The Laughing Corpse

Dominga sat in her chair and stared at me. The two uniforms left in the living room stood like all police stand, blank faced, bored, but let anyone move and the cops saw it. The boredom was just a mask. Cops always saw everything. Occupational hazard.

Dominga wasn’t looking at the police. She wasn’t even paying attention to John Burke, who was much closer to her equal. She was staring at little old me.

I met her black gaze and said, “You got a problem?”

The cop’s eyes flicked to us. John shifted on the couch. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“She’s staring at me.”

“I will do a great deal more than stare at you, chica.” Her voice crawled low. The hairs at the nape of my neck tried to crawl down my shirt.

“A threat.” I smiled. “I don’t think you’re going to be hurting anybody anymore.”

“You mean this.” She held out the charm. It writhed in her hand as if thrilled that she had noticed it. She crushed it in her hand. It made futile movements as if pushing against her. Her hand covered it completely. She stared straight at me, as she brought her hand slowly to her chest.

The air was suddenly heavy, hard to breathe. Every hair on my body was creeping down my skin.

“Stop her!” John said. He stood.

The policeman nearest her hesitated for only an instant, but it was enough. When he pried her fingers open, they were empty.

“Sleight of hand, Dominga. I thought better of you than that.”

John was pale. “It isn’t a trick.” His voice was shaky. He sat down heavily on the couch beside me. His dark face looked pale. His power seemed to have shriveled up. He looked tired.

“What is it? What did she do?” I asked.

“You have to bring back the charm, ma’am,” the uniform said.

“I ca

“John, what the hell did she do?”

“Something she shouldn’t have been able to do.”

I was begi

“She absorbed her power back into herself,” he said.

“What does that mean?”

“She absorbed the gris-gris into her body. Didn’t you feel it?”

I had felt something. The air was clearer now, but it was still heavy. My skin was tingling with the nearness of something. “I felt something, but I still don’t understand.”

“Without ceremony, without help from the loa, she absorbed it back into her soul. We won’t find a trace of it. No evidence.”

“So all we have is the tape?”

He nodded.

“If you knew she could do this, why didn’t you speak up earlier? We wouldn’t have let her hold the thing.”

“I didn’t know. It’s impossible without ceremonial magic.”

“But she did it.”

“I know, Anita, I know.” He sounded scared for the first time. Fear didn’t sit well on his darkly handsome face. After the power I’d felt from him, the fear seemed even more out of place. But it was real nonetheless.

I shivered, like someone had walked on my grave. Dominga was staring at me. “What are you staring at?”

“A dead woman,” she said softly.

I shook my head. “Talk is cheap, Seсora. Threats don’t mean squat.”

John touched my arm. “Do not taunt her, Anita. If she can do that instantly, there’s no telling what else she can do.”

The cop had had enough. “She’s not doing anything. If you so much as twitch wrong, lady, I’m going to shoot you.”

“But I am just an old woman. Would you threaten me?”

“Don’t talk either.”

The other uniform said, “I knew a witch once who could bespell you with her voice.”

Both uniforms had their hands near their guns. Fu

Dominga sat silently under the watchful eyes of the cops. I had been distracted by her little performance. There were still no screams from downstairs. Nothing. Silence.

Had it gotten them all? That quickly, without a shot fired. Naw. But still, my stomach was tight, sweat trickled down my spine. Are you alright, Dolph? I thought.

“Did you say something?” John asked.

I shook my head. “Just thinking really hard.”

He nodded as if that made sense to him.

Dolph came into the living room. I couldn’t tell anything by his face. Mr. Stoic.

“Well, what was it?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said.

“What do you mean, nothing?”

“She’s cleaned the place out completely. We found the rooms you told me about. One door had been busted from inside, but the room’s been scrubbed down and painted.” He held up one big hand. It was stained white. “Hell, the paint’s still wet.”

“It can’t all be gone. What about the cement-covered doors?”

“Looks like someone took a jackhammer to them. They’re just freshly painted rooms, Anita. The place stinks of pine scented bleach and wet paint. No corpses, no zombies. Nothing.”

I just stared at him. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

He shook his head. “I’m not laughing.”

I stood in front of Dominga. “Who warned you?”

She just stared up at me, smiling. I had a great urge to slap that smile off her face. Just to hit her once would feel good. I knew it would.

“Anita,” Dolph said, “back off.”

Maybe the anger showed on my face, or maybe it was the fact that my hands were balled into fists and I seemed to be shaking. Shaking with anger and the begi

She smiled as if she could read my mind. “You have nothing, chica. You have gambled all on a hand with nothing in it.”

She was right. “Stay away from me, Dominga.”

“I will not come near you, chica, I will not need to.”

“Your last little surprise didn’t work out so well. I’m still here.”

“I have done nothing. But I am sure there are worse things that could come to your door, chica.”

I turned to Dolph. “Dammit, isn’t there anything we can do?”

“We got the charm, but that’s it.”

Something must have showed on my face because he touched my arm. “What is it?”

“She did something to the charm. It’s gone.”

He took a deep breath and stalked away, then back. “Dammit to hell, how?”

I shrugged. “Let John explain. I still don’t understand it.” I hate admitting that I don’t know something. It’s always bothered me to admit ignorance. But hey, a girl can’t be an expert on everything. I had worked hard to stay away from voodoo. Work hard and where does it get you? Staring into the black eyes of a voodoo priestess who’s plotting your death. A most unpleasant death by the looks of it.

Well, in for a pe

“Someone tipped you off and you’ve been cleaning up this cesspit for two days.” I leaned over her, putting my hands on the arms of the chair. It brought our faces close together.

“You had to break down your walls. You had to let out or destroy all your creations. Your i

The look in those black eyes made me shiver, and I didn’t care. “You’re getting old to rebuild that much. Did you have to destroy many of your toys? Dig up any graves?”

“Have your joke now, chica, but I will send what I have saved to you some dark night.”

“Why wait? Do it now, in daylight. Face me or are you afraid?”

She laughed then, and it was a warm, friendly sound. It startled me so much I stood up straight, almost jumped back.