I said, “I know it’s a stereotype but New Orleans and voodoo aren’t strangers and waxy bones sounds like something that could be part of a hex.”

“Let’s find out,” he said, turning back to his screen. “First time in a long time I’m not feeling hexed.”

CHAPTER
25

Websites on New Orleans voodoo pulled up nothing about waxed infant skeletons. The closest match was a Day of the Dead offering to the ancestral spirit Gede that sometimes included bones.

Milo looked up the date of the rite. “November first. Months off.”

I said, “People improvise.”

“Some local whack concocted his own private sacrifice?”

“Making it up’s a lot easier and more lucrative than studying theology, Big Guy. Do-it-yourself religion’s the SoCal way.”

“Another Charlie Manson. Wonderful.”

“To a devout woman like Adriana, black-arts worship would’ve been the worst kind of heresy. But Qeesha could have been attracted to an occult group because it reminded her of her time in New Orleans. If it started to bother her and she wanted out and told Adriana about it, I’m betting Adriana would’ve jumped at helping her.”

“It was Qeesha picking her up in that red car.”

“Doesn’t sound as if unregistered wheels would be a problem for Qeesha.”

“Coupla old friends trying to escape the zombie horde.”

I said, “What if Qeesha’s involvement with the horde included getting pregnant? With Daddy being a loony warlock who ended up killing her and the baby? Adriana went looking for them, paid for her loyalty.”

“Adriana bailed on the Changs three months ago but she got shot a few days ago. What happened during the interim, Alex? Are we talking about a patient bunch of freaks? Because there’s no evidence she was confined. Zero signs of abuse on her body and those lig marks were relatively fresh.”

“Maybe she was careful, snooping around without showing herself. Until she did.”

He rubbed his face. “A picture just flashed in my head.”

“Black-robed ghouls chanting ominously in the moonlight?”

“You’re getting a little scary, dude.”

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Ph.D.’s in psych,” I said. “The state grants us a license to mind-read.”

“What am I thinking now?”

“You’re back in Bizarro World with no damn leads.”

“Oh, man,” he said. “This case ever closes, we’re definitely playing the stock market.”

His desk phone jangled.

Dr. Clarice Jernigan said, “New lab result. Your victim Adriana Betts was dosed up before she was shot. Nothing illegal, her blood showed high concentrations of diphenhydramine. Your basic firstgeneration antihistamine, what they put in Benadryl.”

“How much is high, Doc?”

“Not a lethal dosage but enough to sedate her profoundly or put her out completely.”

“She was knocked out first, then shot.”