Out of Body

Chapter 14

Just as with Scully’s, Marley didn’t recall seeing the Caged Bird before. She didn’t care much for either place.

In the center of the club there was an oversize gilded cage suspended five or so feet from the floor by a thick pole threaded, top to bottom, through its middle. Marley could only think of one purpose for the contraption.

“This is a guy place,” she said. “Women dance in there.”

“What makes you think that?” Gray asked.

She stood on tiptoe to get a slightly better look at the cage, then took in the rest of the Caged Bird. A fresh thought amused her. “You mean men pole-dance in that thing, and that one over there?” The gilded showcase had a twin on the far side of a circular bar in the middle of a room resembling a large padded cell. Padded with quilted parrots, their once brilliant colors faded by dust and years.

“Men?” Gray screwed up his eyes to peer at her as if she was manic.

“Might be cool,” she said. “I’ve never seen pole dancing so I’m curious.”

“You want to see men pole dancing?”

She let it go. “If you thumped the wall, you’d choke on the dust,” Marley said, pinching her nose. “And it stinks of beer.”

“That is the aroma of a fine drinking and jazz establishment, ma’am.” Gray arched his brows and grinned. “This is a great old club. And I like it here, so watch it.”

Marley was more intent on watching him, on watching his face to be precise. She had studied it from every angle since he showed up at the shop. There was no sign of a scar that she could find.

In her workroom she had come close to telling him about her most recent journey. The interruption from this place was a good thing since she wasn’t sure who to trust yet.

She had a hunch that he was one of the white hats, the man a woman could trust. Not finding an evil-looking white scar running from cheek to jowl and bisecting his mouth on the way didn’t hurt her new faith in hunches.

“There’s no one here,” she told him.

“So there isn’t,” he said.

“Why are we here then?” Her heart gave a big thump. “It feels creepy. This kind of place doesn’t open in the middle of the day.”

“Baby, in N’awlins you can find this kind of club open any time of day.”

“Baby?” He had to be kidding. “Are you playing some game with me, or just passing the time?”

He slid his hands into his pockets. “I didn’t invite you to come, Marley. Like you say, the place is empty, but I’m patient so I’ll wait for the guy who said Pipes Dupuis was here.”

Gray had not invited her, but he did wait while she went back to her flat and dressed. His tone stung. “I’m not here because I can’t live without your company,” she said shortly. “Just like you, I need leads and I’m hoping to get some here.” She stopped herself from voicing the panicky way in which she felt time running out.

“Okay,” he said. His smile softened her annoyance. “Sorry.”

Hot as it was, she’d put on a black T-shirt with tight, long sleeves. She didn’t want him grilling her about the frightening marks on her wrists again. He’d noticed them before she had.

“Aren’t you hot in that shirt?” he said.

Marley gritted her teeth. One more time, her thoughts and what he said appeared related.

“Black wasn’t the best choice,” she admitted of the shirt.

“It suits you.”

That was not anything she expected him to say, but it brought a flush of pleasure. She swallowed and made a visual journey to the ceiling with the nearest brass pole.

He hummed.

Marley felt him studying her. He made her aware of her body. And aware that Gray enjoyed what he saw.

“Listen,” she said. “Every minute that passes makes me more scared for Liza and Amber. I really want Pipes to show here. She could know something useful.”

“I hope she does,” Gray said. Muscles in his jaw tensed. “I’m thinking Bernie, the manager, contacted the police to tell them she’s alive and kicking. Maybe they already came and picked her up. They’ll have questions for her.”

“If she knows something it could make all the difference,” she said. “For both of us.”

He gave her a speculative look.

“The front doors of this place are wide-open,” Marley said. “But the lights aren’t really on, are they? Or is it always gloomy like this?”

Gray raised a brow. “You don’t like a lot of light, remember?”

“In my own space,” she told him. She caught hold of his arm. “Are you taking any of this seriously? I thought all you wanted was to find Liza and Amber, but—”

“You can’t know how badly I want that,” he said, cutting her off. “But it isn’t all I want.”

The corners of his eyes crinkled. A flinch? Or a wince? Then he smiled faintly and she wasn’t sure, but he had a lot on his mind and he wasn’t in a hurry to share it with her.

“I get it,” she said, although she didn’t really. “This is supposed to be a one-way street. I put myself on the line and tell you whatever I can. You give me nothing in return. Forget it. I’ve got problems of my own to solve.”

“I don’t want you to put yourself on the line.” The smile was gone as if it had never touched his lips. “We’re both on edge. If Pipes isn’t here, she’s probably with the police. We’ll give her a few more minutes, then move on. Either we’ll take another shot at comparing what I know and what you think you do, or we won’t. I’m game but it’s up to you.”

“What you know and what I think I know?”

He put a hand over hers on his arm. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

Marley caught a breath. His eyes really were the color of whiskey and right now all they were seeing was her. Gray’s lips parted. He pulled air in slowly through his nose and kept on looking at her.

“I had a dream early this morning so I traveled back.” The words tumbled out. “It was about something that happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I got a message in a dream. I didn’t want to travel to that place where I saw Liza and Amber again. I had to. That’s what the message was about.”

“Do you always believe dreams?”

“No.” She couldn’t help being defensive. “But this was different.”

“So you did whatever you say you do and went—wherever.” His fingers curled around hers, crushing them together. He pressed them against his arm.

“I went,” she agreed.

A current flowed between them, from hand to hand, and from his arm to her hand. Not a tremor. An exchange of energy.

“What did you see?” he asked very quietly.

“A woman lying on her face.” Without knowing why, she wanted him to believe her. “She was on top of a lot of silk pillows.”

“Was it in that other place again? With the cold storage room.”

He startled her. “Cold storage room? I don’t know for sure if that’s what I saw the other times. There was a room with cold fog.”

His features were hard, completely stark, except for his eyes. Gray’s eyes were vividly alive and filled with questions.

“Couldn’t that have been a cold storage room?” he asked. “A place for keeping things…cold?”

She shivered involuntarily. “I didn’t see it this time.”

“You mean you went to a different place and saw a woman? Was it Amber or Liza?”

“It seemed…I think I went to the same place and it looked different. Or maybe the light was different. I don’t know who she was—she was sleeping.”

Gray’s grip tightened. “You’re sure she was sleeping?”

Marley wasn’t sure, couldn’t be. “I hope she was.”

He looked away. “Did your arms get hurt while you were…traveling?”

For an instant she was back there, her skin connecting to that foul, spined thing.

“What is it?” Gray said.

“Stop it,” she said and startled herself by giving him a push. He stood fast, but she staggered. “I don’t like it here. And I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“You’re not going to have a choice,” he said, his voice even and firm. “We’re going to be together. I feel it.”

Flight was her first impulse. Her second was to put a little distance between them and hold her ground. “You sound strange,” she told him. “Do you know that?”

“Nothing strange about me,” he said, the easy smile tipping up his mouth again. “Although I could be a bit punchy.”

Intuition made her almost certain Gray was either a psychic, or becoming one. And if he was turning into a psychic she thought it was happening because he was around her. Similar cases were documented, but she hadn’t encountered one before.

Another overhead light came on, this one behind a small dais where empty mike stands, an upright piano and two high stools kept company.

A door opened in a parrot-padded wall and a woman came through with a tall man behind her.

“Is this them?” Marley whispered.

When Gray didn’t answer, she glanced at him and realized he hadn’t moved, or turned toward the light. He still stared at her as if he would find the answer to anything that bugged him if he only studied her long enough.

“Gray Fisher!” the tall, thin man hollered. The thick walls muffled his voice. “Here we are.”

“No kidding,” Marley murmured.

“Careful what you say.” Gray had snapped to life and he gave her a warning nod. “Pipes is a jumpy one.”

I’m getting to be jumpy myself. “Gotcha,” she said. “You can rely on me.”

“Hey, Bernie,” Gray said. “Is that you, Pipes?”

The woman said something but Marley didn’t hear what.

“We were just attendin’ to some business in the office,” Bernie said. “I want this songbird of ours back at work. When she isn’t here, we don’t do so well.”

Blonde and nicely made, Pipes hung her head and the shiny, straight hair fell forward to conceal her face.

Bernie chuckled. “She’s still a shy one,” he said. His accent was Cajun, softly rounded on the edges and impossible not to like. “Best voice in N’awlins, this one.” He said this to Marley.

“I hope I get to hear you sing,” Marley said to Pipes.

“Uh-huh.” Shaking her hair back, Pipes set her head on one side and looked out from long bangs. “The show’s not till nine.”

A pretty, dark-eyed woman, she had an emptiness about her. Marley wondered if she could be high on something—which wouldn’t be so unusual.

“Good to see you,” Gray said. “You haven’t forgotten we’ve got a date for an interview, have you?”

Pipes shook her head.

“You were reported missing,” he persisted. “How did that happen?”

She drew up her shoulders. “They don’t listen. The band. I said I was goin’ to be gone awhile. Went to visit the folks a few days.”

“Are you in the band?” Marley asked Bernie politely.

“Nah,” he said. “I’m the manager around here.”

“Has someone let the police know you’re okay?” Gray asked.

Pipes’s eyes got bigger. “I don’t know.”

In other words, she hadn’t done it herself.

“How come you didn’t call them as soon as you saw yourself on the news?” Gray said.

“I don’t watch the news,” Pipes said. “Bernie said they thought I was gone.”

“I’ll give the police a call for you,” Gray said.

“Why?” Pipes said. “I’m back now.”

“There are people out looking for you,” Gray said. He gave Marley an uncomfortably long sideways look—like he was trying to send her a message.

“Pipes took her little girl to stay with her folks,” Bernie said. “She didn’t know about the murder case till I told her.”

Marley heard the conversation, but there were more important things to deal with. She was getting a not very subtle battering at her mind. Someone was trying to make contact. It had to be Gray.

Effortlessly, she turned back his probing signals, but before she disengaged completely, she touched an image that held her. An image in his mind. It belonged to him because he was the one seeing bright colors and, for a brief moment, black hair flowing over silk pillows.

Marley cut herself off from him. The only place he could have gotten such a picture was from her and she didn’t like what that could mean. Only a rogue telepathic power on the hunt would break in and poach an experience that didn’t belong to him. Unless he was invited, or wandered in by accident.

Or unless he was shown the way.

“Marley?” Gray said.

“Yes.” She frowned at him.

There could be circumstances when one psychic actually allowed another to enter their private world. The circumstances weren’t anything Marley was ready for. When the joining happened between a male and a female subject, it was usually a sign of potent sexual desire.

“I don’t know why you left Erin with your folks,” Bernie said to Pipes. “You know she’s always welcome here. She’s no trouble. You’re goin’ to miss her and you don’t sing as good as you can when you’re sad.”

The unspoken exchange between Marley and Gray hadn’t interrupted the conversation, Marley realized. The other two hadn’t noticed anything.

“I surely will miss her,” Pipes said. “But a room behind a club is no place for a little girl to be for hours and hours.” She sounded as if she had rehearsed the last line.

“What’s her name?” Marley asked.

Pipes looked at her a while before she said, “She’s Erin Dupuis. She’s five and smart as can be. Erin knows how to do as she’s told. You learn early when you have to. Good thing, too, bein’ there’s times when it’s easier to just go along. You know what I mean?”

“Yes.” Did she?

Gray cleared his throat. “Was it you who reported Pipes missing?” he asked Bernie.

“Yes,” Bernie said, snickering. “But Pipes is here now and I have never been more relieved to see anyone.”

Straightening her shoulders, Pipes gave a big smile. “Erin needs to be with the folks for a bit.” She carried on as if she hadn’t heard Gray and Bernie talking. “I don’t have time to teach her some things. Like eatin’ the way she ought to, and speakin’ right. Growin’ up like a lady—stuff like that. She’ll learn quick.”

“Gray here wants to talk to you,” Bernie Bois said. “You all sit and I’ll bring a pitcher of somethin’.”

Pipes went straight for a table and slipped into a bamboo chair.

“Is she okay?” Gray said once the woman was out of hearing.

Bernie shrugged. “Pipes is Pipes. Who knows how okay she is, but she sure can sing. Who’s your lady here? You afraid to introduce her in case I steal her from you?”

Marley smiled at that and stuck out a hand. “Marley Millet.”

He shook and held her hand. “Like the antiques people? On Royal?”

“That’s us.” She didn’t get out so much. The idea that people who lived in this town knew her family always came as a surprise.

“That explains the hair,” he said. “My-oh-my, that is red. Never saw redder hair than that. Is it true you all have it—red hair?”

Marley cleared her throat. “Not quite all.” Bless Sykes for his black mane.

“And you are all cursed, right?”

Bernie slapped his thighs and laughed. He laughed till tears trickled from his squeezed-up eyes and ran down his bunched cheeks.

Bernie didn’t stop laughing until he finally noticed he was making a lot of noise in an otherwise silent room.

He shut his mouth over all that hilarity a good deal too late for Marley’s liking. She didn’t have a single idea where this man would get secret information about her family, but she hated it.

“Just kidding,” Bernie said. He coughed into a fist. “Lighten up, all of you. I made a little joke. You know how it is with me, Gray. Folks in the Quarter think I run all the gossip around so they tell me crazy stuff sometimes.”

“Right,” Gray said.

He glanced at Marley and her stomach turned. Bernie was protesting too much and too long and Gray knew it.

“Anyway,” Bernie said, chuckling in little bursts. “What difference would a little curse make among friends?”