Ceremony in Death - J. D. Robb [106]
“Isis.” Eve sat up. “She was there?”
“She came out of the back while we were doing the herb thing,” Mavis put in. “I was saying how I wanted something to improve my performance level, boost my stage energy. See, when you’re working a grift, you hang better if you believe the con. So if you can do true, it’s mag.”
“I was looking for sex stuff.” Trina smiled sinuously. “Stuff to attract men, lift sexual performance. And I said how I had this stressful job. Kept me tense and edgy. Over-the-counters just weren’t cutting it for me. So I thought they might have something more potent, and I didn’t mind the cost.”
“They had lots of blends.” Mavis took up the story. “I didn’t see anything off. Fact is, she said how drugs weren’t the answer. What we wanted was the natural way. Like holistic.”
“Holistic,” Trina agreed. “We nudged her, flashed credits and stuff, but she wasn’t buying. Or I guess that would be selling.”
“The Amazon Queen went into the back.” Mavis picked up the story. “Came back with this mix.” Hair flying, Mavis dug into her shopping bag, tossed the smaller, clear bag to Eve. “Said I should sample it, and wouldn’t charge me. She wants me to let her know if it worked for me. You can test it out, but I’d say it’s clean.”
“Who gave you the reading?”
“Isis. She didn’t look too keen when she came in.” Mavis tipped back her glass. “We were playing it up, you know. I went with the wide-eyed giggle act. Oohed and aahed a lot over the stock.”
Eve shifted her gaze to the shopping bags. “I see you carried the act through.”
“I liked the stuff.” Mavis grinned, unrepentant. “Then AQ, you know, Amazon Queen, she started to get into it. I had my sights on this A-one crystal ball, a green one. What did she call it, Trina?”
“Tourma-something.”
“Tourmaline,” Roarke provided.
“Yeah, right. Tourmaline. She steered me away, said it was for relaxing, for soothing, and if I wanted energy, I should go for the orange one. For, like, vitality.”
“More expensive?” Eve assumed.
“No, cheaper. Way cheaper. She said how the green one wasn’t for me. She thought I had a friend who could use it, someone close to me who carried too much stress. But she should choose it for herself, when she was ready.”
Eve grunted, frowned.
“Then she gave us a reading. Mega. She said how she was glad we’d come in. She’d needed the positive energy. She wouldn’t charge us for the readings. I liked her, Dallas. She hasn’t got the eyes of a grifter.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll check out the package.” One way to make money, Eve mused, was to round up repeat customers. And a sure way to insure repeaters was to addict them.
“We got to make it.” Mavis was up again, gathering her bags. “I bought this candle for romance. I want to see if it works. See you Tuesday night.”
“Tuesday?”
Mavis tapped her platform sneaker. “Our Halloween party, Dallas. You said you’d come.”
“I must have been drunk.”
“No, you weren’t. Nine o’clock, our place. Everybody’s coming. I even tagged Feeney. See you.”
“Loosen up,” Trina advised as she strolled out. “Wear a costume.”
“Not in this lifetime,” Eve muttered. “Well.” She bounced the small bag of leaves and seeds in her hand. “That was probably a monumental waste of time.”
“They enjoyed themselves. And you’ll feel better once you analyze that mix.”
“I suppose. I’m not getting anywhere.” Eve set the bag on the table. “I keep taking wrong turns. I can feel it.”
“Enough wrong turns, and you usually end up in the right place after all.” He leaned forward, set his hands on her shoulders, and began to rub. “Mavis has a close friend who carries around too much stress.” He worked on the knots. “I wonder who that could be?”
“Shut up.”
He chuckled, kissed the nape of her neck. “You smell wonderful.”
“It’s that goop Trina poured all over me.”
“She mentioned it. She said I’d enjoy it.” He sniffed her neck again, made her chuckle. “And I am. She also said she managed to hold you down for a full body treatment. I’m to pay particular attention to your butt.”
“She certainly did. She tried to