Love Can Be Murder

asked.
    The old woman made a face. "No. Bunch of fools playing with black magic—they'd better watch themselves. Voodoo is not for amateurs." Jules pushed away from the counter, then gathered her walking stick and reached in her pocket to withdraw a leather change purse.
    "Put your money away, Jules," Marie said. "Penny gave you a lifetime supply of Vigor Juice on the house, remember?"
    Jules chuckled, then lifted a crooked finger in Penny's direction. "You're going to be surprised when I'm still coming in here twenty years from now."
    Penny laughed, although it came out sounding a bit strangled because she half-believed the woman.
    Then Jules's eyes constricted and she appeared to turn inward, as if she were remembering back...or maybe remembering forward. "In fact, a lot of people around Mojo are going mourir before me."
    Penny looked to Marie for translation.
    Marie swallowed, then whispered. "To die."
    "Some of them soon," Jules added.
    At the hoarse intensity of the woman's prediction, Penny's pulse picked up. She exchanged a wide-eyed glance with Marie, then she hugged herself, feeling silly, as the old woman turned to go. Jules loved to scare people with her stories of the supernatural. "See you tomorrow, Jules."
    "Bon Dieu willing," the woman said, throwing up her hand.
    "Jules," Marie called, "we have a new juice to improve your sex drive—want to try some?"
    Jules cackled. "Mr. Fielding is only allowed one conjugal visit a week at the nursing home. I don't want to kill the man." The old woman was still laughing as she left.
    Penny looked at Marie, her mouth open in disbelief. "No way."
    Marie pursed her mouth and nodded. "Yep. My cousin Eddie is an orderly at the nursing home and says that Jules shows up like clockwork on Tuesday afternoons to get it on with Mr. Fielding."
    Penny grimaced. "So you're telling me that a one-hundred-nine-year-old woman is getting more action than I am?" Too late, she realized she'd told on herself.
    Marie held out her hand and fluttered her fingers. "You owe me ten dollars."
    "Okay, okay, you'll get your money." Penny rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to dispel the peculiar chill that had settled into her pores. She needed to turn on the heat. "Marie...you don't really believe all that stuff about hexes, do you?"
    Marie shrugged. "Why not? Lots of people do. I've told you how many people come in asking for voodoo dolls. We could probably sell a thousand this weekend alone!"
    Penny frowned. "People can buy all they want at the souvenir shop at the Voodoo Museum. And there will be booths full of them on the square."
    "Some people don't want the ones made in Taiwan. They're looking for the real ones made out of human hair and tar."
    Penny shook her head. "Well, they won't find them here. I don't believe in all that hocus-pocus, and I refuse to promote it."
    Marie gave a wry laugh. "Just remember that the power of suggestion is a tremendous force." She nodded pointedly toward the glass of "love potion" juice Penny had abandoned, then picked up an empty cardboard box and headed toward the stockroom.
    Penny nodded thoughtfully, then picked up the glass of juice, staring into the clear yellow liquid. Marie was right—it was time she started getting on with her life...and her sex life. She had allowed Deke to destroy her confidence and her libido, while the pink house was a public symbol of his prowess—and rejection. In a sudden burst of defiance, she lifted the glass to her mouth and drained it. Inexplicably, the image of a long-limbed, dark-haired man in a brown leather jacket and faded jeans came to mind, but she pushed it away.
    The last thing she needed in her life was another man connected to Sheena Linder.
    She rinsed the glass. At a sudden tingling on her tongue, she swallowed hard and looked over her shoulder to see if Marie was still occupied. She was. Penny wet her lips and tiptoed through the vitamin room into the bedroom she had turned into her personal office. She stared at the locked bottom drawer of her desk, her mouth watering now. The stress was making her weak.
    She shouldn't...she couldn't. The door chime sounded, announcing a customer. Penny exhaled, grateful for the distraction. She wouldn't. For now.

Chapter Three

    A pinch of revenge...

    AS PENNY WALKED TOWARD the entrance of the store, she heard a man call, "It's only me!" She smiled when Guy Bishop came into view. He had been working for her since the store opened. He kept the books, helped