“I don’t know why I would. Trust me, this city has plenty of sin without needing me to import it,” Edge said.

“But you did, right?”

Edge shrugged. “I left most of my sin in New York. But I couldn’t bear to leave it all back there.”

“What about you?” Cyrus turned to Nora. “You remember giving your card to anyone when you came down here to house hunt?”

She exhaled heavily. “That was a quick trip three years ago. I was here less than a week.” She rubbed her forehead as if trying to jostle a memory loose. “It’s possible, I admit. But I wasn’t looking for clients. I’m trying to think if I met anyone kinky and exchanged information.”

“You didn’t go to any clubs or anything?” Edge asked.

“No,” Nora said. “Not that I remember. Although it is New Orleans. I might have had too much to drink one night and given out my number to everyone on Bourbon Street. I didn’t. I think.”

“Did you do any drinking while you were in town?” Cyrus asked her. She looked at him, lips pursed.

“What do you think?”

“Maybe you got drunk and gave everyone on Bourbon Street your card. Narrows it down.”

“Nobody called me after my trip down here,” she said. “That I do know. And if I give someone my card…they call me.”

“A dead priest did,” Cyrus said.

“A dead priest I never met in my life,” Nora said.

“So…either you got drunk—” he said, pointing at Nora with his pencil, “—and maybe gave your card to everyone on Bourbon. Or Father Ike went to New York, and he could have gotten your card from…”

“Literally any kinky person in the city,” Nora said.

“Great. Fantastic,” Cyrus said dryly. “I’ll ask Sister Margaret if he took any trips to New York. You ready?”

Céleste came running out of the house then with Nora’s big dog now wearing a hot pink collar around his neck.

“Much better,” Nora said.

“Come swim with me,” she said to the dog, pulling him by the collar to the pool.

“No dogs in the pool,” Edge said two seconds before Céleste and the dog waded into the shallow end via the pool steps.

“Out, Gmork,” Nora said. Her dog obeyed, climbed out of the pool, and promptly shook himself dry all over Edge, who took it with impressive stoicism.

“I never knew I could hate a dog,” Edge said. “But I can.”

“Bye, King,” Nora said. “Bye, princess!”

Céleste waved goodbye to them.

“Thank you, Mr. Edge.” Cyrus held out his hand, and Edge only hesitated a second before shaking it. As Cyrus and Nora were leaving the backyard, he saw Edge jump back into the water, swoop Céleste into his arms, and toss her squealing and laughing into the air.

“I’m gonna say something,” Cyrus said to Nora. “And you’re gonna forget I said it after I said it.”

“Say it.”

“That is one good-looking man.”

“Rich, too.”