Love Can Be Murder

heard what happened to Deke, he offered to poke around."
    Gloria lifted her eyebrows suggestively.
    Penny blushed. "I mean, he offered to... you know, ask questions where the police might not."
    Gloria bit her lip. "Just to be safe, I'm going to make a couple of phone calls around the city to see what I can find out about him. A woman can't be too careful."
    Penny smiled. "I think you're getting the hang of criminal representation."
    "Oh, no," Gloria said, shaking her head. "Give me the peace and quiet of two people threatening to kidnap their kids and maim each other's pets." Then her cosmetically altered green eyes gentled. "How are you holding up?"
    Penny sighed. "I don't know—I guess it hasn't really sunk in that Deke is dead."
    "It will," Gloria warned.
    "I know. I'm sure I'm in some kind of self-preservation mode. I keep seeing him dead on the floor of his office, the blood everywhere, but it's like a movie or something." Penny hesitated. "And I think I've been trying so hard for the last few months to distance myself from him, it just hasn't registered that I'll never see him alive again." She set her jaw to keep the sudden tears at bay.
    Gloria made a rueful noise, then gave Penny a quick hug. "Call me if you need me."
    "I will," Penny said as they walked into the cramped lobby.
    B.J. was leaning on the counter, holding one of his missing persons flyers, talking to a cute blond half Penny's age, who was blushing under his scrutiny. Suspicion barbed through her chest—was he a player? She'd silently condemned Marie for believing her boyfriend Kirk's outlandish stories...had she done the same thing herself?
    B.J. straightened when he saw them, then nodded to Gloria as she walked out. He stepped toward Penny, his expression serious. "Is everything okay?"
    "Everything's dandy. You didn't have to stay."
    He nodded toward the young woman he'd been huddling with. "I thought I'd ask about some of my other cases while I was here." He gave her a wry smile. "And stick around in case you needed someone to post bail."
    "Not yet," she said sourly.
    "So what's up with the video?"
    She sighed. "They have a security video of me running into Deke yesterday at the museum—remember I told you about seeing him?"
    He nodded. "Was the video damaging?"
    "It's misleading. And with no audio, it's my word against a dead man's."
    The door suddenly swung open and Mona Black ap peared, dressed in her standard uniform of—what else?—black. When the woman's gaze landed on her, Penny took an unconscious step backward even as Mona descended on her.
    "You!" Mona shouted, her face contorted. "Why aren't you behind bars?"
    "Mona," Penny said quietly, "I know you're upset, but I didn't have anything to do with Deke's death."
    "Liar!" Mona screamed, spittle flying. "Wasn't it enough that you ruined his life, you selfish little piece of trash? Did you have to take his life, too?"
    Penny shrank against the wall, and B.J. stepped up to grasp her arm. "Come on, Penny, time to go."
    "You'll pay for this, one way or another," Mona said, her face blood red. She clutched at the silver cross around her neck. "I have more power around here than you could ever know."
    Penny was frozen, scorched by the unbridled hatred spewing from the woman's eyes.
    B.J. gave her arm a yank and pulled her away, ushering her outside into the cool air. "Wow, I assume that was your ex-mother-in-law."
    Penny nodded and shivered, still shaken. A solitary black cloud had moved in front of the sun, scaring up a chilly gust of wind that sent leaves hurtling toward the square. Two blocks away, the smoke from the peristil and the incessant drum beating were still going strong. It was as if the rituals were sucking the energy out of Mojo and drawing it all toward the ceremonial shelter.
    "There's something strange going on in this town," she murmured, half to herself.
    "I'm starting to think the same thing," B.J. said.
    Then he held up one of the flyers portraying a young brunette named Giselle Taylor who had been missing for over a year. "The dispatcher says she thinks she remembers this woman stopping her on the street during last year's festival and asking for directions to the voodoo museum."
    Penny took the flyer and studied the woman's face. "Wow, that's some memory the dispatcher has."
    "She said she only remembers the woman because she looked like her sister."
    Penny handed back the flyer. "Maybe Hazel would remember her, too."
    "Has she worked at the museum for a