Babayaga

watch, I guarantee you they will not answer.’ I scoffed, because I actually knew my wife was home at that very moment, overseeing our housekeeper’s weekly visit—you see, my wife thinks our housekeeper is a thief and she watches her every move like a hawk. So I picked up the receiver and dialed my flat. As I was dialing, Zoya pointed at me and made a few odd whispering noises. I did not pay much attention because now the phone was ringing. It must have rung twenty times but not a soul answered. Zoya was smiling, watching me holding the receiver of that black phone, which suddenly seemed incredibly dense and unimaginably heavy, like a great rock pulling me to the bottom of the sea. I know it sounds irrational, but it felt profound and terrifying. I swear, looking at that ageless creature sitting before me while the phone endlessly rang in my ear chilled me as the threat of death never has. I slowly hung up the receiver and asked her what she wanted. Zoya gave me a small smile and said I should walk her out of the station and take her to the nearest café, there we could say goodbye. So, unbelievably, that is exactly what I did. We got up and I escorted her past the front desk, out the front door, and over to the Café Balzac. I ordered us each a white coffee. I asked her, ‘When I walk away from you, please give me your word you’ll remove this curse,’ and she said she would. And so”—Lecan shrugged—“I left her there.”
    The men sat there in silence, taking in Detective Lecan’s strange tale. Finally Vidot spoke. “And did you call your wife again?”
    “Yes, first thing when I returned to my office. She was home, of course. She said she must not have heard the call when I rang earlier. Then she did not understand why I was weeping on the phone.” Vidot nodded with solemn understanding. Will looked on in amazement. Lecan sat back, “So, what now, Vidot? Will you turn me in?”
    The younger detective shook his head. “No, I do not think that is necessary. You are certainly not to blame. I had suspected Zoya would only stay with us a little while, though I had hoped to speak with her once more before she left. I have many questions. I think your friend Maroc might have been angry with you, but, well, he has his own troubles now. So, I see no reason for you to worry.” He rose from his chair. “Thank you for your candor, I sincerely appreciate it. Our business here is done.”
    With that, he walked out of the office and Will, still stupefied by all he had heard, followed. “I don’t get it,” he said, trailing behind the detective.
    “Nor do I, but there are some answers I do not have time for. We have our lives to live, don’t we? And I will not waste any more of your time, sir. It has been a rare treat getting to know you. Now you’ll have to excuse me, I have to put a bulletin alert out for your girlfriend.”
    “An alert? But she—”
    “She is a lovely woman, monsieur, but she is very dangerous. Do not worry, I am sure we cannot capture her, she is well rested and extremely capable. But there are, no doubt, other people who are looking for her as we speak, men quite powerful and not particularly well-intentioned. I suspect she is nimble enough to elude them, but still, I believe it would be better for all if she left the city. We do not need a girl like that running loose in our streets. As our poets never tire of reminding us, Paris is already magical enough.” He smiled. “Good day, I hope we meet again in more fortunate circumstances.”
    Vidot walked off, disappearing around a corner of the hall. Will remained standing there, amid the typewriter clatter and cigarette haze of the station’s fluorescent bureaucracy, more than a little uncertain of his own direction.
    IV

    The scientist sat on his metal stool, meticulously attending to the line of test tubes, uncorking their Claisen heads and precisely administering the drops, his careful actions disclosing little of the irritation that was buzzing through his every nerve. He was exhausted and upset, angry with himself for becoming so distracted by the appearance of Elga and Zoya. But who would have ever thought they would turn up again? It was incredible. After how many years? But it was so peripheral, he had allowed these old, vestigial emotions to define his actions when he should have been wholly focused on the business at hand. He felt as though he had sentimentally fallen prey to his old supervisor Huss’s obsessions and