'I know it.' She rubbed away some imagined stain from the side of her face. Her eyes did a quick flit towards Sylvie and Dix then back to me. 'Is Sylvie dancing there?'
There was an enforced casualness about the girl’s question that made me wary.
'Sylvie is my lovely assistant.' I smiled and fanned half a dozen of the matchbooks seemingly from nowhere into my hand. 'I’m a conjurer.'
Zelda clapped, but it wasn’t my trick that had made her sailorgirl eyes wide.
'Sylvie isn’t dancing any more?'
The edge to her tone might have been gloating or maybe just surprise. I played it safe for Sylvie’s honour’s sake.
'There’s a lot of dance in the act.'
'Ah.' The glass went to her lips and I began to wonder if I had enough cash to buy her a second drink. 'You can’t have been together long.'
'This was our first night.'
'So you are celebrating.'
'Got it in one.' Zelda glanced towards the table where Dix and Sylvie were leaning intently towards each other, their faces serious. I asked, 'You know each other?'
Zelda smiled a small tight smile.
'A little.'
'Come and join us then.'
The smile grew tighter.
'Dancers need a lot of sleep. One drink is enough.'
I took a sip of my beer.
'There’s a saying where I come from, one’s too many, a hundred’s never enough.'
Zelda drained the last of the pink stuff from the flute.
'You seem like a nice man.' She hesitated. 'Sylvie’s a good dancer, good company…'
'But?'
Zelda shrugged her shoulders.
'There is always a but.'
Yes, I thought, and yours is very nice, but kept my opinion to myself and put a tease into my voice.
'And in Sylvie’s case?' She hesitated and I said, 'Remember, I’m going to be working with her.'
Zelda held her empty glass in front of her, studying its stem, all the better to avoid meeting my eyes.
'Things happen when Sylvie’s around. Sometimes they’re fun.'
At last she met my gaze, telling me that what she said was true, she and Sylvie had had fun together.
'But sometimes not so much fun?'
She held my gaze.
'Sometimes not so much fun, no.' She smiled. 'We were friends. I mean it well.' She glanced back at the table where Sylvie was deep in conversation with Dix. 'You know how it is in this business, friendships change with shows, and Sylvie… well, she has loyalties that make it difficult for anyone to stay her friend for long.'
I nodded, encouraging her to go on, while wondering if the poison had been personal or professional. Zelda lifted a small bag from the seat beside her. A gentleman would probably have eased her descent from the high stool, but I hesitated and she slid off elegantly without my help, her skirt shifting up her slim thighs to reveal that she was still naked beneath. Now that she was standing Zelda was taller than me, but I still held her eyes in mine.
'So Sylvie quit?'
Zelda glanced away from me.
'She quit, yes.'
The glance told me some of what I wanted to know. Whatever reason Sylvie had left, it hadn’t been voluntary.
'I don’t suppose you care to go into details?'
Zelda looked at something beyond my left shoulder. I turned and found Dix at my elbow. He smiled, said something soft to Zelda in German then turned to me.
'Another drink?'
'Sure.'
He looked at the dancer and she shook her head.
'I must go.'
I took the stein Dix slid towards me and thanked him, mentally cursing his timing. The sailorgirl was buying a pack of cigarettes from behind the bar. I leaned in towards her.
