“Absolutamente,” he says.
“I think you’re both being kind. Nevertheless, I’ll take the compliment.”
I take her arm to pull her in closer so we can talk quietly.
“You haven’t heard any talk about High Plains Drifters, have you?”
&
nbsp; “No. Nothing. Is this about the man Chihiro talks about? Do you think he’s a revenant?”
“To tell the truth, no. I just don’t want him to be who he says he is.”
“You’re afraid of another apocalypse.”
“No. Just a lot of goddamn trouble. If this guy is Death, the people who killed him aren’t going to be hard to find, and I guarantee they’re going to be unsympathetic.”
“How do you know it’s more than one person?” says Carlos.
“I don’t, but I also don’t see someone pulling off this kind of hoodoo all on his lonesome. You’re talking about capturing an angel in a human body . . . and that’s after you find the right body. Then you need to know the hexes and magicians who can pull them off. Then you need a weapon that can kill him. On top of that, you need a motive. Why kill Death? There are potions that will keep you going for a hundred years. Yeah, they’re expensive, but it’s easier to rob a bank than shanghai an angel.”
“How does one kill an angel?” says Brigitte.
“With this.”
I take the knife from my coat and unwrap it on the bar.
“It looks quite ordinary,” she says.
“It’s not. It was thinking seriously of burning down Vidocq’s place.”
“It looks Roman,” says Carlos. “Like an antique Roman dagger. See the silver eagle? Legions used to have those on their standards.”
“How the hell do you know all that?”
He clears away some glasses and pours Brigitte more wine.
“My brother-in-law. Ex-brother-in-law. He’s crazy for old weapons. He has something like that. I can send him a picture if you want and see what he knows.”
“This brother-in-law of yours, is he the person who’s been slipping you potions?”
Carlos tries to suppress a smile, shrugs.
“He dabbles in a lot of things.”
“He’s a magician, isn’t he? You married into a Sub Rosa family.”
He nods.
“She kept it from me most of the time we were together. Her family thought I wasn’t worthy and I think maybe she did a little too. You were the first person I met who did real magic right out in the open. After seeing that, I knew I’d been right to leave.”
“If she hid it, was she into baleful magic?”
“Baleful?”
“Black magic,” says Brigitte.
Carlos carefully arranges a Santa hat on a small plastic hula girl.