“Yeah. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Took the words right outta my mouth, Doc.”

“Good save, Doc,” Nora said. “But can you explain male submission to women that succinctly?”

“Mr. Tremont, have you ever had a pretty girl in a short plaid skirt and white cotton panties stand over your head and piss through them onto your face?”

Cyrus’s eyes went very wide. He couldn’t find the words to even respond to that.

“Not even fantasized about it?” Doc sounded astonished.

“Hell no.”

Doc threw his hands up in defeat. “Well, you can’t say I didn’t try, your majesty.”

“Any other questions, Cy?” Nora asked.

“Not a God damn one?” Cyrus said. “I mean, thanks, Doc. That helps.”

“I’ll go, majesty, but just one order? Please? Before I go? Kiss your boots? Lick the floor? Take a bullet for you right through this old heart?”

He tapped his chest.

“My order is this,” Nora began. “Go and do whatever sick, twisted, demented, perverted, deranged thing your old heart desires. Just don’t hurt anybody in the process. Well, forget that. Just don’t fuck anybody up in the process.”

“Ah, an it harm none, do what thou wilt. You recite the Witch’s Rede, majesty,” Doc said, apparently more enchanted with Nora than ever. “I should have known you had a little magic up your sleeve. You’ve certainly cast a spell on me.”

Cyrus waited for Nora to say something to Doc, tell him off, or send him packing. But she didn’t. Her eyes narrowed, she glanced off to the side.

“Nora?” Cyrus said.

She seemed to suddenly come back to the present.

“Thank you, Doc,” Nora said. “Now get your old ass out of here before I change my mind about putting you in the ER.”

“One of these days, Mistress. I’ll be your slave yet.”

Cyrus shook Doc’s hand again, and the old boy left them alone. Immediately Cyrus transferred from Nora’s chaise to Doc’s empty red armchair.

“That man is nuttier than a fruitcake,” Cyrus said. “Makes you look almost normal, and God damn, that’s saying something, isn’t it?”

“I remembered something.”

She sounded so serious that Cyrus sat up straighter. His heart pounded hard in his chest, the way it always did when he was about to make a break in a case.

“I remember who I gave my business card to down here,” she continued. “That week I was house-hunting. Doc reminded me.”

“Shit, who was it?”

Nora laughed a little.

“A witch.”

Chapter Eighteen

Cyrus stared at her like she’d grown a second head. Then he shrugged.

“New Orleans,” he said. “Shoulda guessed.”

“I can’t believe I’d forgotten it.” Nora remembered it all now. “It was the day my real estate agent was negotiating for my house. I didn’t know if I’d get it since I put in a low-ball bid. I was getting nutty waiting for the phone to ring, so I went for a walk. Stopped in some little stores to shop. One was some kind of witchy store.”