What I could have done is I could have traced Mr. Client after the meeting. I did not because if you get caught doing that, people think you are not going to deal square and they become antsy and oftentimes they will do something regrettable like try to kill you or set you up later. They think you want to maybe blackmail them or kill them or in some other way you are seeking power over them, and that is inevitably what people in this situation absolutely do not want. Therefore at a certain point in a for-hire criminal enterprise everyone has to accept everyone else’s boundaries. Everyone has to decide they do not want to know stuff the other person does not want them to know because knowing that stuff makes you enemies, and you need to be friends or at least like able to put your hand in your pocket while standing in the same elevator without that other person thinking you are going for a knife no not a shiv that is taxonomically inaccurate plus also fuck you.

So that is what I did.

I respected everyone’s boundaries.

Yeah I hear ya but you were not there.

—

The marina restaurant is one of the places with those seats that look real comfy and when you sit it turns out they are harder than stone so the first thing that happens is you go OOF as your ass bounces on the uncomfortable seat and this happens every time. The food is deceptive as well like the fried fish is cold and the ice cream is hot who fucking does that but: business so la la la. Why do these people meet and eat? Because they are human and humans think that if you share food it makes a bond it is mammal shit evolutionary shit and it is bullshit but that is what they do. Oasis comfort zone. Every man’s L’Affable is his castle.

This ain’t no L’Affable.

Maître fusses over. Fuss and fuss and la and I stick out my hand. Heavy bill in there because that is how you achieve focus in a place like this. Maître takes it like his paw is a vacuum cleaner like SLURP and gone and now we are old friends.

“Hi I am Pierre-Paul Gondorf I am here to meet that gentleman over there here is my credit card this meal will be on me—”

And la la la please come this way sir. I am not Pierre-Paul Gondorf that is a made-up name: I am a criminal and that is how we do.

—

I sit at my table until the maître d’ brings me someone to talk to.