I removed a chair from atop the table and placed it upright.
“Here ya go.”
“Merci,” she said.
I caught a drift of her sweet scent as I held out her chair.
She sat and I sat next to her.
She remained looking in my eyes. Her dark eyelashes were thick and long and her eyes were penetrating. They were lively, mysterious, haunting, and extremely curious.
“You’re with the troupe,” I said.
“No.”
“I saw you.”
“I saw you, too,” she said.
Her eyes stayed aimed directly at me like she was trying to shoot her thoughts through me. She placed her hands shoulder length apart on the table.
“I’m not with them,” she said.
“You’re new?”
She nodded, smiling wryly.
“I’m temporary,” she said.
“Seems like the wrong time of year to be traipsing around putting on a show.”
She didn’t say anything.
I just looked at her.
She was staring at me.
I stared back at her and I think she smiled.
“Deputy Marshal Everett Hitch,” I said.
“Oui,” she said. “I know who you are, Deputy Marshal.”
“You do?”
“We’ve met.”
I shook my head.
“We’ve not met,” I said.
“On the contrary,” she said.
“Don’t believe so.”
“Now that I’m seeing you close and clearly, I’m certain,” she said. “It was a long time ago.”
“Where, a long time ago?”
“Bien,” she said with a shrug. “Perhaps I am mistaken.”
“Madame Leroux?” I said.
“You must have read that somewhere,” she said with a smile.
“Hard to miss,” I said.
She smiled, nodding slightly.
“Futures told,” I said. “Legendary afterlife adventures revealed.”
“Not all are so lucky,” she said. “I’m afraid.”
“Hocus-pocus,” I said.
“Ah,” she said. “A naysayer?”
“Just my perspective,” I said.
“Oui,” she said. “Something everyone is entitled to.”
Wallis came back from the bar with the brandy.
“On the house,” he said.
She tossed one side of her long hair behind her shoulder.
“Merci,” she said to Wallis, but remained looking directly at me.
Wallis looked back and forth between us, and like the amenable barkeep he was, he excused himself.
“I’m going to just finish up with a few things,” Wallis said.
He rapped his knuckles on the table.
“Enjoy,” he said.
She watched Wallis as he walked off into the back room, then looked at me.
“I needed to speak to you, Deputy.”
“Everett,” I said.
“Oui, Everett.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” I said.
“I needed to be sure,” she said.
“About what?”
“About... something I saw.”
“And now you’re sure?”
“Oui.”
“What?”
“It’s rather private.”
I looked to the back room. Wallis was nowhere in sight.
“Just you, me, and the narrow space between us.”
“You are in danger,” she said.
8
I smiled. I don’t think she was accepting or appreciative of my smile, but I couldn’t help it. Maybe it was the whiskey I drank while playing cards with Virgil and Allie. Maybe it was her strange beauty. Regardless, the thought of her telling me I was in danger made me smile.
“Well, no offense,” I said. “But in my line of work, danger is always present.”
“No offense taken,” she said. “I understand your skepticism, but in my line of work danger never lies.”
I smiled.
“What kind of danger are we talking about here?”
“I’m not sure,” she said.
“You’re not sure?”
She shook her head.
“Not completely, and what I see, what I know, can only provide you awareness, I’m afraid... Fait accompli.”
“So, what did you see? What do you know?”
“No need to be patronizing,” she said.
“I’m not. I’m listening.”
She looked around the room for a moment.
“Can we walk?”
“Don’t you want to finish that brandy?”
“Not much of a drinker, I’m afraid,” she said. “Perhaps you could walk me.”
“Sure,” I said.
“Merci,” she said.
I let Wallis know we were leaving. He stepped out from the back room, drying his big hands with a small towel.
“Good night,” he said.
“Au revoir,” Madame Leroux said, and I escorted her out of the Boston House saloon.
The rain seemed to be coming down harder now. They weren’t big drops, but the rain was massive and solid, like it was falling from thick, dense clouds.
We walked for a ways under the awnings of the boardwalk before she spoke.
“When I saw you, I saw something,” she said. “Something not good.”
“What’s that?” I said.
“Normally, I keep others’ événements, um... visions of misfortune to myself,” she said. “I remove myself. It is a code of ethics in my line of business.”
“But you feel an ethical need to share something not good with me?”
“Oui,” she said. “You see, you being an officer of the law as you are, I felt it was my obligation, my responsabilité, to share this information with you.”
“By all means,” I said. “Go right ahead.”
“I saw men,” she said. “Young men, running.”
I laughed.
She stopped.
I stopped and looked back to her.
“You must believe me,” she said.
“Men?” I said. “Running?”
She nodded and we continued walking.
“What men?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “They were scared... I saw them again, tonight. That’s why I needed to see you. They’ve returned.”
“Where did you see these men?”
“I do not know exactly who they were or where they are,” she said. “That is why I needed to see you. To see if I might have something clearer, stronger.”
I began to feel unusually comfortable with this odd woman I’d just met and this strange unfolding she was sharing with me. Not for a minute did I take to heart her nonsensical bullshit or her vocation, for that matter, but I obliged.
“What makes you think I’m in danger?”
“I understand your doubt,” she said, picking up on my skepticism. “But I know what I see, what I feel.”
She pulled her shawl up to cover her head and we walked past a storefront without an overhang. We felt the steady rain until we were back under an awning over the boardwalk.
“How did you know where to find me?” I said.
“Hocus-pocus, Everett.”
“Because you’ve seen these men and how they felt to you,” I said. “You feel I’m in danger?”
“Yes,” she said.
She lowered her shawl.
“What do your friends call you?” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t tell me,” I said. “You have none?”
“Oh,” she said, “on the contrary, I most certainly do.”
She tapped her temple and said, “I have plenty of friends with me, at all times.”
“What do they call you?” I said. “What is your given name?”
“Séraphine,” she said. “My name is Séraphine.”
We stayed under the awnings as we walked and were exposed to the rain only when there was a break overhead between structures. We turned and walked past a few boardinghouses.