The Great West Detective Agency Read Free Page A

she had once more escaped his net of compliments and gifts intended to win a woman’s heart.
    He remembered too well standing at the foot of Poydras Street, near the dock, watching as she took the captain’s hand to help her onto the riverboat going north to Saint Louis. The sternwheeler had rounded the oxbow crescent in the river and disappeared for more than ten minutes before he had shaken himself free of her spell and gone in search of company at one of the myriad cotillions always filling the Vieux Carré with uplifting music during the winter months.
    That night he had found a willing Creole belle with midnight hair spun up in a fancy whirl dotted with pearls, a beguiling accent, and rouged lips that begged to be kissed. He had also found her lover, who carried a
colchemarde
. The sword cane had a wicked edge and an even deadlier tip, which Lucas avoided only through a spot of luck as the cuckolded lover slipped in the black loamy street in his haste to slay his paramour’s coxcomb.
    After that he had seen Carmella twice again, the last time on the stage at the rear of the Emerald City Dance Hall and Drinking Emporium not six months earlier.
    â€œHer tour isn’t going well?” Lucas asked.
    â€œA sellout wherever she goes. I had to offer twice what I paid before,” Lefty complained, only there was no hint of outrage in his voice. Like Lucas, like so many others, he would pay any price to be in the same room as Carmela Thompson.
    â€œDoes she still travel with . . . what’s his name?”
    Lefty grunted.
    â€œHer and the lawman had words when she was here before. I offered her a permanent job and to get rid of the marshal so he wouldn’t bother her again.”
    â€œShe turned you down, of course.”
    â€œYeah. She said being in one town too long gave her the collywobbles.”
    â€œMoreover,” Lucas said, “she is more than capable of getting rid of unwanted bodies on her own.”
    Lefty shot him a hard look, then laughed and slapped him on the back hard enough to rattle his teeth.
    â€œYou know her too well.”
    â€œAh, not well enough, but rest assured I will return to the Emerald City to deal faro and to appreciate her dulcet tones.”
    â€œShe sings pretty good, too.”
    â€œGood night.” Lucas touched the brim of his bowler hat and strutted toward the rear of the saloon. The piano player sprawled across the bench with a pretty waiter girl’s head in his lap. Both had passed out.
    Lucas considered playing a quick song to see if either of the dreamers stirred, then decided against it. He hopped up onto the stage and pushed through dirty curtains. He paused for a moment looking out over the mostly deserted Emerald City. When Carmela sang, they would be packed shoulder to shoulder. The waitresses would be working at a dead run to keep the thirsty men in whiskey and beer, and in the moment Carmela swept onto the stage in her lavish costume and struck a pose, for that moment there would be silence. Her smile would ignite catcalls and suggestions both heartfelt and improbable from her audience.
    Then she would sing.
    Lucas let the curtains fall into place, blocking off the room. He would be across the room at a faro table. His view of her performance might suffer, but her song always cut through the loudest of cheers. Quick steps took him behind the stage to the pair of dressing rooms. Lefty already had a crudely painted sign with Carmela’s name on it nailed to one door. He reached for the doorknob, then pulled away. He saw no reason to go into the empty dressing room now. And when Carmela occupied it, an invitation to enter was not likely to be forthcoming.
    A man could dream.
    Lucas settled his bowler hat at a jaunty angle and went out the back door into a long, narrow alley. The brick wall facing him belonged to another saloon, but he avoided the Points North because the owner was a son of a bitch and made no pretense of