“You forgot,” I repeated. On the ground, the wreckage of the file folders that had been pushed off his desk in the affair, which must’ve been the crash I’d heard. Glaring out from the edge of one, a black-and-white photograph of a man I’d never met before. Young, attractive—high cheekbones, rounded chin, the haircut of a cop, looking away from the camera. Nothing salacious.

I might not have met him, but I recognized him: a hero-kid cop who had a nasty habit of asking for favors from the women—junkies, working girls—he cleared off the streets. Lou had run his case last year. He wasn’t the first, or the only, uniform in the city who partook in that particular indulgence, but he was easy pickings. After the Lady was through with him, he’d resigned, worked in insurance now. Lou had shared the photographs one bourbon-soaked night, the two of us laughing over the kid with an unloaded gun between the thighs of a girl I’d trained. Still wearing his badge, the dumb fuck.

“You forgot,” I said again. “I don’t believe you.”

“Sorry, babe,” Jackal said, shifting between me and the photograph so I couldn’t see it anymore. “I owe you one. I fucked up.”

Now I was sure he was lying. If he really had forgotten, if it had been an honest mistake, he would’ve picked a fight with me, tried to make me feel bad about what he thought wasn’t his fault. So I missed the show, big fuckin’ whoop. I’ll be there next time. But an apologetic Jackal? I’d never seen it. He was trying to keep me from asking questions. Like if he’d been on a heater and decided the tables were more important than our case. Than me.

Or questions about what he was doing with evidence from an old case that should be with the Lady for safekeeping, like all the other photographs he took.

“What do I have to do to keep you from forgetting the time and place on Thursday?” I grinned at him, sticking my tongue behind my left uppermost molar. It did not feel sexy, but he seemed to like it. Thongs, practiced smiles, anal beads—what was it with some men and the allure of uncomfortable things?

Jackal reeled me into him. “Let me make it up to you.”