Lamps with dark Tiffany glass along the sleek bar cast an orange glow into the corners of the space. It made the bar look muddy, like clay. Even with the lamps, the bar had that darkness made for drinking, the kind the best can manufacture no matter the hour. Lush leather chairs grouped in corners. It was a good spot to seduce a mark for the first time—to make a not-so-random rendezvous seem like fate.

Lou picked a seat in the farthest corner from the door. She gave a nod to the bartender, busy polishing a glass, who nodded back. Without asking what I wanted, she held up two fingers as if to say, Two of the usual. Lou drew a cigarette out of the case in her purse, setting tip to flame, exhaling a feathery plume of smoke.

“You’ll like the drinks here.”

“I like the drinks everywhere,” I said. “They treat you like a regular.”

Lou took another long drag, blew it toward the ceiling. “I was, once.”

The bartender set two whiskeys in front of us. I gulped half of mine in one go. She watched me drink and said, “Now, are you ready to talk about it like adults?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t mention him before. I don’t know why you wouldn’t tell me.”

Lou waved her hand. “I meant getting our stories together. What’s bothering you?”

“The murder, mostly.”

Lou cut her eyes at the bartender and back at me. She didn’t have to say anything. I held up my hands, a half apology. Hours ago, if Ellen had made that mistake, mentioning the murder in public, I might have slapped her. But it wasn’t hours ago anymore. Funny how that worked.

“The police won’t find anything to trace”—Lou mouthed Ellen’s name at me—“back to us for a few days at least, and once they do, they’ll be less inclined to poke around. You know what I mean.”

I took another gulp of my drink. I thought about Lou’s face when she left my apartment, the look of knowing pity she gave me when I suggested she stay. I thought about that thing I knew about the police’s bribe money that she didn’t. What her face would look like then. I finished the drink.

Lou reached into her purse, drew out another cigarette. “After I left, did you go over to Robert’s?” She didn’t look me in the eye as she asked it, signaled to the bartender to bring me another. “Part of Jackal’s paycheck covers alibis. If it comes to that.”

“I didn’t want to involve him in this. I don’t want him to know about it.”

“You haven’t mentioned anything to him?”