CHAPTER SEVEN
We got to the bar by walking down Bourbon Street for a bit, just to get a feel for the place. Perry and I stopped at one of the bars that were open to the street and ordered two sickly sweet Hand Grenades to go, sucking back on that antifreeze while we navigated the early crowds and puking frat boys who’d probably been drunk all day. And how could you not be? I mean booze to-go? Public drinking was encouraged? Suddenly every bad vice I had was begging to come back.
Rose’s bar on Royal Street was further away from the touristy crowds, a large place filled with live jazz, crazy cheap drink specials, and locals having a good time. I was in heaven, especially with the hot woman at my side.
“Do you see her?” I asked Maximus as we stood in the doorway, surveying the room. Most people were sitting near the jazz band, though a few of them were playing pool, and a handful were sitting at one of the two bars.
He shook his head.
“What’s the name of this place?” Perry asked.
“It’s nameless,” he said absently, walking toward the jazz set-up, searching the seats in front of it. A lanky woman with giant breasts and an afro to match was singing sweet sadness, while two old hep cats played easy drums and mellow bass.
“Ugh, this makes me want to play,” I mumbled to myself, feeling the energy of the music seeping through my bones, revving my engines.
“The bar has no name?” Perry went on, still stuck on it.
I nodded to a coaster on the closest table. “Nameless is the name.”
“What happened to your hand grenade?” she asked, noting my empty hands.
“I drank it.” I turned to her. “Do you think they’d mind if I went up there and sang?”
She frowned at me. “Don’t you dare.”
“Hey, I know you find my voice sexy.”
“Dex, you’re one of the best singers I know and I’d love more than anything if you were to sing for me. But please don’t go tossing that woman out of the way. Let’s not get ourselves kicked out when we just got here.” She appraised me more closely. “You’re in a real shit disturber mood today.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “Maybe the drummer would let me take over. He’s got to be what, ninety-years-old? If he keeps playing, he could die.”
“Dex,” she warned. “Come on, let’s get you another drink while he looks for her.”
“Yes, a drink oughta have me thinking clearly.”
We went to the closest bar and took a seat. There was no bartender, so I leaned over to the man next to me, an old grizzled thing with a beard that reached the table and said, “So if there’s no bartender, do we just help ourselves?” I reached over the bar in jest when suddenly I was face to face with a woman.
“You touch any of my booze and I’m putting this shotgun under your chin,” she said, her voice sounding as sweet as she looked, contrasting with her threat. She was around my age, maybe a bit younger, late twenties, and slender with a wide, tanned forehead, grey-blue eyes and curly, white-blonde hair that frizzed a bit at the ends. Pretty thing.
I grinned at her and raised my hands. “I don’t see a shotgun.”
“It’s under the bar, aimed at your gut.”
I cocked my head at her. “Are all bartenders this paranoid in the Big Easy?”
“Sugar, this is my bar and I’m as paranoid as I need to be.”
The bearded man next to me snorted. “He’s a tourist, Rose, just let him pass a good time and charge him the tourist price for drinks.”
I exchanged a glance with Perry. So this was Rose. Well, well, well. I felt a bit smug knowing that we’d found her before Maximus did.
“You’re Rose?” Perry asked.
“Tourist price?” I added.
“Yeah I’m Rose,” she said, folding her arms. “What’s it to y’all?”
My, she was a prickly little thing wasn’t she.
“Oh, well, we’re here with a friend that says he used to know you. Wasn’t sure if you still worked here or not,” I explained.
She squinted at me. “Work here? I own the place now. Have for the last four years. Who is your friend?”
Oddly enough, I didn’t find it was my place to say. Either that, or I wanted to see what her reaction would be to seeing him, not just hearing about it. Was she going to jump across the bar and beat him up (cuz she seemed like the type to put those ginger balls in a vice), or would she act like she’d never seen him before? I didn’t know what their history was, and guessing was half the fun, especially when it came to bodily harm inflicted on him.
I was about to look behind me and see if I could spot him in the depths of the place, but she let out a small gasp and I knew she saw him.
Her eyes went wide, her hand went to her chest, and she said, “My sweet Lord.” I looked over and saw Maximus, halfway across the room, just staring at her, like he was frozen in a dream. I turned back to Rose and saw a wash of sadness come over her brow. Sorrow and regret.
Ah fuck, I couldn’t take any pleasure in this; this was ending up being a lot more sensitive a thing than I had originally thought.
“Max,” she said in barely a whisper, her eyes still glued to his. I looked down at Perry beside me, and she raised her brows and put her hand on my knee. She didn’t know what to make of it either, but suddenly it felt like we were intruding on a very private moment in a very public place.
Still, I had to say, “Oh, he doesn’t like to be called Max anymore. It’s Maximus. Yeah, I think it’s pompous too.”
Suddenly she was looking at me, a weird understanding in her eyes. “You’re Dex.”
It sounded like an accusation. “Uh, I am. How do you know my name?”
“I’d heard a lot about his asshole friend from college,” she said, and before I could say anything to that, she walked out around the bar, stopping just a few feet away from Maximus, hands fidgeting at her waist.
“Was I being an asshole just then?” I whispered to Perry.
She patted my knee. “I didn’t think so, but then again, I’m used to it.”
“You are getting a spanking later,” I warned her, then turned my attention to their awkward reunion. Unfortunately it didn’t last long. Maximus motioned to the outside and Rose followed him out onto the street.
Great. Now we really were in the dark and our bartender was gone. I looked at grizzled Beard Man. “Now what?”
He just shook his head and drank his beer. Luckily, Rose and Max didn’t take forever outside. He came back and sat down next to Perry, and Rose went behind the bar and made three mint juleps for us, extra strong.
“Remember to charge them tourist prices,” Beard Man said.
She nodded at me. “Unfortunately they’re friends of an old friend, so it’s on the house.”
“Woo hoo,” I said. “Everything’s coming up Milhouse.”
“Everything would come up green if you kept drinking those hand grenades,” she said, eyeing the empty one that Perry had finished earlier. “So, Max…sorry, Maximus.”
“It’s Max to you, darlin’,” he said.
She smiled tightly, unsure of herself and quite the change from earlier. “Max. Have you told them about my…uh, ability?”
I looked at Beard Man beside me for his reaction, since talking about “abilities” and stuff in public wasn’t usually kosher. But he just drank his beer, indifferent.
“Don’t worry, he can’t hear me,” she said. I looked at her. She was pouring herself a drink.
“Can’t…” I started.
“Yes, I told them,” he interjected. “Well, I told them you were like them.”
She eyed me and Perry warily. “Is that so? So you guys can see the afterlife too, is that it?”
Again, I looked at Beard Man and gave her the ‘are you crazy talking about this so casually’ look, but again she said, “I’m serious, he can’t hear me right now. I guess you don’t have all the same abilities, do you?”
“Either way,” Maximus said, raising his voice before I could say something, “they understand. And that’s why we’re here. We want to investigate the haunted house in the Desire Area. We need a solid episode, and these two can turn up the goings on that the other teams missed before.”
She sighed and finished the rest of her drink. A couple appeared at the end of the table, waving for her attention but she blatantly ignored them. “I suppose I can help you with that, although I think if you’re wanting to go after something really interesting, you’ll want to talk with Mambo Maryse.”
“My Mambo?” he asked. “Why? I didn’t even think she was still alive.”
“She is, she’s just very sick. But something weird has been happening with the Voodoo crowd lately and I think she’d be the best person to talk to about it.”
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“What is a Mambo?” I asked. My mind was going back to the fruit chew candies I had as a child. Suddenly I really, really wanted one.
Rose addressed me first. “A Mambo is a Voodoo priestess. And I don’t really know what’s happening, there’s just been some rumors of…uh…zombies in the ninth ward and surrounds.”