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"I wasn’t turning tricks, Mamie I just have an enemy"

"Tell Sean about it"

"I can’t"

"Why?"

"He wouldn’t understand"

Maie shook her head "If I did, you wouldn’t believewhile She reached over for Maggie’s Manhattan and drank it down herself, signaling to the bartender to make theot soht like some others Talk to me You want my help, talk"

"At this point of ie said softly

"Like I told you, ie asked "Mamie, I will really, really need your help, and your confidence"

"Talk to me, honey I may be an old whore at the core, but I swear to you, I’ breath

She started talking

The afternoon wore on

Mamie listened and listened Disbelief faded to simple doubt

And then wonder

CHAPTER 12

Callie’s mother had indeed come for her and she was now on her way to a clinic in Denver Rutger had apparently gotten out of jail and crawled under a rock somewhere, but wherever he was, it didn’t ood point, Sean told hi hi the city was just as useful as any other enterprise And so he walked down by Jackson Square, and there, a a dozen other vendors, he saoman he was instantly convinced had to be Mamie’s friend, the voodoo, Marie Lescarre

He wandered over to her

Two giggling young tourists were asking her about love potions As old as Methuselah, brown as a gnarled oak, Marie still had a pleasant, lilting voice, touched with old Southern overtones along with a hint of Island-French dialect She told the girls her potions were just herbal oils, but it was no fault of hers if the sirls bought the potions while Sean studied her supply of incense burners, stones, herbs, and the like When the girls disappeared, the woravely at Sean

"Captain Canady"

"Ma," she answered, rheuht She knew

Mamie hadn’t told her; she had just known

"So you are Marie Lescarre?"

"You know it," the old wo For an old bird, she had fabulous teeth He wondered what gris-gris, what ood calciue na politely, "Your name is very similar to that of the voodoos who becahter" The old woh name for any woman of French, Catholic, or Island descent Lescarre--my late husband’s name"

Sean felt unco her He felt as if he were behaving like a child--and as if she were behaving in a far more mature ood ed "Thanks" If Mamie hadn’t talked to her, how did she know his name and rank--or even that he was a cop? Foolish His nah

"So you have coain "Maested I do so"

"Ah So have you co the sober truth "I’ve cos"

She see But then her voice carried a worried tone "You are in danger, you know"