“Would you like to borrow them?”

“Yes,” said Lara. “C’est possible?”

“Oui.” The man scowled. “These are rotting. They were to be…” He motioned, looking for the word, flicking his hand toward the curb. “Tossed.”

Lara looked down at the composition books, her heart sick at the thought that someone might have thrown these away. What if she had not come to Paris? They would have been lost to history. What if her mother had never brought the painting over to her? What if Gaston hadn’t noticed the EG? There were so many things that nearly led to her not being on this quest.

“Did it help?”

“Merci.” She nodded. “I should probably head back.”

The man walked toward the door. “Taxi?”

Lara followed him back to the office. Her pulse quickened as she got a last look at Cecile Cabot while he dialed the phone on the desk.

Barrow had said there were three paintings: The Ladies of the Secret Circus. Now she knew the location of two of them. She was closing in on the mystery. One more painting to find, and she had a good hunch it was of Esmé.

An idling taxi waited for her at the front entrance.

“Merci.” She shook the man’s hand. “For helping me.” She held up the composition books. “And for these.”

He bowed. “I’m at your service, mademoiselle.”

Arriving back at her hotel, Lara kept her ball cap low and her blond hair pulled into a low bun. The lady with the ponytail was nowhere to be found, but she quickly got into the elevator and hit the button for the fourth floor. The elevator was old and came to a creaking stop on the second floor. Lara held her breath as the door opened, but there was no one there. The whole scene reminded her of the eerie elevator with a mind of its own in the Doris Day film Midnight Lace. At the fourth floor, Lara hurried to her hotel room and slammed the door behind her. Turning on the lights, she checked the bathroom and the closets, even ruffling the drapes.

The phone was blinking with a message from Audrey. She was frantic.

Lara, It’s your mother. You used the protection spell. I could feel it. Are you okay? Let me know as soon as you get this message. I knew that I should have come with you. I knew it. Call me!

Picking up the receiver, she got out a calling card.

Audrey picked up on the first ring. “Are you okay?”

“How did you know?”

“I know when you use magic.”

“That answers so many questions for me now,” quipped Lara.

Audrey wasn’t in a humorous mood. “What happened? Tell me.”

“A woman chased me in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. I think it might have been the she that Shane Speer meant in the she wants you dead prediction.”