Business Makes Strange Bedfellows by E. E. Ottoman Read Free Book Online

gruesome news, and Vi nodded.
    "Of course."
    Of course, why would Vi want to spend time with her otherwise? She stamped down on such foolish thoughts. It didn't matter if Vi wanted to spend time with her; the case came first, people were dying, and that must be both of their first priorities. Beyond that, their agreement was strictly business. "Give me a moment to collect my jacket and hat."
    Vi nodded and Gert hurried out of the study to find a new suit jacket. While in her bedroom, she also picked out a new tie and smoothed out her rumpled shirt as best she could. There was nothing to be done about her wide copper curls or the freckles over her nose, though, not that she should have cared. She frowned at herself in her bedroom mirror before heading out of the bedroom and towards the front hall where Vi already waited.
    She plucked her top hat from the hat rack and tucked her cane under one arm. "Shall we?"
    Vi only smiled and led the way outside the waiting cab.
    "Where are we going?" Her thoughts went to the butcher shop, and her pulse quickened a little. Would they be delving deeper into the occult black market? She was eager to see more of what that world had in store.
    "To collect some information," Vi said.
    Hopefully that would not mean they were heading back to the asylum. Glancing out the window, she thought it was unlikely; they seemed to be heading towards the eastern part of Manhattan.
    As they entered the poorer parts of the city, the roads became narrower and much less well paved.  The carriage jolted them back and forth within the carriage and she braced one hand against the wall to stop herself from being flung into Vi's lap. Finally the cab stopped, and Vi swung open the door to reveal a row of shops their glass storefronts displaying everything from furniture to imported foodstuffs. Vi headed straight for the narrow alley that led between two of the tall brick buildings.
    There was a small wood door set into one wall of the alley. When Vi rapped on it smartly, it was opened by a round, grey-haired black woman.
    "Good evening, Vanessa." Vi tipped her hat. "I need to talk to Mary."
    "You'd best come in." Vanessa stepped back from the doorway, and they both ducked inside.
    It was a curiosity shop, a small room packed with odds and ends. A glass case with a register on it sat over to the left, to the right a wall filled to bursting with clocks, taxidermied animals, and small paintings of sad-eyed children. There was another glass case which seemed to contain bowls of different colored powders and salts, along with what looked to be a mummified human hand.
    "Mary, you have visitors," Vanessa said to a young woman sitting behind the counter were the cash register was. She was strikingly beautiful, dressed all in white with a rosary coiled in her lap, her fingers flying over the beads in a slow, rhythmic, yet endless cycle.
    "If you've come for a full séance, I'm afraid you're too late," the woman—Mary—said without looking up at them. "I require three days' notice and a security deposit beforehand."
    "I'm not interested in a séance," Vi said, pulling out her billfold, and counted out a small pile of bills onto the glass countertop. "But I do need information."
    Mary still didn't look up at either of them. "What do you want to know?"
    "There's a creature stalking the street carrying people off," Vi said plainly. "I need to know where it is."
    "It was in the sewers over by the Jewish Quarter," Mary said promptly and with complete certainty in her voice. It made Gert wonder. She'd always assumed mystics and psychics were all charlatans, but now she was beginning to question that assumption.
    Vi's eyebrow's rose. "Was?"
    "I cannot be sure where it is now," Mary said. "But it attacked a man earlier today. His body is in the sewer. Is that all the questions you have?"
    "It is, thank you." Vi tipped her hat to both Vanessa and Mary before turning back to the door.
    "Miss?" There was a touch on her shoulder and