Karma's A Bitch (A Pet Psychic Mystery) by Shannon Esposito Page B

despair hung thick as molasses under the tarp. I had to plant my feet to keep myself from trying to escape it. Such a hot and heavy emotion. “We can get you to the hospital.”
    “We’re fine.” Mac made a motion with his hand like he was swatting a fly. With it came a whoosh of anger as a streak of red through my mind.
    Kneeling down, I unzipped my back pack. “Well, maybe this’ll help the pain, at least.” I pulled out the icepacks. “Thought with all the injuries around here lately, y’all could use some of these.” Squeezing it firmly to activate the cold, I handed it to Minnie.
    “Thanks.” She held it to Mac’s jaw.
    The smell, the heat and the emotional overload were getting to me. Tiny black stars popped in my vision. My first thought was to call the police. But my second thought was of the two officers I had met and Frankie’s warning about not being able to trust some of them. Well, I could trust Will. Maybe he could do something about this Scary Harry situation. We turned as rustling and voices reached us.
    The people were filtering back in from their hiding places in the woods. I stood up and helped Frankie, who was trying to clean up the scattered and broken belongings. We both grabbed an end of the plywood that served as Mac’s desk and set it back on the bricks. I unpacked the rest of the items I had brought and put them on the plywood.
    “If you make a list for us, we can bring stuff you need.” I pulled at my white cotton tank; sweat was gluing it to my body. Karma was sitting outside, panting hard. I had to get him out of this heat.
    “How ‘bout a winning lottery ticket.” Mac’s swollen lips made his attempt at a grin look more like a grimace.
    “Glad Harry didn’t knock the sense of humor loose from that thick skull of yours.” Frankie shook her head. “Darwin’s right. Make a list and, Minnie, you meet me in front of the Vinoy at six tonight with it. We’ll take care of you.” She stepped out from beneath the tarp, then turned back around. “Be sure aspirin’s on there, you’re gonna need it.” She wrangled the pet stroller back out into the open and peeked in. “Come on, we gotta get these babies out of the heat.”
    Our walk back out of Pirate City was torturous. We were hot, drained and angry.
    “Hey, I got an idea.” Frankie’s mascara had smeared under her eyes, and her skin was pasty, but her face suddenly lit up. “I’ll throw a charity bash for the gang. We can do an auction, raffle off some stuff…invite all the rich folks. Be more profitable than a dog wash, right?”
    “Definitely.” I glanced back as we emerged onto the street, making sure Karma was still behind us. “More fun than washing dogs, too.”
    We laughed. It seemed to blow away some of the dark cloud. On the street, we took a break and gave everyone water. I poured some over Karma’s head.
    “Hey, Frankie? The morning they found Mad Dog at Mirror Lake…it was a Sunday. Don’t you usually go there every Sunday? I didn’t see any of those guys around.” I pointed back down the trail. “Do you think they knew something about Mad Dog’s death?”
    “Oh,” Frankie zipped up the netting and put the water away. “Well, I didn’t go because Vick had called me and said not to; said there were cops everywhere and had the place roped off. I knew once the gang saw cops everywhere, they wouldn’t go near the place.”
    Made sense. Sad that the relationship between the homeless and the police was so adversarial. Still, that didn’t prove that no one in the camp knew about Mad Dog.
    We started walking again.
    “Isn’t there someplace else these guys could stay that’d be safer?”
    “You mean like a shelter? Sure. But they’re already overcrowded. Besides, some of these guys have mental issues, you know. They can’t live indoors.”
    “Yeah. Mad Dog was like that. He had PTSD, from the war.”
    Frankie eyed me hard. “You really cared about him, huh?”
    “I didn’t know him that