flyers, I felt a little unsure myself. But the worst I could do was fail. I led the way in.
"Miss Jayn茅! How can the world of voudoun be of service to you this night?"
"Dr. Inond茅," I said. "Hey, Doris."
The snake shifted to look at me with its other eye, black tongue flicking the air. We four human beings and the giant snake effectively filled the room. The place seemed smaller than the first time I'd been there, the red curtains more dusty and threadbare, the portrait of Marie Laveau even less flattering. I sat down, rooted through my backpack, and pulled out the ugly little charm he'd given me. Even with a little rain damage, it still felt like holding a spider on my bare palm.
"So," I said. "You aren't actually as much of a fake as we said. Are you?"
Dr. Inond茅 looked at Aubrey and Chogyi Jake as if sizing up my bodyguards, then shrugged.
"I know a few things," he said. "Not much. Some. You need some juju done?"
"I do," I said. "I need to find someone named Joseph Mfume."
Dr. Inond茅 sat with a grunt. His eyes seemed to lose their warmth for a moment.
"You have anything this Mfume fellow owned? Shirt. Book. Anything?"
"No," I said. "But I think he's been hanging around with Amelie Glapion."
"So you want to find this Mfume fella, or do you want Amelie Glapion?" he said.
"Either one would do," I said. "I don't want any trouble. I just need to talk to them."
Dr. Inond茅 shook his head, smiling apologetically.
"You seem like a nice person, but there isn't enough money in the world to make me cross Amelie. If she doesn't want to be found, there's no finding her. You know what happened to her after the last time you came in here? Something tried to kill her granddaughter."
"Yeah," I said. "I was there. I was one of the people who helped save Sabine."
"Were you now?" He didn't sound convinced.
"Jayn茅 could have been killed," Aubrey said with an anger I hadn't expected. "The least you can do is try to help."
"It turns out Amelie and I have an enemy in common," I said. "The thing that's after Sabine is also threatening a friend of mine."
The wind shifted the door. Somewhere nearby, a band burst into full-throated jazz. Someone yelled in what might have been celebration or distress.
"Come back in an hour," Dr. Inond茅 said. "We'll talk."
I nodded my thanks, and together the three of us walked back into the deepening darkness. Aubrey made an impatient sound. Behind us, the museum door shut, and I heard the deadbolt slide closed.
"Do you trust him?" Chogyi Jake said. He managed to make the question sound like idle curiosity.
"Not particularly," I said.
"So what do you think he's doing in there?" Aubrey asked.
"I think he's asking permission," I said. "We may not need magic after all."
Jackson Square at twilight was still populated. Tarot card readers, T-shirts, face-painters; they were all there, sitting at folding card tables, sitting on cheap plastic chairs, but it had the feel of day's end. The sky above us was sliding from blue to gray to black. A slow, heavy breeze was wafting in from the south. The men and women at the stalls seemed tired. Not listless, but worn down. They'd spent another day feeding off the story and mystique of New Orleans, or else propping them up. Maybe the two were the same.
Restaurants were coming sluggishly to life, the early dinner crowd rolling in without filling the tables. It wasn't Mardis Gras, there wasn't a festival going on. It was just a Monday night in the jazz capital of the world, the home of American voodoo, the Crescent City, the Big Easy. The fallen city doing its best again, because that's all there was to do. I looked through the clean glass at the starched linen tablecloths, the classic black lacquered wood. The smell of pepper and seafood wafted out across the sidewalk as we passed the corner of Decatur and St. Ann, but it didn't make me hungry. My belly was knotted tight, my gaze flickering between the faces, hoping and dreading to see someone familiar.
"I don't think we should go back," Aubrey said. "I think we're making a mistake."
I paused, looking at him closely for the first time since we'd come back to the Quarter. His shoulders were pulled forward, his head hung low, almost like he was cradling something to his chest. Chogyi Jake tilted his head, inviting Aubrey to go