Elle turned to Adam. “You rescued Madame Rune? Upstairs in her consultation room? I’m not the only one?”

“A coward tried to stab Rune for being...” Adam couldn’t remember the exact words.

Rune filled in. “A false prophet.”

“Mr. Kulshan called me, yelling. By the time I got here, Rune had disarmed the intruder.”

“In the process, I broke his arm.” Rune shuddered. “That’s a sound I’ll never forget. The breaking, and the screaming.”

“When I ran into the shop and up the stairs, the customer—”

“The asshole,” Rune insisted.

“Is that official psychiatrist talk?” Elle asked.

“Madame Rune’s words are many and varied,” Rune deadpanned.

“When I ran in,” Adam repeated, “the customer was insisting Rune had tried to rob him.”

“Adam told me to show them the video of the visit.”

Elle turned her head from side to side as they talked.

“By the time Deputy Dave arrived, the customer had been reduced to spouting some prophesies of his own, including that Rune would be stricken by the seven plagues.” Adam looked Rune over from head to toe. “Which apparently hasn’t happened yet.”

“No frogs. No boils. No lice. I’ve already had the pestilence.”

“That was one helluva day.” Adam shook his head at the memory.

“So much for not having friends.” Elle laughed. “You are finishing each other’s sentences.”

“We were both there,” Adam explained. “We had different points of view.”

Elle exchanged glances with Rune.

“Come. Let’s go to the consultation room.” Rune locked the front door and flipped the sign in the window from Open to Closed to allow the spirits to visit. She pulled the shades down on the door and the front windows, then bustled to the beaded curtain and pushed it back to reveal the shadowy stairway. She led them up the steps and into the small, sunny room. A wide window faced onto the street, and smaller windows in each of the side walls were hung with burgundy brocade drapes. An antique side table was set with candlesticks of silver, ceramic, pewter, and two tall ones that gleamed like gold. White candles had burned and left lacy beeswax drippings.

Elle hurried to the centerpiece of the room, a small square table painted with a large square of iridescent copper paint. An extravagant design of checks and swirls spilled off the sides and down the legs. She smoothed her fingers along the edge of the copper. “I love it!”

“I knew you would,” Rune said in satisfaction. “Adam hates it.”

Irritated, Adam said, “I never said I hated it. I said it was a shame to destroy the intrinsically organized square-upon-square with the foolish madness of the rest of the design.”

Elle grinned at him. “You would.”

He felt like a fuddy-duddy, yet he heard the warm affection in her voice.