s painting right now. I see her on the canvas.”

Painting? It has to be Michael.

“He’s coming for her. There’s a news clipping next to his paintbrushes. He keeps looking at it and then drinking more of this brown liquid. It must be whiskey. Wait.” She held my hand tighter. “Yes. He’s coming. The article is some announcement about Hex and his new collection.

Why would he be reading that?”

She released my hand. The humming ended. Those brown pupils reappeared.

I raked my fingers through my hair. “I had Reece ask our publicist to mention Hex would be using Elle as a model for his new collection. It’s supposed to get us more investors.”

“So this Elle is popular?”

“Yes. Do you remember the artist Hex punched outside of the art gallery in Las Vegas?”

“No. You know I don’t follow Hex’s exploits, but the guy Hex punched is the bad man?”

“Yes. I think so.”

“Why would he be coming for her?”

“They used to be together.”

“Did he know she was working with Hex? In my vision, it doesn’t seem like it.”

“I’ll have to ask her.” I turned around to leave.

Those hours at the beach with Elle cost me even more grief. I’ll have tons of things to do
now.

“And when will you get Reece out of jail and bring Dayanara home?” Grandma called

out to me.

“I’ll give the police this new information. They were called, right?”

“Yes, but they said they weren’t going to release either one of them.”

Good. I’m still not sure Reece didn’t figure out a way to kill the girls and put them in the
office. It’s better to let them work on it.

“Are you listening to me?” Grandma tapped my back. “Reece and Dayanara didn’t do it.”

I turned around. “I’m still not sure Reece wasn’t involved in some way. There was

evidence in her apartment.”

Grandma raised her hands in the air. “What evidence? No way. What are you talking

about?”

“Traces of the two victims’ blood and hair were in her closet and—”

“She held the body parts for me in her apartment. I asked her to. If I kept them in my cottage you would have found them.”

“What?” I asked through clenched teeth. “What do you mean she kept their body parts in her apartment?”

“I found the first two women before anybody else, but I knew if I handled it you wouldn’t believe me. You wouldn’t take me seriously.”

I held both hands to my head. “You saw both girls?”

“Yes. The first time the girl was killed, you were gone away on that business trip. What else could I do? I called Reece, but first I took certain parts. The most important one for women.

The womb. It can bring a direct line to the gods. It births spirits into the world and sends them away. When I can send these innocent women’s spirits back, I’ll have their wombs to—”

“You cut their vaginas for a spell?” My hands were now closed fists of tension.

Grandma nodded like I was a crazy person. “But you’re missing the point.”

“I’m missing the point?”

“Stop yelling. I gave their wombs and my plastic gloves to Reece. She kept them

somewhere in her apartment. Later we decided to put them in a small metal cooler in Dayanara’s room.”

My legs wobbled a little. I had to stumble to her small kitchen and collapse into a chair.

“This night just keeps getting more interesting. You found a dead girl and instead of calling the police you think, ‘Oh. Let me cut out her vagina first. Then I’ll call for help!’”

“Al—”

“Then you let me discover her the next day, as if that is something I needed to see in my life. Why in God’s name would you not tell me about this?”

“You wouldn’t take me seriously.” She returned to her counter and began stacking butter knives. “Only Reece would help.”

“And Reece doesn’t tell me about this at all. Why would she work with you?”

“That is her reason to tell.”

I jumped up from my chair. “Why the hell did she work with you?”

“For the gods’ sake, stop yelling at me.”

“I’ll send you back to Cuba tonight. I’m done with this entire situation. You’ve gone too far. If I’d known about this information, Reece would not be in jail, perhaps we would even know who is actually killing these women. All this time we’ve been thinking some crazy serial killer is walking around the property cutting up girls and it’s you and your goddamn spell preparations.”

“Snyder is—”

“That’s enough! Why did Reece work with you and hide these things from me?”

Grandma stared at the ground. “She asked me to make a love charm, a powerful one,

something that would make you fall in love with her. I told her I would.”

Poor Reece.

I didn’t know much about grandma’s religion, but upon returning to find a mentally

destroyed Hex in the hospital due to some sick spell my step dad and mom started, I read several books on
corazón muerto
. There were three things that weren’t possible to gain from magic. The gods simply did not possess the power to make someone immortal, all powerful, or have another fall in love with someone else. It was the basic don’ts for attempting magic. The fact that my step-dad had searched for years to discover some sick enchantment of immortality banned in all countries practicing
corazón muerto
exemplified how crazy and fake he was. The fact that Grandma had agreed to make Reece a potion or whatever to have me fall in love with her showed how desperate Grandma had become.

“Why would you lie to Reece like that?” I asked.

“I thought you liked her and were just being too stubborn. I figured this would be a simple solution.”

“A simple solution? By telling someone you would get me to fall in love with them, all they have to do is hide a few vaginas for you?”

She shifted her activities to putting up all of the utensils again, one by one. “Reece also supplied my blood to me. The blood I used to talk to the gods with Dayanara on the night of the second girl’s death. Reece brought the blood to me. I covered Dayanara and myself in it. When I ran to my cottage to get the rest of the items, that’s when I stumbled upon the other girl in my garden.”

“But you didn’t say anything?”

“No. I had Dayanara outside and covered in blood. I had to cut this new girl’s vagina with Dayanara next me. I was already busy. Then Reece and I saw you on the dance floor with Elle. I couldn’t disturb you with the problem. Your face that night was magical. I’d never seen you so captivated before.”

“So you decided to let someone else find the dead girl?”

“No.” Grandma waved my comment away. “No one was supposed to find her. I was

going to take Dayanara back upstairs after we finished the spell, but then that poor dead girl’s friend discovered her body. Everyone ran and jumped around, screaming. Reece and I decided to just let you know I was out there with Dayanara because there was no way I would be able to sneak both of us by everyone, with all that blood over us.”

“You’re done, Grandma. I’m serious. No more doing things behind my back. All of these things you and Reece did complicated everything else. If I’d known about you cutting the body parts and having Reece store them, she would not be in jail right now and maybe those three women from today would still be alive—”

Grandma stabbed the air with her finger. “Don’t you dare blame their deaths on me.”

“End these ridiculous activities behind my back. End it now. Women have died. The

wrong people are being blamed due to me being kept in the dark. I won’t have this anymore.”

Grandma finished putting the items away. “I came to the states to help you, and never do you ask for my help. Things are happening that you can’t deal with and you never seek my guidance. What am I supposed to do? I sat back once long ago and let that evil man come near my daughter and grandson. I won’t let more evil come around you. No more.”

Am I being too hard on her? No one could have anticipated these deaths.

Grandma would do what she wanted whether I allowed it or not. She was a grown

women who’d raised ten kids with just the tiny amount of money Grandpa had given her. And when he was off working two jobs, she stayed home cleaning, cooking, helping with homework, healing, and doing all the millions of things one parent did with ten kids of many ages. Who was I to tell her she couldn’t do something after all she’d achieved? Who was I to spend my time trying to stop her from saving her daughter when she thought she could?

“Okay, Grandma. This is our deal. I’ll seek your counsel more and help you get rid of this curse, but I won’t do anything illegal. In the meantime, you notify me of everything, and I mean everything. You don’t work behind the scene with anyone. If there is anything odd happening, you let me know. No more sneaking around.”

“No more.”

“And whatever items you need, write it down and leave it on my desk.”

“Will Reece still be your assistant?”

“No. This situation and her feelings for me have damaged our working relationship. She was my assistant, not yours. I didn’t pay her to run around at night mishandling body parts so you could get me to fall in love with her.”

Grandma formed her lips into a frown. “That is not right. She’s a sweet girl.”

“I’ll give her a nice severance package, something that will take care of her until she finds another job, but it will be too uncomfortable if she remains my assistant.”

“And what will you do about the bad man coming to see Elle? I have protective charms. I have things that could help her.”

I almost said no and to let me handle it, but then I wouldn’t be making good on what I’d just promised. “Okay. Go ahead and make the protective charms. I’ll tell her about them and give it to her later.”

Grandma transformed her frown into a huge smile. “Thank you.”

“I’ll see you later. For now, let me talk to the detective and notify him of the entire situation. We’ll need to tell the police as much as we can. I’ll make sure my legal team is informed first so they can tell us what we can withhold in order to protect you and Reece.”

“Okay.” She stopped my walking out with a big hug to my back. “I know you work hard.

You are our foundation, but make sure you get help from others.”

“I will.” I held the hand she had around my stomach. “I promise you. I will.”

“And no more lying to Hex. He knows about the first two girls now.”

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. “I didn’t want him to have to deal with this.”

“It’s too late, and he’s stronger than you give him credit for.”

“Mr. Stewson, the head of housekeeping, said that he’s still wetting the bed.”

“Well, give him time.” She let me go and patted my back. “But he won’t get stronger if we don’t treat him like he’s strong.”

I sighed. “Okay. No more lying to him.”

“And I’ll give you the list of items I’ll need to stop this curse. I’ve tried giving many tributes to Donalito. I believe that my new tribute on the next full moon may be stronger than all the others. I think this time it will work. We have three weeks for the next night.”

“Well, hopefully women aren’t still being killed in three weeks.”

Chapter 23

~Elle

I went to sleep last night with only my confused thoughts to keep me company. Alvarez never came by my bedroom. Surely, he had things to do, many things. Around six in the morning, the bustling crowd of nude and bloody people went away. When I woke up in the afternoon, I wasted no time grabbing my one suitcase and filling my items into it.