Sixth Sense: An Anthony Carrick Mystery, #6

By Jason Blacker

After visiting a fortune teller on the Pier in Santa Monica, Anthony Carrick get's riled up about what she told him about the skeletons he carries around. Things get worse when she ends up dead in her tent. Thing is, the fortune teller's sister left moments before.

A witchdoctor also ends up dead shortly after meeting Anthony Carrick. Now Anthony's starting to take it personally. This witchdoctor was a friend of the fortune teller. The murders are similar. It looks like a crazy serial killer is on the loose. They leave the bodies looking like voodoo dolls, full of needles.

When a third body ends up dead the same way, things take a more sinister turn. This woman worked for a private adoption agency in Beverly Hills. Could all 3 murders be related? 

Anthony Carrick has to find out, and time is running out before more bodies start piling up. From African voodoo, oracles and psychics, to child kidnapping, there is more to these murders than meets the eye. A fast paced case with twists and turns that reach from Africa to America, it will test Anthony's resolve and skills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jason Blacker
• Release date: Mar 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781927623763

Jason Blacker

Jason Blacker was born in Cape Town but spent most of his first 18 years in Johannesburg. When not grinding his fingers down to stubs at the keyboard he enjoys drinking tea, calisthenics and running. Currently he lives in Canada.  Under his own name he writes hard boiled as well as cozy mysteries, action adventure, thrillers, literary fiction and anything else that tickles his muse. Jason Blacker also writes poetry and daily haikus at his haiku blog.  You can find his haikus and other poetry at his website www.haiqueue.com.  For FREE books and to stay up to date and learn about new releases be sure to visit www.jasonblacker.com where you can find more information about his writing and upcoming projects.  If you enjoy space opera in the tradition of Star Trek then take a look at Jason Blacker’s pen name “Sylynt Storme”. It is under the name Sylynt Storme where you can find both sci-fi and vampire fiction written by Jason Blacker.  “Star Sails” is the space opera series and “The Misgivings of the Vampire Lucius Lafayette” is his vampire series.

Book preview

Oracle of the Okavango

Madame Mawusi Mmorosa was a tall slender woman. Slim like her assistant out front but a little taller. She too was dressed in a similarly patterned African dress. Most of it was yellow leaning on gold for flavor, with greens, reds and bits of blue thrown in, in geometric patterns. It looked colorful and festive. On her head was a wrap of the same sort of fabric with a knot in the front.

Madame Mmorosa, as she had introduced herself, came out to greet us and we followed her into a darker, smaller room just off to the side through a beaded curtain that clicked and clacked like it might have been made of the real finger bone joints of long dead mystics.

Madame Mmorosa wore no makeup and she sat us around a round table covered with a black cloth. It was a modestly sized table and upon it was a skull. The skull looked eerily real in the dim light we were in. Because this was an experience for Aibhilin, I let her go first.

My name is Madame Mmorosa but you can call me Madame Mawusi if you like, she said to Aibhilin.

My name is Aibhilin, she said, grinning from ear to ear.

How old are you Aibhilin?

I’m twelve years old.

And very beautiful, said Madame Mawusi. This is your father?

Aibhilin nodded. He’s a private investigator.

I see, said Madame Mawusi, looking over at me. Let us begin, Aibhilin, by letting me read your palm.

Aibhilin offered her left hand.

Are you left handed? asked Madame Mawusi.

Aibhilin shook her head.

Then we must use your other hand. The one that you write with.

Aibhilin gave her the other hand. Madame Mawusi held it with the palm up in her hand and leaned in to inspect it.

Long before the white man visited the African shores, said Madame Mawusi, my ancient mothers were foretelling the future for my people so that we would have good fortune in battle and bountiful crops to fill our hungry bellies.

And where is that? I asked.

Ghana, she said, not looking at me.

I watched the charlatan work her magic on Aibhilin. We’d be having a discussion afterwards about how this sort of entertainment works.

Madame Mawusi promised my daughter a long life. Said she would live to one-hundred and one. That made me think of ice cream and another weird flavor I’d seen called Chocolate Bacon & Eggs. Madame Mawusi said that Aibhilin would have three children, which made her happy. She would marry a tall handsome man whose name would start with a B. Aibhilin turned to me.

Brody, Daddy, it could be Brody.

I smiled and nodded. Brody was her current crush. A twelve year old boy in her class who seemed to like her too, but perhaps not in the way she liked him. As far as I was concerned, Aibhilin wasn’t going to be dating seriously until after high school. And only then, when I’d given the lad the once over.

Madame Mawusi also suggested that Aibhilin would become a great dancer or veterinarian. Two very smart but obvious choices for a young girl. I imagined it would be hard to find a girl of twelve who didn’t perhaps like at least one of those two ideas.

Madame Mawusi didn’t let Aibhilin ask any questions. She got up and from behind her she opened up an old writing desk and took a pack of cards from it. She took the cards out of the pack and broke them into two decks. One was twice the size of the other. She picked up the smaller deck and shuffled them three times and then handed them to Aibhilin.

Please shuffle them for me, she said. We’ll be doing a six card reading which is one of the most popular readings for getting an idea of where things are right now in your life and where you hope to be going and what your problems might be that you’ll have to overcome in order to get there.

Aibhilin gave Madame Mawusi her cards back. Madame Mawusi fanned them out in front of her so that a portion of each one could be seen.

Now, you will choose six cards, one at a time. But before you choose your first card, I want you to think about this question, ‘How do you feel about yourself at this moment’. Don’t answer it. Just think on it.

Madame Mawusi looked at Aibhilin. Aibhilin was grinning from ear to ear.

Are you thinking of that question?

Aibhilin nodded.

Now, with that question in mind, choose one card from these twenty-two.

Aibhilin pointed at one towards her right in the fanned out cards which lay face down. Madame Mawusi pulled the card out from the line of cards and placed it face up in front of Aibhilin. The card was a drawing, that looked like it was of some woman who might have been royalty, sitting on a chair. The card was upside down as we looked at it.

This is the High Priestess, said Madame Mawusi, though she is upside down for you. That changes the interpretation of the card. What this tells me, Aibhilin, is that you think too much about what others think of you. You see, the High Priestess speaks to the inner voice that you have. Your intuition. But with her being upside down, it means that you are not listening to that inner voice as much as you should be. You’re taking in the advice of what others think of you, when you should be relying on your own counsel. This is making you feel unsure of yourself and your relationships at the moment.

So what can I do? asked Aibhilin, eager for an answer to her made up problems.

The High Priestess can be very helpful in these situations. The fact that you have the High Priestess card means that you are very self aware. She represents wisdom, serenity, knowledge and understanding. She is the link to the unconscious. But because she is upside down, you need to focus on what areas of your life you might have neglected. Especially the areas that you have perhaps neglected for other people. Dreams, and quiet moments to think about what it is you want will help you to figure this out. You have a strong intuition and inner voice. You must just take a moment each day to sit still and listen to it. It will tell you the answers you seek.

And so it went. Madame Mawusi filled Aibhilin’s head with contradictory but mostly hopeful interpretations of the cards she got. The next card up was related to the question of what Aibhilin most wanted right at this moment. She chose The Fool. Right way up this time. This apparently meant she wanted a change. She wanted to travel and find new beginnings or something like that. Madame Mawusi’s generic babbling was so open ended as to allow for flights of fancy and misery to take off from that very same runway simultaneously. But Aibhilin seemed to enjoy it.

She reminded both Madame Mawusi and me that Artero and her mother were taking her to Disney World next week for a holiday. That seemed to mean, in Aibhilin’s mind, that Madame Mawusi was a great fortune teller.

The next card up was related to the question of what Aibhilin’s greatest fears were at the moment. This card turned out to be The Chariot. An upside down chariot which meant that Aibhilin feared she was losing control over her life or her destiny. That she was trying to regain control over events that were outside of her ability to change. And blah, blah, blah. When asked how she could overcome those fears, Madame Mawusi gave her the sage advice to start by taking control of small decisions.

I was tolerating all of this because it was cool inside this den of disrepute and it was just purely entertainment. A fact that I wasn’t sure was well cemented within Aibhilin’s mind. Something we would talk about after.

The fourth question was about the things that were going well for Aibhilin, or helping her along at this moment. The card she chose was Strength. It was right side up. It depicted an angel or saint holding the mouth open of a lion. A weird suggestion of strength. But the drawing was good if I was going to be an art critic.

This is a good card to have, Aibhilin, said Madame Mawusi. It is called Strength, and it is the right side up for you. This means exactly what you might think it means. This card is similar to The Chariot you chose earlier. But rather than being about the outer world, this card represents your inner world. You have great strength of character, determination and fortitude going for you right now."

Fortitude? asked Aibhilin.

It means you have great mental and emotional strength during difficult times. You can weather emotional storms well, just like a fort can withstand turbulent seas and winds, I said.

Madame Mawusi smiled at Aibhilin and nodded.

This also means that you’ll be able to face those fears you have and your current difficulties in believing in yourself.

Madame Mawusi babbled on for a while longer along those lines before giving Aibhilin the next question. The fifth question was the opposite of the one before it. Now Aibhilin was asked to think on things that might be going against her. With that in mind, she pulled out an upside down Hermit. Though the picture didn’t look like a Hermit to me. Looked more like one of the three wise men carrying a lamp and looking for baby Jesus by himself.

Because this was upside down, Aibhilin was allegedly feeling isolation and loneliness as themes that were working against her. Of course, the solution to that, as Madame Mawusi so astutely pointed out, was to get with people. Though she didn’t quite say it like that.

The last card was pulled in relation to a question that Aibhilin could ask or if she didn’t have one to ask, it would relate to the outcome of her current situation. That’s as Madame Mawusi put it. Of course, twelve year old girls are full of questions and Aibhilin was no different. She asked if Brody liked her more than Amber. I didn’t know who Amber was, but I quickly figured out she was likely my daughter’s nemesis.

The card pulled was the Wheel of Fortune. It was right side up. This was a good omen according to Madame Mawusi. It suggested good luck, destiny as well as karma and the cycles of life. So, yes, my dear sweet Aibhilin, it did indeed suggest that Brody preferred you to Amber, if you want to believe in that mumbo jumbo. Madame Mawusi was more erudite than that of course. I spaced out for a while as she started to explain the meanings of the different icons on the card. There was Anubis, a Sphinx, snakes, the word Tora or Tarot depending on how you read it. Symbols for the compounds that allegedly made up the building blocks of life according to alchemists and clouds and blue representing wisdom or some such.

Overall, Aibhilin seemed quite happy with her reading. Then it was my turn about a half hour later. I’ll not bore you with the details.

Life Line

Or maybe I will. I had to live through it, so I’d like to share the misery. The palm reading was mundane. My life line suggested great vitality and plenty of energy, being as it was long and curved away from the thumb. At least that’s how I remembered it. If my energy is that vital, perhaps I’ll start smoking again, I thought. But that was just in jest. A little.

The head line, being deep and long and straight suggested that I was a clear, focused and realistic thinker. I wasn’t sure what the alternatives were unless you were mentally ill. But I didn’t ask that.

My heart line suggested I was happy with my love life. This was true. Emily and I were in a good place. But apparently this had nothing to do with Emily and I, and was solely on account that my heart line started below my index finger. At least that’s the gist of what I got out of it.

I had no fate line. I suggested that meant that I was the master of my own domain. Captain of my ship. Madame Mawusi wasn’t so sure. She suggested it might be mingled with my life line on account of how deep and long that was. More than that, she couldn’t seem to help me out with my fate. That was to come through the help of poker, or at least a deck of cards that might have been more fun if used for poker.

I had the same reading as Aibhilin. Aibhilin was there, of course, as I had been for her. I got to think on the same six questions. I chose Death for how I was feeling right now. Madame Mawusi seemed to suggest this meant I was having a hard time moving on from a recent and difficult time.

Sometimes, she said, looking at me searchingly, this could mean that you have recently suffered a death close to you and you’re having difficulty letting go of that pain and suffering.

When I have played poker, I’ve been pretty good. Maybe it’s because I was a cop for so long. You have to learn how to lie sometimes, so you gain the trust, or dupe, your suspect into believing you know more than you do. Or vice versa.

And both Madame Mawusi and Aibhilin looked at me. Looking for something that I had hidden well. That was So-yi’s death in New York the winter just gone. But I had an ace up my sleeve and I played it.

I deal with death all the time, I said, being a private investigator.

And I was most certainly not going to bring Aibhilin into the sordid world of my work. I never shared the details with her, and I wasn’t about to either. Especially not in a tent of trickery.

Yes, I understand, said Madame Mawusi, now sounding more like a psychiatrist than a charlatan, but I feel that this card speaks to a recent death, and one that you are having a hard time letting go of.

There they were again, four searching eyeballs trying to peek into the depths of my soul. I wouldn’t have it. If only to protect my daughter from the seedier aspects of life. I shrugged.

I don’t share the same concern. I have been thinking of my father’s death recently, I lied. I hardly ever thought of my father at all, dead or alive. But that wasn’t recent.

Perhaps later, in a moment of clarity it will come to you.

Madame Mawusi didn’t push any harder. We moved onto the second question. That was, what I wanted right now. And what I wanted right now was a naked woman, a large whiskey and a fresh cigarette. What I had to settle on was more interrogations by a witchdoctor. I pointed at a card and Mawusi pulled it out. It was called the Tower. It was upside down. It was a macabre scene. A tower was perched high on the peak of a mountain and had been hit by lightning. The tower was burning and it looked like a man and a woman had thrown themselves from it to avoid the flames.

This card suggests to me that you are trying to avoid an impending disaster. That you are fearful of change at the moment. You want calm and serenity but you’re afraid of looming omens.

I thought what I feared was related to the third card, yet to come, I said.

Mawusi smiled at me.

They are all interrelated. We will see if this is borne out by the next card. But when this card is upside down, what it is telling us is that you need to embrace any looming difficulties. In essence, you need to go through this impending disaster in order to come through it for the better. Subconsciously you want to and need to, but your consciousness is bucking against it.

Well, I said. My life is fairly mundane at the moment. I can’t see any difficulties up ahead.

They might not be physical, she said. They could be related to the inner journey. Perhaps this death you are having difficulty in overcoming. I sense that you should let yourself journey through the pain and sorrow.

Madame Mawusi looked at me for a long time. I held her gaze. If nothing else, she knew how to read someone. She’d have made a good cop if that’s what she would’ve been. I had nothing left to say. She didn’t push it. I was, after all, paying her way.

The third card as I’d mentioned earlier had to do with my fears. The only fear I had a sense of was the fear of wasting my life longer than I had to in this den of deceit. I chose the Devil. He was right side up.

The card depicted a Satyr with bat’s wings and a naked man and woman loosely chained to his pedestal. The devil has a pentagram at the top of his head. Mawusi told me that this card often related to addictions or bondage when shown right way up. She asked me if I was having difficulty with any addictions at the moment.

Daddy drinks too much, offered Aibhilin.

I looked at her. I always tried to keep my drinking away from her. I kept liquor in the house but hardly ever had more than one drink if she was with me.

Who says? I asked.

Mommy says you drink too much. She says you’re an alcoholic.

Goddamn Racquel, trying to use my daughter against me.

What do you think?

Aibhilin shrugged.

Have you ever seen me drunk, sweetheart? I asked her, knowing the answer.

I don’t think so.

That’s right, you haven’t, because I’m not an alcoholic.

And having said that, I started to doubt it myself. But when I looked back at all the drinking I had done, with all the boys I’d done it with, I wasn’t all that special in my quantity of imbibing.

Aibhilin put her hand around my neck and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek.

I love you, Daddy, she said, sensing I was having a moment of difficulty.

I love you too, baby doll.

I turned back to face my accuser.

I drink a little, like most people, I said, as if trying to explain myself, but I did recently give up smoking some months back.

And are you still having difficulty with it?

I shook my head.

Occasionally I think about having a cigarette, but I’ve started meditating instead and working out again. That helps. Like I’ve said, it’s been months since I’ve had a smoke, and I gave a guy my word. And my word is my bond.

The Devil card is also about the internal constraints we put upon ourselves. It is not always about manifested addictions. With the theme I am seeing, it could speak to the fears and difficulties you’re having with moving on from a recent difficult moment as we spoke about earlier.

I didn’t say anything. I’d moved on just fine from So-yi’s rape and death. At least as far as anyone else was concerned. The nightmares that woke me up most nights were my own business.

Perhaps you’ll have a chance to reflect on these things later. I know I’m putting a lot out there. It’s all just food for thought. You can digest as much or as little of it as you like, said Mawusi.

I smiled thinly like the wolf might to the hen in the henhouse.

I was hoping for pleasant news with the fourth card which related to the things that were going well with me. I chose the Star, right side up. It depicted a naked woman below a star emptying jugs of water, one of which was into a pond. I was told this card suggested that I had hope and spirituality and inspiration going for me. I was urged to continue meditating and taking a moment to be with my more spiritual side as those aspects were my strengths and gifts at the moment as I pushed forward. This card offered hope and suggested that all’s well that ends well. At least that’s the gist of what I got from what Madame Mawusi was saying. It all sounded rather nice.

The fifth card was the opposite of the fourth as you know. It suggested the things that were not going well for me. I chose the World card. It was upside down and it didn’t depict the world as I knew it. Not unless the world was a naked woman, barely clothed in a sash, floating in the sky surrounded by a wreath and the heads of a lion, bull, eagle and cherub.

Mawusi explained it all to me, the different aspects and meanings of all the symbols on the card, but it went over my head. Primarily because I wasn’t listening and I was thinking of taking Aibhilin to the Annenberg Community Beach House after this.

What I do remember of this card was that it suggested incompletion. I was a one trick pony it seemed. I couldn’t get my shit together. Madame Mawusi suggested that I needed to work towards completion and closure of my difficulties and fears. She optimistically told me that I had all of the tools necessary, I just needed to use the skills that I had as strengths in order to move forward and gain closure and completion over my fears and current difficulties. She was sticking to this one motif of hers, about how I was struggling with a recent death. Although she might have been right, it was none of her business.

I took some deep, meditative breaths, and I smiled and nodded. I just had one more card to go and I was a free man. The last card, as Mawusi explained, was going to suggest the outcome gathered from the other cards in regards to my current situation. That, or I could choose a question of my own. I had a question I wanted to ask, but I knew the answer. That question was how much longer did this have to go on for.

How about we just leave it at the default, I said.

You want to see what the outcome is of your current situation?

I nodded.

Very well, please touch the last card you’d like to see.

I touched one and she withdrew it from the pack. She turned up the card, Judgement. It was right side up to me. It depicted a blue angel with red wings trumpeting from the heavens. Below it, or them, I don’t know the gender for angels, were people, including children, in reverence or prayer.

Madame Mawusi nodded and smiled at the card as if they were in a private conversation. Then she looked at me.

This is good, very good. This card sums up your situation nicely, she said. It calls you to take a moment to reflect, in prayer or meditation, upon your life and your current situation. Because it is right side up, it suggests that any course corrections you are thinking of embarking on with respect to your life are the correct choices. Being right side up, it also tells me that any absolution or forgiveness you seek, whether from real or imagined infractions, will be granted. And that perhaps the only one you should seek forgiveness from is yourself. The Judgement card also tells me that any difficult times you’ve recently experienced are over. It is now a time of peace and equanimity. It is a time of digesting and healing from those difficulties. However, that is best accomplished within a group setting.

I nodded, eager for the end. Yet she went on and on.

I sense that you used to be a police officer.

That’s a good guess, I said.

Not really, she said. I have met with several, and you all carry yourself in a very specific, guarded way. Besides, most private investigators were previously in law enforcement.

Well done, I said.

Never mind that. I only say this, because I still feel through this reading that you are carrying a heavy weight. One that is best shared and lifted off your shoulders by the help of friends. I’d urge you to find a group of like-minded people where you might be able to share this with.

Thank you, doctor, I said. I’ll get right on it.

I was getting a little testy. I could feel it.

Regardless, she said, not rising to the bait, "This Judgement card is a fine one to finish