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Hoodoo Money
Hoodoo Money
Sharon Cupp Pennington

Draumr Publishing, LLC

Maryland
Hoodoo Money

Copyright © 2008 by Sharon Cupp Pennington.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means without the prior written permission of the
publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief pas-
sages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine, or
journal.

Any resemblance to actual people and events is purely

coincidental. This is a work of fiction.

Cover art by SkyeWolf Images.

There is no ISBN associated with the electronic version of this book.

PUBLISHED BY DRAUMR PUBLISHING, LLC
www.draumrpublishing.com
Columbia, Maryland

Printed in the United States of America

 Dedication
To Shelley, who inspired the story behind Hoodoo Money.
To Jennifer, who made me believe I could write it. To
Shawn, who has always been a loud voice in my cheering
section. To my beloved Wayne, who worked long hours,
kept this project solvent and never begrudged me yet
another inker.

To my sister, Linda, who would have been so proud.

 Acknowledgements
I owe boundless gratitude to those members of the good ship Writ-
ing Well, past and present, who read and reread these chapters:
Sue Acuña, Cliff Ashpaugh, Sidney Blake, Barbara Campbell,
Mark Chorna, Hope Clark, Marie Davis, Anne Jeantoux, Jeff
Jewett, Jack Johnson, Brian Kenyon, B.J. Kibble, Brian Lieske,
Rebecca Macintyre, Charles “Mack” McKinstry, Annette Millet,
Robin Pimentel, Rhonda Richardson, Patrick Riley, Rachel Rine-
hart, Donna Rogers, Mardi Sands and Jake Steele—especially to
the late and exquisitely great Dick Ross, who bestowed upon me
the secret decoder ring for entering The Well. Your generosity is
unmatched.

To the citizens of New Orleans, I wish to express my sincere ap-

preciation for the use of your amazing city as the backdrop for
this novel. God bless your infinite strength and unwavering spirit.
May you come back stronger than ever.
 Prologue
P
Chicago, Illinois...

S weating profusely, Lee Allen Dalrymple carted his 280 pounds

up a second flight of stairs. “Damn elevator,” he huffed.
“Been on the fritz more times than not since I moved into this
overpriced apartment.” But a broke-down elevator was the least of
his aggravation. Braeden McKay had flat refused to give him the
crime scene photos from the Dodding murder. “Bitch.”
New shoes pinched Dalrymple’s swollen feet. His head ached.
Perspiration stung his eyes and plastered his white shirt to his back
under a suit jacket that cut into his shoulders.
“McKay’s the cause of all my misery.” He lumbered through
the door of his darkened apartment juggling mail, his laptop, and
battered valise.
During this most recent trip to Texas, he had called forth
every ruse concocted in nineteen years of free-lance journalism.
Three days of impromptu meetings, deep-fried meals, and all-out
groveling, and he hadn’t worn her down a lick.
He kicked the door shut, and the vibration skewed the signed
10 Sharon Cupp Pennington

lithograph on the wall next to the framed dust jacket of The Stoning
of Renzo De Benedictis, his one and only bestseller. “Integrity’s
for Boy Scouts,” he grumbled. People had lewd appetites, and
satiating those appetites had made him a lot of money.
He couldn’t recall any other time a woman had looked him
straight in the eyes and told him her conscience wasn’t for sale.
But McKay had leaned across a glass of expensive merlot, shook
his hand, and said in that irritating drawl of hers, “My decision is
final, Mr. Dalrymple. Herbert Dodding is dead. I can’t change that.
But neither will I contribute to a tell-all book that will follow those
boys for the rest of their lives. You understand, sir, I’m sure.”
Like hell, he understood.
Why did she hold onto the photographs if she didn’t plan to
use them, or any of the research she’d done into the old pervert’s
murder? Her genre was children’s books, and the “Platypus Pearl”
mystery series had made her the newest darling of the preteen
set.
Not that she bragged about it. McKay was too refined, too
genteel. Too damn Southern.
He dropped the mail in the wastebasket—nothing but bills
from his accountant—placed the laptop on his cluttered desk, and
valise on the floor. Lamp on, he shrugged out of the torturous jacket
and headed for the bottle of Johnnie Walker Black in his kitchen
cabinet. Frustration mothered an awful thirst, and Dalrymple was
the thirstiest he’d been in forty-seven years of scandalous living.
He carried the bottle to the living room, grabbed the remote, and
switched on the television. He switched it off just as quick. Today
the news depressed him. Braeden McKay and her unwavering
morality depressed him.
Anger surfaced in his shaking hands when he unscrewed
Johnnie’s cap, splashed two fingers in a glass, and threw back the
amber liquid.
The muffled pop never registered as a gunshot, but an explosion
of white light inside his temple dropped Dalrymple to his knees.
The last image his brain recorded as blood filled his mouth was a
shadow lifting the laptop from his desk.
 Chapter One
P
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, sixteen months later...

“W
sheet.”
hat do you get when you bite a ghost?” Braeden McKay
managed a weak smile and whispered, “A mouthful of

The joke wasn’t any funnier now than it had been the first
time her neighbor’s nine-year old nephew had told it. Neither was
spending an entire morning of her vacation in a cemetery. But
she had promised Angeline she’d be her guest during the Fournier
Cosmetics photo shoot. With the lure of a decadent lunch and
antique shopping afterward, she could hold out a bit longer.
Four hours spent in the merciless Gulf Coast humidity, and
Braeden’s natural curls resembled coppery cotton candy. She
twisted her hair into a haphazard roll, fastened it with a large
plastic clip, then fanned the back of her neck with the brochure
from her pocket. Not that either helped.
Heading down the stone path dividing two rows of staggered
sepulchers and patchwork grass, she was struck by the contrast
between a century-old mausoleum and the camera crew packing
12 Sharon Cupp Pennington

their high-tech gear. She supposed it was no more odd than looking
at a panoramic view of the cemetery with the city’s modern
skyline behind it, or the honking of car horns carried through the
old iron gates on a July breeze. It was one of the things she loved
about New Orleans: the blending of past and present, with ample
deference given both.
“Now what are you doing?” She found her supermodel friend
standing before a small tomb they’d discovered on a break earlier
in the day.
“I’m gettin’ myself a souvenir.” Angeline leaned over the
rusted iron fence marking Simone Dubois’ grave and plucked a
coin off the mutilated brick. “You want me to get you one?”
Braeden eyed the coin with wariness. It was small, silver,
round, and dull-edged. “You lifted that nickel from the grave of a
witch.” She suppressed her shudder. “No, I don’t want you to get
me one.”
Angeline straightened her five foot ten inch frame. “A gypsy,
Brag. Simone Dubois was a Black Gypsy, a hoodoo woman.”
“Same difference.”
“Hardly, and don’t make it sound so sinister.” She buffed
the coin against her blouse before holding it up to the light for
closer inspection. “It’s not like I’m snatchin’ bodies, or pryin’ gold
from their teeth. There must be fifty coins here, nickels and dimes,
pennies. People are expected to take a few.”
“If you want a souvenir, I’ll buy you some beads or a
feathered Mardi Gras mask like the ones we saw in the hotel
lobby.” Appealing to her friend’s flamboyant side wasn’t working;
Braeden tried the practical approach. “Okay, okay.” She raised her
arms in exaggerated surrender. “I’ll buy the postcards this trip,
for pity’s sake, and stamps to mail them. Just put the nickel back,
Angie, before somebody sees you.”
Angeline’s laugh dissipated into the fissures of the tomb. She
rested her boxy sunglasses atop her blonde head and met Braeden’s
gaze beneath the black crystal frames. “No thanks,” she said. “I
think I’ll keep my nickel. Besides, who’s gonna see me? Cooper?
We hired the man to drive, nothing more. The hoodoo woman
supposedly buried beneath all this...finery?” She reached through
the rusted iron bars, tapped the base of Dubois’ tomb with the toe
 HOODOO MONEY 13

of her strappy sandal and added matter-of-factly, “I think not.”

Visions of campfires and burning effigies tumbled through
Braeden’s brain. “What if it’s bad luck to take it, Angie. I mean,
sacrilegious or something.” The or something worried her. “What
if there’s some kind of...”
It seemed ridiculous to even say the word out loud.
Angeline whirled, clapping her hands. “I can’t believe it,
Brag! You were gonna say ‘curse,’ weren’t you?”
“S-Something like that.”
The supermodel edged through the small gate hanging lop-
sided from the rusted iron enclosure. An elusive breeze caught the
hem of her silk crepe skirt, and a dance of yellow designer daisies
swirled about her ankles as she planted her outrageously insured
derriere on the tomb’s narrow foundation ledge.
She motioned for Charlie Cooper, and the driver ambled over
with a pucker on his face that reminded Braeden of tasting tart
lemonade.
“Here, Cooper. Take a picture of us for posterity.” Angeline
shoved her camera at him, then patted the space next to her
indicating Braeden should also sit. “Just me and Brag and little ol’
Simone Dubois,” she teased. “Black Gypsy.”
Braeden stepped out of range of the shot. “Thanks, but no
thanks.”
The camera whirred and clicked, clicked and whirred. “Come
on, Brag.” Angeline struck another silly pose. “I mean, a curse.
For heaven’s sake, you don’t really believe in such things. Do
you?”
Braeden wanted to say no, but hesitated. She was three-quarters
Irish after all. Wasn’t she obligated to believe in leprechauns and
cluricauns, and the kissin’ of the Blarney? She even had the woven
cross of Saint Brigid attached to the wall above her bed.
“Love potions, spells cast under a full moon, that ol’ black
magic?” Angeline tossed the coin one-handed and snatched it
back in mid-air. “The walkin’ dead?” She giggled.
She waved off the driver, stood, then shook gritty brick dust
from the crisp folds of her skirt. Then she leaned over the decrepit
little fence, smiled engagingly at the group of fans clustered
around the tomb, and signed a few more autographs.
14 Sharon Cupp Pennington

Angeline St. Cyr, Braeden thought with unbound affection,

the quintessential PR package. Fournier Cosmetics was lucky to
have her.
“It’s only a nickel, Brag.” Angeline threw her head back,
laughing out loud as she caressed the coin between her thumb
and forefinger. “A plain old, honest to God, made in America
nickel. And it’s mine. Finders keepers you know. Anyway, look
at the date.” She turned the coin, heads up this time, and thrust it
within inches of Braeden’s freckle-dusted nose. “How can there
be a curse on the damn thing, sweetie? It’s not even old enough
to have collected a coat of tarnish. Now,” she tapped the folded
pamphlet in Braeden’s hand a couple times with one bejeweled
finger, “read that to me one more time, Brag. What the brochure
says about this mean ol’ gypsy who’s gonna put the whammy on
me for takin’ her nickel.”
Slipping on the reading glasses snagged along the neckline at
the front of her shirt, Braeden unfolded a brochure procured from
the hotel’s concierge. According to the author, hoodoo folk magic
blended the beliefs and traditions brought to America by African
slaves with the botanical knowledge of Native Americans. It was
thought to involve clairvoyance, hexing, conjuring, and the healing
of spirit and body using roots, herbs, and other natural elements.
The brochure also referred to coins similar to those deposited on
Dubois’ grave as hoodoo money: coins left on specific tombs in
exchange for favors from the dead.
Or from the undead.
Good magic, bad magic, lotions and potions. Braeden
shivered, in spite of the sultry Louisiana heat. It sounded more
Voodoo than hoodoo. Not that Angeline cared, or would even
consider surrendering her prize souvenir on the chance it had been
deposited on want and a promise.

Hidden by a uniform row of tombs, he watched and waited, a

canvas shopping bag on the ground near his feet. Unaccustomed
to contact lenses, he blinked several times, then squinted as he
raised his camera.
He smiled. Today his eyes were umber, the color of shadow,
how appropriate. Beneath the Orioles baseball cap his thick
 HOODOO MONEY 15

sandalwood hair, a new shade and slightly grayed at the temples,

added bogus years to his clever disguise.
Through the camera’s viewfinder, he studied the somber
tableau stretched out before him. A mortician’s Valhalla, the rows
of tombs seemed endless. Path upon narrow path, they formed
a macabre latticework of dead-end streets and snaking avenues,
permanent addresses to poets and pirates, paupers and pompous
politicians.
He panned his camera left. Many of the burial chambers were
large and ostentatious, with friezes sculpted into their deep sides
and elaborate statuary embellishing their rooftops. The relentless
sun bleached their white marble doors, and half-dead grass
breached the stone paths leading up to them.
They reminded him of poorly kept yards and poorly kept
lives—of long kept secrets at risk of being unraveled.
He tracked the camera forward, where the crypts appeared as
shrunken, windowless replicas of local banks and civic buildings,
the Garden District’s grand mansions. Others resembled the gallant
Bastille, surrounded by garish cast iron grillwork, rust staining
their concrete foundations. Still others, low rent efficiencies and
walk-ups of handmade brick, crumbled with age, corners jutted
out as if to snag the attention of the next passerby.
Panning the camera right, he zoomed in until Simone Dubois’
grave and the two women filled the viewfinder. Killing the arrogant
journalist, Dalrymple, had been easy, even pleasurable. But he had
never killed a woman.
The prospect of doing so left him both excited and nauseous.

Charlie Cooper rested his shoulders against a stark white

mausoleum adorned with elaborate Tiffany windows in hopes
the relaxed mien might camouflage his mounting frustration.
He couldn’t keep his eyes, or his mind, off the self-absorbed
supermodel. Hell, he was ten yards away and still smelled
Angeline’s fresh scent.
Yanking a starched handkerchief from his back pocket, he
mopped sweat from his brow. His grandfather’s words never rang
truer in his ears, “Swamp rats the likes of you can look at the
pretties all they want, boy, but you sure as hell can’t touch ‘em.”
16 Sharon Cupp Pennington

A slight wind ruffled his short-cropped chestnut hair but did

nothing to cool his annoyance at the realization he’d grown hard
again. “Damn, Coop,” he whispered. “You used to possess a
modicum of self control.”
He walked a few yards farther down the stone path separating
the staggered tombs and mausoleums, concentrating on weeds
that fought their way up through cracks only to wither in the
unforgiving sun. Angeline’s compact camera, suspended from
the noose of a strap around his neck, knocked against the buttons
of his damp shirt with every step and set a beat to the pounding
jackhammer inside his head.
A safe distance away, he dug in his pockets for a couple of
aspirin. But all he got was yesterday’s sample-sized packet of extra
strength Tylenol PM and another of Mylanta antacid lozenges,
cherry crème flavor. Terrific. One was guaranteed to remedy pain
and sleeplessness, the other to soothe a burning heart.
Apt enough—if his heart was located between his legs.
Cooper ripped open both packets, popped the mix in his mouth.
His head throbbed like a son of a bitch now, two jackhammers and
a chorus of clinking, clanking cameras.
He fished the box of Marlboro Lights from his shirt pocket,
lit up, then tossed the cigarette in disgust after a couple bitter hits.
“It’s not like you to binge,” he said. “On anything.”
Removing the dark aviator glasses, he pressed his palms to
his feverish eyes and held them there. His head reeled from last
night’s junket to Decatur Street with a former colleague. The guy
had blown into the city for the day, supposedly to interview a
promising faculty candidate for one of the universities in south
Florida. More likely he was here as a friend, checking up on
Cooper.
The interview went belly up and the two of them joined forces
around half past six, feasting on an abundance of barbecued ribs
at Miss Jean’s and ending up at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville
around eleven. To the delight of every Parrothead in the joint,
Cooper included, the man himself put in an appearance, making
the occasion worth a few more rounds of salt-rimmed poison.
What had the two of them done between the ribs and the ritas?
Cooper smiled. They chased skirts of course.
 HOODOO MONEY 17

He had caught one, too. But damned if he could remember her

name. Hell, he might’ve called her Perfection, but the woman still
wouldn’t have been Angeline St. Cyr, and the itch he’d suffered
since setting eyes on the model at the airport a week ago would
still need scratching.
This morning he’d hung around long enough to snap a handful
of shots of Angeline while she’d posed on Dubois’ tomb. For
posterity, she said in that voice of hers, the one that could melt a
cold pat of butter off stale toast in less time than it took to spit.
“Yeah. Like you have spit to spare this morning, old man.
Shit for brains, that’s what you got. Shit for brains and an erection
harder than a railroad spike.” Cooper squinted at the Timex
strapped around his wrist. A quarter past. He glanced back at
Angeline. “Five minutes more in this cemetery, dream girl,” he
said, “and we’re leaving.”
No ifs, ands, or what fors.
He considered untucking the drenched shirt from his belted
khaki trousers, but thought better of it and silently cursed his
dwindling stamina. Once upon a time, not so awfully long ago,
all-nighters like the one he and his buddy had pulled were nothing
to him.
“Damn you, Angeline St. Cyr.” Why’d she have to be so good
looking, smell like hunger and hope; why’d she have to be so
confounded stubborn?
He had escorted the model and her pint-sized companion
around New Orleans for a week, and generous to a fault he’d
been with his time and patience, both short commodities in the
customary routine of his day. This was by far the dumbest thing
she had done: treating the old Saint Louis like it was the prime
location for a photo shoot and appointing herself the delegated
diva. Smiling and signing autographs, chatting with every Doting
Donald who managed to get close enough, which wasn’t all that
difficult.
Cooper crushed out another cigarette. If some lunatic wanted
at her, he’d have had a field day. “Why does she have to be so damn
accommodating?” It wasn’t like there weren’t already enough
fans worldwide, enough posters and placards and in-living-color
photographs of her plastered to the edge of the known universe.
18 Sharon Cupp Pennington

“Yeah,” he huffed, “her bloody universe.”

He dislodged a week-old issue of the Wall Street Journal from
his back pocket, searched out a spot in front of the adjacent tomb
where the pigeons hadn’t roosted, and spread the pages across the
narrow stoop. Groaning, he eased his abused body between a fixed
concrete vase banking the front of the tomb and a chubby cherub
that looked a bit too much like a madam he once knew.
“Five minutes more,” he ground out between clenched teeth,
“and we’re gone.”
He stretched his legs, crossed them at the ankles, then glared
in the direction of Dubois’ grave where the Queen of Cosmetics
still held court. His gaze moved beyond her to reconnoiter the
area. He jerked the crumpled box of Lights from his pocket. Hands
cupped, he lit another cigarette and drew deep. Not only was this
stroll through tomb town dumb, it was dangerous.
Braeden joined him at the tomb’s edge. “Angeline’s amazing,
isn’t she?” She sat slightly above the chubby cherub and dangling
one leg, stirred the air next to his shoulder with a tiny circular
motion. “I know how tired I am,” she said. “She’s got to be getting
that way, too.”
The breeze her rotating half-boot created felt good, but the
idolatry in her voice clamored annoyance up Cooper’s spine.
Tamping it down would take too much effort, so he let it stew.
“Why does she do it then? I mean, besides the money.” He offered
the Lights to Braeden, tossing them in the empty vase when she
declined. “I’ve been watching her for days now, and she never
stops performing, never steps down from that golden pedestal
Fournier’s created.”
Braeden stooped to wipe dirt from the toe of the boot with a
wadded tissue. “Pedestal?” She laughed in earnest. “Angie would
be pissed if she heard you say that.”
“I imagine she would be. Royally pissed.” Cooper tossed his
cigarette, took the tissue from her hand, spit on it, and ignoring her
gasp, rubbed it across the smudge, smiling as he worked. Queen of
cosmetics, royally pissed. Get it?
Braeden covered his hand with hers, stopping both in mid-
swipe. Cooper grunted. She was right. They were only making
matters worse with the boot. “How’d you two hook up anyway?”
 HOODOO MONEY 19

“It was after my parents died.”

He raised a brow.
“Car accident,” Braeden said. “I was thirteen and moved in
with my grandfather. Angeline lived next door. She was pretty and
popular, a cheerleader. I was sad and shy, a real mess.”
“She felt sorry for you?”
“Maybe, at first. But friendship is give and take, Charlie. I was
sad and shy...and smart. She barely edged out C’s.”
“You were her tutor?”
“Guess you could say we tutored each other.”
“And this is why she calls you Brag?”
Braeden winced. “But not because I bragged about being
smart.”
He nodded. “Because you didn’t.“
“That right, just wasn’t me. But the nickname stuck. Whenever
my grandfather toured—he’s a concert violinist—I stayed with
Angeline’s family. She and I became inseparable. Fifteen years
later, and we still are.”
His jaw tightened as he watched the supermodel drape her
arm around a teenage boy’s shoulders, then kiss his cheek while
another boy snapped their picture. “She seems kind of stuck on
herself.”
Braeden smiled. “You’re wrong, Charlie. Angeline shoots as
straight as anyone I know. Truth is, she really likes these people.”
Her hands did a broad sweep as if encompassing every tourist
that remained in the cemetery. “The old ones, young ones, the
star-struck ones. She even likes the nerdy ones who trip all over
themselves trying to impress her. They’re good to her. She’s good
to them. You could call it a trade-off.”
“Her majesty’s way of thanking the little people?” He couldn’t
resist the dig, given his ingenious pun and desolate track record
with women. Add to that what little he remembered of his own
mother and Cooper didn’t feel the least bit charitable toward a
woman who made her living off her God-given looks—exquisite
though they were.
“Angie wouldn’t say that.” Braeden slipped off her wire-
rimmed glasses and wiped the lenses before folding the earpiece
over the neck of her white t-shirt.
20 Sharon Cupp Pennington

Cooper had seen her perform the backwards ritual countless

times over the past week, wiping her glasses after using them
instead of before.
“She works tirelessly for her fans. They buy her posters,
calendars, and workout videos. They want to dress like her, walk
and talk like her. Hell, Charlie, some of them want to be her.” She
unfastened the clip from her hair, tucked a loose strand back in,
then replaced the clip. “There was this one woman in Minneapolis,
she had this extensive redo on her face and breasts so she could
enter one of those look alike contests. She won, too. Got a trip to
Paris and her picture in the papers, those awful grocery store rags
mostly. She even had lunch with Angie at this quaint little bistro.
But all that cost her a mint, and a boyfriend. Pretty wiggy, huh?”
Cooper arched his back, shifted positions. “Where do you fit
into all of this?”
“I’m merely along for some R and R this trip. Food I shouldn’t
eat. Gossip I don’t need to hear, but love anyway. Angie and I try
to meet like this once a year. The location usually depends on her
work, but I don’t mind. I can write anywhere.” Braeden stood,
dusted the seat of her jeans. “Besides, somebody’s got to help
carry all that luggage.” She took the soiled tissue from his hand
and shoved it in the front pocket of her jeans. “Could I have the
keys to your car? Angie’s got a bottle of Evian in her briefcase.
If I don’t get the dirt off this boot, she’s going to kill me.” Before
Cooper could speak, she answered his question in two words,
“Shoe fetish.”
He raised a couple of inches, fished the keys from his pocket,
then handed them to her. “Crank her up while you’re there, kid.
Turn the AC on. We’ll be right behind you.”
“You sound pretty sure of that.” Laughing, Braeden turned
and took several steps toward Basin Street.
Cooper stood and brushed the seat of his trousers with a couple
swipes of his now steady hands. If there was anything he was sure
of, it was leaving the old St. Louis. “Lock yourself inside,” he
called after her. “This isn’t the Garden District, you know.”
He shook his head and laughed at the image his brain projected
of the featherweight—all one hundred pounds of her—bowed
under a ton of monogrammed Armani. No way could she carry
 HOODOO MONEY 21

Angeline St. Cyr’s luggage. He should know; his back was still
knotted in spasms for the deed.
Before retrieving the box of Lights from the cherub’s vase,
Cooper took one last glimpse around, searching for the nerdy
stranger he’d seen lurking behind a camera. The man was gone.
He shrugged and whispered, “Just another starry-eyed fan
hoping to work up enough bluster to ask for an autograph.” Sure,
it made sense enough.