Read Online Drop Dead Beauty by Wendy Roberts - Free Book Online Page A

had to raise her voice to be heard over the excited squeals from the tables behind them.
    “My friend’s been having some trouble and I told her you're the man,” Maeva explained to Rudie.
    “As you can see”—he waved his stubby arms at the mass of children—“right now I’m a busy man. You should’ve made an appointment.” Over his shoulder he shouted, “No throwing clay!” And then to an older woman chatting on her cell phone in the corner, he added, “Hey! Supervise them, will ya?”
    Sulkily the older woman stuffed her phone into the pocket of her stretchy pants and snapped a wad of gum as she shuffled over to the kids and did her best to keep them under control.
    “You’re absolutely right,” Maeva agreed. “And we wouldn’t’ve bothered you if it wasn’t an emergency.”
    “This is your emergency?” He eyed Sadie up and down.
    “Yes, that’s her.”
    Sadie shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other while Rudie looked her over. Abruptly the short mole man snaked his hand out and grabbed Sadie’s fingers in his. He enveloped one of her hands in both of his, which were cool, clammy, and covered in bits of clay. At least Sadie hoped it was clay and not some kind of flaking skin infection. She shuddered.
    “Let go of her hand, Rudie,” Maeva instructed.
    “It’s okay,” Sadie said. “If he needs to hold my hand to get some kind of a reading off me, I’m okay with it.”
    Rudie still held her hand in both of his and was staring up at her intently. Sadie looked down into his eyes and tried not to stare at the hairy mole.
    “Rudie doesn’t read people. He’s just getting his rocks off by holding your hand,” Maeva said dryly.
    “Eww!” Sadie squealed, retracting her fingers.
    “It was worth a shot.” Rudie shrugged.
    Rudie took off to the other side of the room, weaving between tables of giggling kids to reach the old lady. He talked to her a minute and she looked over Rudie’s shoulder toward Maeva and Sadie and offered them a curious stare.
    “That’s Rudie’s mother,” Maeva said quietly. “She works with him here.”
    Rudie returned and nodded to a door in the back.
    “Okay, let’s head upstairs while Momma is handling the rug rats down here.”
    They went through the door and entered a stockroom with floor-to-ceiling shelves on three sides. Each shelf was jammed with ceramic pieces in various stages of readiness. At the back of the room they turned and went up a steep set of stairs that opened into an apartment on the second level.
    The apartment was small and had an odd medicinal smell. They went to a kitchen nook in the front room and all sat down at a square table so small their knees touched beneath.
    “Okay, lay it on me,” Rudie said.
    “Well, Sadie’s a psychic medium who helps spirits move on when they’re stuck here after passing,” Maeva explained.
    “Okay.” Rudie turned to Sadie. “These ghosts just show up to you and say ‘help’ and you go ‘okay’ and wave a magic wand, or what?”
    “Um. No. That would be weird.” Sadie shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She wasn’t used to sharing her so-called talent with others. She preferred to keep it under wraps like the fact that she was suddenly craving a bacon and peanut butter sandwich. “I run a trauma-cleanup company and I get calls to clean up after deaths of all kinds, and occasionally there are lingering spirits. If they talk to me I’ll try and help them move on.”
    “How do you help them?” he asked.
    “If they have a reason for staying behind—like unfinished business or something—I’ll help with that, and then I just convince them to let go of this world, and usually it just happens.”
    “And you’ve done this all your life?”
    “No,” Maeva answered on Sadie’s behalf. “It started when her brother took his own life a few years ago. She was a grade school teacher before then and nobly accepted the calling of running a company called Scene-2-Clean to purify the