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When he returned to the bar, Tomi was busy dealing with a bit of a surge, so Dax lifted the bowl on the way by to the tearoom. After stashing Tomi’s bowl in the undercounter cooler, Dax turned on the kettle to boil some water for his pho and some tea. While the water boiled, he fished his phone out of his pocket but nearly dropped it when it vibrated in his hands. He rarely received phone calls, especially if he was in the same building as Tomi.
Dax picked up the call. “Manman Delphine, just the person I was about to call.”
“Bonswa, cher. I’m glad you were thinking of me, but you may not be so happy after you hear what I have to say.” Notes of the trans Black woman’s characteristic humor laced their way through Delphine’s New Orleans Creole accent.
Dax’s eyes narrowed as he ran his hand through his shoulder-length black hair. “Oh? That sounds ominous. What’s up?”
“Let’s just say I have a mystery, and I might need your help.”
He snorted. “I guess we can do each other a favor then. I have a mystery for you.”
Delphine chuckled. “Are you free now? My mystery is currently in my shop.”
“That time sensitive?”
“Blood tends to make things a bit more urgent,” she replied.“I hope not yours.” His voice tightened as his words sped up.
She laughed. “No, cher, but I appreciate your concern.”
“Do I have time to call someone in to cover the rest of Tomi’s shift?” His kettle beeped.
“Did I catch you making tea?”
“No. About to warm up some pho.”
“Sorry to interrupt your lunch. Eat your meal, that’ll give me some time to unravel things a bit more on my end. See you shortly.” She hung up before he could reply.
Pursing his lips, he stared at pho fixings for a moment before shrugging and pouring in the boiling water. Normally, he’d fix a cup of tea to go with his meal, but instead he blew aggressively on his food to cool it down enough to put in his mouth without scalding himself too badly. If Delphine had a mystery, that made him nervous. When he slurped down the last of the broth, he rinsed out the bowl and set it behind the counter.
He grabbed the flyers, leaving one on the table, and folded the other before putting them in his pocket. After grabbing his helmet out of the office, he stepped up front and waited for Tomi to finish with a customer.
“Tomi, I need to go talk to Delphine. Minh Dang has gone missing, and I’m going to ask Delphine if she knows anyone who might have heard something. Plus she’s got a favor of her own to ask me.”
Tomi’s jaw dropped. “Minh? Gone? What…what happened?”
“No idea. Thuc said she just didn’t come home a few nights ago. I told him I’d ask around.”
Bracing his hand on the bar to steady himself, Tomi slowly shook his head. “I wondered why I hadn’t seen her at the store the last couple of days. Damn. Can you wait until I’m off my shift?”
Dax shook his head. “No. I think Delphine is waiting on me. I’ll keep you in the loop, and we can meet up when you’re done.”
Tomi sighed. “Alright, boss. Damn, Minh… Call me if you find out anything.”
Dax reached out and squeezed his friend’s shoulder. “I will.”
Turning around, he walked out the side exit into the alley and straddled his custom chopper motorcycle. After he strapped on his helmet, he fired up the bike and pulled out onto the street, pointing the bike toward Manman Delphine’s voodoo shop.
Chapter Two
As Dax approached the entrance to Madam Thibodeaux’s—as the sign above the door proclaimed it—the lock clicked open though no one stood on the other side of the door. The bell tinkled when he opened the door and stepped through.
“Dax, cher, get your skinny white butt back here,” Delphine called from the back room. Her New Orleans accent always grew thicker when she raised her voice.
Behind him, the door clicked to the locked position. As he wound his way through the narrow and packed aisles of voodoo and other magic supplies and bric-a-brac, he heard her conversing with someone with a masculine voice in Creole. But as he approached the midpoint of the store, the voice shifted as did the accent, slipping into what he thought were multiple languages chaotically overlapping each other.
“What in the world…” Delphine said.
Dax sped up, slipping around the counter and pushing aside the beaded curtain leading into the back room. A man sat on a chair, holding his head in his hands. At least Dax thought it might be a man. He shifted forms in a blurry chaos from a Black man to a white man to a robed skeleton and back around again while mumbling in several languages at once. Finally, he screamed in pain and clawed violently at his wrists until he dislodged a pair of bracelets.
