docks to the train station, and that from the back of a car. She was unlikely to be wandering the back streets at an hour past dawn. If she was walking anywhere, she would be walking on Paul-Bert.
I looked down at my watch again. It was 7:35.
But the man was right. This way was quicker. We arrived at the hotel in just ten minutes. He helped me out, and a porter from the hotel ran out to greet me, his crisp white jacket almost glowing in the morning light.
I looked up at the mansard roof of the grand, cathedral-like baroque-style structure. It was striking, but so European. In a city that did not yet feel completely taken over by the colonists, the sight was jarring.
After I paid the driver, I walked up the steps, into the grand foyer, and straight to the front desk.
“I’m afraid I was not able to telephone ahead,” I told the hotel manager who greeted me. “But I would like a room for the night. Or perhaps two nights. I’m not sure yet.”
“Mais bien sûr. That can be arranged, madame,” he said, his square jaw worked into a smile.
“Madame de Fabry. Marcelle de Fabry,” I said, trying to sound pleasant. After I’d said it, I regretted it. The man would certainly know the de Fabry name. Arnaud was often in the newspapers.
“I’m meeting my friend here today,” I said as coolly as I could manage. “Her name is Jessie Lesage. Could you tell me if she’s checked in?”
The man consulted the large guest book in front of him.
“Yes, she checked in yesterday,” he said, running his finger down the list, written in large script, “but she checked out this morning.”
“What?” I said. “No, that can’t be.”
“Yes, she did. I see it right here. She spent last night here but checked out an hour or so ago. Perhaps earlier. I can’t quite read the script. I was not the one to assist her, I’m afraid.”
“But you’re sure?” I said, trying to get a look at his book, which he inched away from me.
“I’m certain,” he said, closing it.
“Have any boats from France come in since yesterday?” I asked, trying to think of every reason Jessie could have come to Haiphong.
“No,” he replied. “But one is due to leave in a few hours.”
“I see, thank you,” I said sweetly, trying to seem more like a dim-witted colonial wife and less like a huntress on the prowl.
Haiphong was not like Ha Long Bay or the caves of Trang An, places that attracted foreigners seeking sights. It was industrial. It housed rice factories and large storage facilities. It had pockets of charm, but it was essentially a dirty working city. Michelin, however, sent hordes of new coolies from Haiphong on boats south. Perhaps she was here to observe one of their slave ships?
I turned down the pousse-pousse drivers jostling to get a fare and walked quickly toward the harbor precinct. When I reached the crowded docks, I stopped for a moment and watched the boats coming in, full of wares rather than passengers.
I didn’t see any men in large groups who looked like they were on their way to the plantations. I turned to the east and walked to the canals, a more tightly packed section of the port where smaller boats docked. The crude wooden crafts, shaded by thatched bamboo roofs, bobbed in the midmorning sun, some overflowing with goods, others with people. I watched as men loaded cotton sacks of rice onto wide carts, then ran off, somehow able to pull five times their body weight.
Khoi wanted me to be patient. For two years I had let him determine how we could create some meaning from Sinh’s senseless death. But it was time for me to act without him as a constant guide. As soon as I’d realized the kind of woman Jessie was, and had confirmed that Victor was, in fact, the man we had assumed, I had begun acting on my own. Clearly, it was the right decision. It had brought me here.
I lingered for a moment, looking in the shadows for a European woman, but I was one of the only ones walking the docks. When the sun grew too strong, I walked back to the side of the port that had cafés and restaurants, catering perhaps to the people who had just completed a long journey and were eager for a meal at a table that wasn’t bobbing up and down.