Somewhere near the bottom of my ginned-up coffee, the booze too warm, the coffee only lukely so, I had to get a little honest with myself and admit I was avoiding looking at Klein’s file, avoiding thinking about Ellen and the money I owed to both the Lady and the police now. I wasn’t sure which was worse. The glands in my mouth started to sweat, and soon I had a mouthful of saliva that gin wouldn’t wash down. I leaned over and spat into my trash can.

I couldn’t let my guard down until it was over. Ellen would try to get the drop on me again. She had the cash in her grubby little fists—she’d won this round—but she’d tipped her hand, too. That was a bigger mistake than she knew. I couldn’t afford to underestimate her again.

When Lou popped her head into my doorway to tell me she was leaving, my office was dark, the sun long since gone and only the glow of my computer illuminating my face, the bottle of juniper snugged between a coffeepot and a succulent on my desk.

“How’d it go with your girl?” Lou asked, fingers dancing along my door frame.

“She meets with him Thursday,” I said, which wasn’t really an answer.

Lou’s face relaxed. I wondered what she had to promise our boss to get my extension. “Money to the Lady before you know it,” she said, reassuring me. I let us both pretend it worked. She promised to pick me up the next morning at my apartment, and we’d start scouting Carrigan together. She glanced at the gin bottle on my desk and added, “I’ll bring coffee.”

The bottle was drying up by the time I powered the computer down. Damn thing must’ve been leaking. I put my head on my desk to rest my eyes and didn’t open them again until I heard the faint tinkle of chimes on the front door. I sat up, wondering if the Lady had brought that sharpened shiv of a diamond ring back for the envelope. Or for me. But when I poked my head out into the hallway, no one was there. I shook my head. Just the gin making me jumpy. Time for me to be going.

On my way out, I paused at Jackal’s door. I hadn’t seen him since that morning, but I hadn’t expected to. For the better part of the day, he’d kept his door locked and wouldn’t even answer for Lou, because professionalism was a thing he’d left behind the day he bent me over the front desk to welcome me to the job, way back when. But he’d come around. Eventually.