We walked down the road. It was odd to be moving around in the streets again. CJ was striding beside me, and it occurred to me that while I had been thinking about how this job was to be done, I had not taken her into consideration.
"So what does CJ stand for?" I figured if I was about to risk my life with somebody, I should know her name.
"Candice Joselyn," She responded,
"Why CJ?"
"Candice Joselyn sounded too ladylike for me,"
"Good call," I was trying to lighten the mood with my rapier wit, but it sounded more like a cruel insult, and I regretted saying it, the last thing I needed now was to be shot in the back by an angry woman.
"So how are we going to do this?" She asked, apparently she was not offended or even ruffled,
"We need to get in without causing a commotion," I paused, considering, "Their might be a window we could go in…"
"Or the front door," she said, and I thought she was joking until I thought about it for a moment,
"We need to see Monsieur Wollstonecraft about an important matter?" I asked
"I think we know that he is in grave danger and must be careful,"
"And there might be a list someone is after,"
"Sounds good to me," CJ said as we turned the corner and the blue target house came into view.
"Nervous?" I asked her, remembering the first time I had gone after a target; my stomach had been turning and I had been desperately hoping all would go as I planned,
"Not really, I have done this before you know,"
"Really?" I asked skeptically,
"Yes, only last time I was working for the 'bad guys'"
"Me too, in Persia" I said, and then we were in front of the house. "Here we go" I drew in a deep breath and walked up the front stairs. I knocked on the door, CJ was waiting behind me; the expression on her face was one of worried anxiety. So she is nervous, which made things worse; if she was nervous she might make a mistake.
Then she looked at me, her expression changed and her eyebrows raised at me; she had been acting.
The door opened. I had a hard time keeping the smile off my face because the man at the door was not a butler or a maid; it was a well to do man in a dark green silk robe holding a half finished glass of brandy in his hand,
"Monsieur Wollstonecraft?" I asked in a concerned sounding voice,
"Who the hell are you?" He asked in a slightly drunken but mostly angry, and I could not blame him, we must have looked quiet the sight; we looked like the vagabonds we were.
"My name is Raoul Dumas, this is my wife Christine," I used the only names I could think of and wrapped my arm around CJ; hoping she would play along. She did.
Monsieur Wollstonecraft did not look impressed so I continued; "Monsieur Wollstonecraft?" He nodded, "yes, that's me"
"I don't know if I should talk outside about this sir," I said, using my best concerned friend voice, it sounded convincing to me.
Apparently it did to him to, "Come in then man, and speak,"
I was just thinking what a trusting fool this man was when he pulled a gun out of his robe and pointed it at us. "Who are you two? And what do you want?"
I eyed the gun, "Sir! Please, do not be rash, we have come to warn you," I thought I did a good job of sounding terrified at the sight of the gun,
"About?"
"We have heard, sir," CJ said, speaking for the first time, using a perfectly sweet voice I did not think she had possessed, "that there are some…men…they want to…make trouble for you, because of what you are saying about the Paris government," She finished and I held my breath; believe us, I willed him,
"You two had better come in," he said heavily after a few moments, he put down his gun and let us in.
I had a silent little celebration in my head; we were in. I kept my arm around CJ, an appropriate show of marital union, I thought.
Monsieur Wollstonecraft led us to his study and sank down behind his desk, downing his brandy. "Alright," he sighed, "what is going to happen?"
"The police are going to send an assassin after you," I said slowly, he looked shocked,
"What! I thought they might threaten me, or try to get me to be quiet with a bribe or something, but an assassin…how do you know about this anyway?" He looked up at me, suddenly suspicious again
"Well…" I wanted to appear awkward, "You see sir, I was a guest of the Paris police for a time, and I happened to escape, thanks to this lovely wife of mine," I smiled at her, and she blew a kiss at me; she was good at this.
"But I heard about their plan, and I thought maybe we could help each other out,"
"I see," Monsieur Wollstonecraft leaned forward, his expression clearing, "you thought you would give me a heads up, and I could get you and your lovely wife here," he regarded CJ, apparently he did not think her unwashed hair and red eyes were very lovely, "a ticket out of Paris,"
"Yes sir," I said smiling.
Wollstonecraft paused a moment, smiling at his amazing deductive reasoning, "what did they want to kill me for anyway?" he asked frowning
My mind went blank, Dumas had not told me what this guy was saying about the Paris government, what the hell was I going to say?
"A list, right dear?" CJ asked me, tugging my arm, "Didn't you say they wanted a list?"
"Of Course!" Wollstonecraft stood from the desk and went to one of the bookshelves lining the study, he pulled out a copy of what appeared to be a bound play of Julius Caesar, "They want this list! You see, well, you probably do not, you two are not the most educated of people are you?" He looked down his nose at us,
"No sir," I smiled helplessly, "I never had much use for schooling"
"I see, well, you probably do not realize it, but our government is weak, it has no control over the people! And it cannot protect us! I am going to change that," he sounded now like he was talking more to himself than to me,
"I am putting together a group of men, smart, strong men," he waved a paper list he had taken out of the bound pages, "and we are going to change things, shake things up," he turned to put the book back on the shelf, and that was when I acted, I quickly strode forward and placed my hands on his head; I turned hard and snapped his neck.
He slumped to the floor; he had never had any idea I was going to do that. I took a deep breath, I decided I had changed since Persia; even though this man was a pretentious jerk, I hated doing that with all my heart.
"He was a treat, I think he liked me," CJ said sarcastically, I turned to her
"He thought you were lovely," she offered a small, fake smile.
"Alright, so we make it look like a suicide?"
"I guess," I had not really thought about it, in Persia I had just left.
She moved to the large plush curtains and took one of the ties, "Bring him over here," She said lightly, and I dragged his body over to her.
I watched as she tied the curtain tie in a noose, wrapped it around his neck then attached the other end to the window lock. "It will look like he just sat down and strangled himself,"
I nodded in approval. I picked up the list which had fallen to the floor, and CJ came toward me. On the list were written several names.
"So who was playing Cassius to his Brutus?" CJ asked me, and I raised my eyebrows at her,
"You know Shakespeare?
"I know everything,"
"Lovely," I said, putting the list in my pocket, "Let's…" I was about to say leave, but then I noted CJ was looking at all the books on the shelves, "What are you doing?" she was grabbing books and placing them under her arms,
"It's boring in the basement,"
"Come on, wife," I tugged at her arm and we rushed out of the study.
Back on the street, we silently walked toward our carriage.
"That was lucky" I said, more to myself than to her,
"Yeah…you should work on the name thing though, Raoul and Christine?"
"What? There're names, CJ, and he believed it so I don't think you can say anything," I stated angrily
"You need to work on the name thing," She repeated; I rolled my eyes.
The carriage was parked in the same place it had been left in, and we jumped back in.
"That was quick," Dumas said, "not even an hour,"
"Here is the list," I said handing it to him "Wollstonecraft killed himself, hung himself from a curtain tie,"
"Really?" He asked me,
"We might have helped him," I admitted lightly.
"Fantastic," Dumas said dryly, "Give me the weapons," We handed over the gun and the knife,
"Why the books?" Dumas asked, staring at CJ
"I like to read," she said
"Really?"
"Well, I need something mundane to break up the continuous excitement that is a basement room with two beds a table and a candle and pretty boy over here" she pointed at me,
"Right," Dumas said, obviously not that interested.
We were taken back to our pitiful house, then led to our pathetic room. Dumas lit the candle and then left; stating he would be back the next night and we would do it all over again.
I took a loaf of bread left by our guards and sank onto my bed. CJ threw her books on her bed and took the other loaf. I stared at her; her hair was disgustingly dirty, her skin sallow, and there were dark circles under her red eyes; an ugly looking creature, perfect company for me.
"What?" she asked, apparently she had noticed I was staring at her,
"Nothing," I said, watching her eat; she had a greedy way of consuming food, as though she hand not had much in some time, "Do you think they will ever let us take a bath?"
"Are you saying I need to take a bath?"
"I would say no, but I feel I should not lie to you,"
"Then I won't lie to you; you're just as ugly as I am, and you smell just as bad, so hold your tongue."
We get along well, I thought sarcastically to myself, but we did make a good team when it came down to it, and I supposed that was all that mattered.
I lay on my back. My thoughts drifted back to Christine; my beautiful, wonderful Christine, the goddess with an angel's voice. I realized I was still desperately in love with her; I always would be.
Perhaps one day I would see her again; I decided it was worth living, worth playing this game the Captain had set up if I could see her again. It was too bad that Raoul creature was such a fop; he would never give the police a reason to eliminate him, which meant I would never be given an opportunity to kill him, which was really too bad.
