“No need,” he said breezily, reaching over and knuckling the desk right next to my hand, right next to the notebook with Ellen’s torn picture inside. “You’ve been very helpful.” I realized he was giving me a taste of it, what he was capable of. Escobar, all puffed up, didn’t know how to dig. I’d been right: MacLeish hadn’t missed a thing. I’d practically been tapping Morse code on the damn book—of course he’d noticed—but he’d waited until his partner was distracted to deliver the message.

He stopped at the door. “Eight grand,” MacLeish mused, shaking his head. “Such an interesting number. You have my card, if you think of anything else to tell me.”

My throat dried up as he joined his partner in the lobby. A warning. I had to find that money soon.

I had my eyes closed, so I didn’t see Jackal push the door to my office open. But I could smell his woodsy cologne.

“What’d they want to know?”

I popped my eyes open, stared down at my desk. “If I knew her. How I knew her.”

“What’d you tell ’em?”

“What we agreed. That Ellen and I knew each other from ‘the Circuit.’ You know, for call girls.” My head was pounding. I wanted to go home. I wanted to be somewhere cool, having a drink with Lou, listening to her tell me, It’ll be all right, we’ll figure out a new plan. Together.

“There’s a circuit?”

“Of course not,” I said. “But men always think there is.” I squared the corners of the file folders on my desk and, in one motion, slid the notebook and Ellen’s headshot into my purse. Then I crossed to my bar cart and poured myself a glass of gin, straight, my trembling hands spraying drops over my toes.

To Escobar, at least, I was almost certain I’d come off cool, unrattled. And MacLeish I wouldn’t have to worry about once I had the money. That was all he’d been trying to do, I decided. Scare me, let me know how unpleasant he could make things if the money didn’t make it back to him. I could almost convince myself.

Jackal made a noncommittal noise and studied his hands.

“What? Something wrong with that?”

“You and Lou were working Mitch Carrigan?”

That came out of left field. I frowned. “Starting to, yeah.”

“Lou’s idea?”

“The Lady’s, I think. Why do you care?”

“Lou’s talked about him for years. Always told her it was a bad idea, but she couldn’t let it go. Kept saying how the Carrigans were the big score we needed. That taking them would make us real power players in the city.”

I snorted. “That shows what you know. It was a note direct from the Lady.”

Jackal nodded, chewing on his lip, staring through me.