By the end of the day I had covered every notable tea salon in the city and was none the wiser. If Sid and Gus wanted to convey a message to me from a blank postcard and a picture of a woman drinking tea, they had not succeeded. I had to conclude that the postcard was meant for one of them and had no hidden meaning. I retrieved Liam, bought some vegetables and a neck bone to make soup and went back to number 35. I braced myself for Madame Hetreau’s caustic comments as I came into the front hallway and steeled myself to tackle the stairs. I had already gone up the first three or four before a voice behind me called, “Madame. One moment. I believe I have something else that might be for you.” And she held out another postcard.

Chapter 22

Twenty-two

I almost slipped in my hurry to come down.

“I found this today,” she said. “It had been put by mistake in the slot of Monsieur DuPont who is away at the moment and I only noticed it when I was dusting. But it seems to be from the same person as your postcard yesterday, no?”

I took it from her. It was another reproduction of a painting—this time it was of a mother and child. The child was about the age of Liam, dark-haired like him, and naked in his mother’s arms. Again it was addressed to La Dame Américaine qui visite… in a hand I didn’t recognize. Again there was no message.

I held it out to Madame Hetreau. “Does this mean anything to you?”

“The child resembles your son a little perhaps.”

He did resemble Liam. So I had to take it that the postcard was meant for me. But apart from that I was completely in the dark.

I felt my feet dragging as we went up the stairs. It had been another day of foot-slogging and frustration. And all I had to encourage me were two postcards. I realized I hadn’t studied the postmarks and how stupid this had been. If they had both been mailed from a community outside Paris then I’d know that my friends were there and trying to contact me. I couldn’t think why they’d need to contact me in this fashion, but it gave me enough hope to take the last two flights of stairs more quickly. Liam was a bit clingy this evening, finally resenting the fact that his mother wasn’t with him enough. He didn’t want to be put down, so I held him on my hip while I put the postcards down side by side on the table.