The last man in New Madison that Remy wanted to owe another favor found himself with a mighty big favor thanks to Josie.

  “Happy fucking Jack.” He spat into the snowbank outside his apartment. Sure, Jack’s goons showing up had saved his life down in that dark alley, but a favor to Happy Jack would most likely just cost him that same life later. Later was better than sooner but it wasn’t a trade he was excited to make.

  He fumed to himself as his skiff pulled around from the garage. Josie had never even went into the Sapphire Lounge. She had turned a corner, hopped into a parked skiff and went straight to Jack’s. Of course, the man had been more than happy to hit JD when he was distracted. Business was business.

  She’d been too coy with Remy on the price of Jack’s help, too. As always, favors were worth more than credits.

  “Can’t believe I trusted her with this,” he said, soaring over the New Madison skyline. Remy shook his head and sighed. No sense dwelling on this now. The job was done and he would pay whatever was owed when it came due. If it never did, all the better.

  Josie waited at home while he went to meet Stefanie over coffee. Remy could use something stiffer but Stefanie had suggested coffee, so coffee would have to do. The coffee house was midway to the west side of the city, and tucked into the first floor of a sprawling apartment complex with terraced forests and gardens. Snow dusted the barren trees and some residents strung up many colored lights around the evergreens.

  She waited for him at a table near the window with two steaming mugs and a smile just as warm. Remy brushed the snow from his shoulders and set his hat on the window ledge. Stefanie flicked lush reddish-gold hair over her shoulder and cocked her head toward him.

  “You look like a man with something to say.” Those eyes pierced through him. He’d been thinking about how he would tell her. Remy had looked through the wad of paper from the Sapphire Lounge trying to make sense of it. Stefanie smiled and he just started talking.

  “I think I have something. A few weeks ago, I went back to Colin’s office looking for clues and found something I missed before. A photo, you and him on some beach?”

Stefanie nodded, “I remember he had that on his desk. We’d just been married and he won some big case.” Remy didn’t really want to linger on her good memories with her husband.

  “Yeah, so on the back of that, there was a note pointing me to the Sapphire Lounge in the undercity. Any significance to that?”

She shook her head. “Never been there. Colin sometimes liked to blow off steam in the undercity with the other guys at the office though so it’s not surprising. Did you go there?”

  “Well, the scribblings also pointed toward a lock box with a pass code.” He pulled the stack of papers from his pocket and placed them on the table. “Took a few tries but here’s what I found.” Remy watched her reaction but her composure didn’t crack. It was relieving. Maybe she wasn’t in as deep as her husband. Maybe she didn’t know anything about Colin’s other business at all. With the papers out of his hands, Remy breathed deeply, taking in the coffee shop. The entire place smelled like roasted beans, cinnamon, and that earthy wetness of snow melting on patron’s boots. Remy felt at peace for the first time in weeks.

  She fingered the top documents and skimmed them. After a moment, she glanced up at him.

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  “What do they say? Do they say where he is?”

  Remy shifted and took a big drink of the coffee. The still steaming drink burned his tongue but he needed to buy the extra time. Better to speak plainly and deal with it later. Stefanie would understand, but it killed him to hurt those bright green eyes. If she cried… Well, he had no idea what he would do then but it might break him too. Disappointing her was unthinkable.

  “I think there’s a good chance he’s dead, Stefanie.”

  To her credit, she set her jaw and slacked back into her chair. Some people didn’t handle the news of a death very well and cried, made a scene, and let it drag them down for weeks, or years. Others set their jaw, shoved it deep down, and didn’t let it out. Remy supposed the news scarred a person in either case but he preferred to work with people who responded in the latter fashion. It certainly made his own life easier. Remy sipped at his coffee. It still smelled good but he couldn’t taste it for shit with a burnt tongue.

  “I’m sorry, Stef. I didn’t know how to tell you so I thought I’d come right out and say it. Colin was in deep with some bad people.”

  Stefanie didn’t say anything. It was better than some alternatives, of course, but Remy wanted to desperately fill the space. Idle chatter of other customers and holiday music was uncomfortable background noise for talking about her late husband’s crimes.

  “So what now?” She finally broke their silence. Remy picked at his fingernails and twisted his lips.

  “That’s up to you. Way I see it, we got two options.” He held out one finger. “I could keep going and see what else is there. Maybe find some proof if he’s actually…gone. Or at least, what the rest of his business was.” He extended a second one. “Or, we end it here and walk away. Looking at these papers, this could end up being more trouble than we’d care to find for ourselves.”

  There were other options, of course. Remy figured one way or another, he’d be spending most of his payment on damage control. He’d worked with folks in the two big undercity gangs before out of necessity. But probing into either one’s legal representations seemed like a sure fire way to suck-start a rifle. He wondered if Happy Jack would take JD’s legal records as payback. God knows he didn’t want it for himself.

  Stefanie remembered her own cup of coffee and nursed it. Tears welled in her eyes like rain drops, but somehow they didn’t fall. Remy bit his lip, urgently hoping they remained there.

  “I understand if you don’t want to continue. You’ve done more than enough.” She slid a creased envelope across the table. “Here’s your payment.”

  It would be really easy to take it and walk away. That envelope had enough credit chips inside to last him a year if he was careful, even after accounting for his costs. He’d done his job, she said it herself. Business was business and theirs was through. Instead, he said something else.

  “Sure, but you’d like to keep digging, right?”

  She smiled briefly and nodded. “I do. If Colin was up to something…dangerous…then it could affect me later, right? I’d rather know now. So I can protect myself, you know?”

  It was sound logic. Colin’s work with JD had been as seedy as any lawyer Remy’d known. Without some more answers, Stefanie could still be in danger. Besides, he thought, she has a strong jaw and stiff eyes now but maybe later, she’d need a shoulder to cry on. He could be that guy. Remy felt guilty thinking about winning over a widowed woman over the course of her husband’s murder investigation. That feeling would pass. Guilt usually did and a woman’s arms helped.

  “I’d pay, of course. Whatever Colin did for these people, he was paid well for it and I have most of that. I appreciate you and will definitely make it worth your time.” She smiled across the table and reached for his hand. She took it and squeezed. Ha! She was trying to reassure him. What a woman. Able to smile after this sort of news. He wouldn’t be comforting her, he knew. A woman like that didn’t need a guy like him to cry on. He pocketed the first envelope and finished his coffee.

  “The papers identify a few of JD’s warehouses. I think I’ll start there.” Remy stood up and replaced his hat. “I’ll see what I can do. Let’s talk again next week.”

  The bells clinked on the door as he left and the cold winter’s breeze brushed off the lingering scents of the coffee shop. Robbing an unsuspecting bar was one thing. A couple fortified warehouses was something else entirely.

  Maybe Josie would have a thought for how to do it without getting killed.