“Oh, my God. Yes. Saff. I adore her. She and her friends practically keep me in business. Especially Lore. And now that they all formed that book club of theirs.”

Lore.

That was another unusual name to lock away and try to look into. Even in a city full of seven million people, there couldn't have been a lot of women named Lore.

“Yeah, she’s got books all over,” I said, thinking of her office. Full of books she’d likely brought in from home. “What might she like to read? Might give me something to talk about with her the next time I see her.”

“Oh, she’s all over the place. One day, she might come in asking for alien smut. The next time, she wants gory female serial killer horror. Usually with some level of smut in those too, though, now that I think about it. And, hey, who doesn’t like a little spice in their reading?”

“Can’t argue with that.” Even if I’d never read a book with spice in it. I couldn’t imagine it detracting from the story.

“If you want to read something before she has, so you can you know, read it with her… I just got a couple in that I know she is going to gobble up the next time she stops by.”

“I’ll take one of each of ‘em,” I said, following her around as she prattled on about the stories themselves.

“You should have a good week to get at least one read before she comes back in. She’s usually here once a week. Sometimes more if she’s working less.”

“She does seem busy a lot. I can’t for the life of me remember what she told me she did for a living, though,” I said, following the shopkeeper to the counter where she started to ring up the books.

“Oh,” she said, looking suddenly tense. “Well, she… she is very well-respected around here,” she said. “And maybe a little feared.”

“Feared?” I asked. “She’s so tiny.”

“You know how chihuahuas are the angriest little dogs, even when facing up a dog ten times their size? I think Saff is a little like that. She needs to be ten times as mean and strong to get the same level of respect.”

Respect.

Fear.

Those were… interesting descriptors.

They definitely weren’t the ones you would typically use to describe a businesswoman of any sort.

“She’s a good soul,” she went on. “Don’t let neighborhood gossip convince you otherwise. It’s not easy around here for a woman. A girl’s gotta do whatever it takes.”

I felt like I was missing something really vital. But no one seemed to want to give me direct answers.