“Room Eleven is Paulette. Is it Paulette you wish to see?”

“Yes, Paulette. Thank you.” Madame Yolande looked me up and down with narrowed eyes before shrugging her shoulders and handing me a key. I paid the usual sum, adding a tip for the madame. In return, she gave me the slightest hint of a smile, signaling that while she disapproved of my behavior, I could count on her discretion.

Crouching so that I wouldn’t be seen from below, I made my way down a corridor with doors to the rooms on the left and windows on the right overlooking the arcade. I opened the door to Room 11 and stepped into a consoling hush. I left the door slightly ajar and peered through it onto proceedings downstairs.

“Bonjour, monsieur,” I heard Paulette say from over my shoulder. “I haven’t seen you in such a long time.”

“Bonjour, bonjour, dear Paulette,” I replied, still peering through the gap in the door. The arcade below was as still as a postcard. There was no sign of Vennet or his pursuers, only a lady choosing a magazine at the newspaper kiosk and some youths inspecting a tobacconist’s window. I closed the door and locked it, turning around to face Paulette. She was reclining on an uncovered bed with one raised knee, wearing only a black negligee, silk stockings, and a great deal of makeup. A brocaded lamp glowed in a corner and from an old phonograph player warbled a violin and a guitar. The room smelled of perfume and hashish. “Pardon the subterfuge,” I said, taking off my jacket and hat and placing them on a stool by the phonograph player. Approaching the bed and sitting on its edge, I reached out and brushed the dyed blonde hair from Paulette’s face to better see those blue-gray eyes of hers, which had so bewitched me once upon a time. Now they had no effect at all.

“What can I do for you today?” she asked.

“Just keep me company.”

“I see. Nothing more?”

“If someone knocks at the door, I shall kiss you. But otherwise, just keep me company.”

She reached beside her and took up a pack of cards. “In my experience, nothing soothes a troubled heart better than a game of double solitaire.”

“I know it well.”

Go here.

The Palace of Justice