I stopped and listened. There was no other sound. It could have been a mouse or a cat that got in through an open window, but I doubted it.

I had two options, go in and see who is there, or high tail it out the front door while I still had time.

Only my time ran out and the decision was made for me.

The door opened and there she was, the dame in black.

"Glad to see you've still got my gun", I said, nodding toward it, held in her hand. "Though I would appreciate if you stopped pointing at me every chance you got. That's how people lose an eye."

She held the gun close to her waist, her eyes locked on mine.

"I told you to leave it alone", she said.

"And I told you I can't drop a case, not without a good cause or an even better pay-off."

"Is your life not a good enough cause?"

"Depends what kind of mood I'm in. At the minute, I could go either way."

"I'm not afraid to use it." Her first tightened on the handle.

"Oh, I believe you'd happily leave a man for dead. Now, I know why I'm here, what about you?"

"I don't think you're in any position to ask questions."

"Maybe not, but it doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere soon, so I've got to do something to pass the time. So, let me take a wild guess."

I reached into my inside pocket.

"Don't think about it."

"Relax, I already told you, I always smoke when someone's got a gun on me."

I slowly removed a pack of smokes and lit one. I offered her the pack, but she didn't react, so I shrugged my shoulders and put it back in my jacket.

"It seems to me that the only reason someone like you would risk coming back here would be to look for something. What that is precisely, I can't be sure, but the one thing I am sure about is that it wasn't for the manuscript."

I took a drag and exhaled to my right, not straight ahead, as a sign of respect.

"Ask me why I'm sure of that."

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"No."

"Alright, I'll tell you anyway. You weren't looking for the manuscript because you knew it wasn't here. You also knew if it had been here, they likely would have found it by now, whoever 'they' happen to be, a point I'm not yet clear on. Still, there must be something here, something they wouldn't have known to look for, which is why you're back.

"I say 'back' because I imagine you've been here before, perhaps even stayed the night, or two."

She adjusted the pistol in her hand, so I knew I was on the right track.

"So you and him were something, but perhaps you wanted to be something more than he did, or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, you came back for whatever it was he'd told you about, or whatever you'd seen when you weren't supposed to."

"Supposing you were right, why do you think I didn't just come back to look for the manuscript?"

"Firstly, because you knew it wasn't here. Secondly, because you know as well I do, this place was tossed days go, probably around the last time he was seen. There's no reason to come here unless you knew something they didn't. And it must have been something worth taking the risk, and you knew it was a risk, hence that." I pointed to the gun, the end of my cigarette between my fingers. I flicked it across the floor.

"How do you know I'm not with them?"

"Because people who work for them, don't look like you. Certainly not in this area of the business, if you know what I mean."

"I don't think I do."

"Oh, come off it, sweetheart. No need to play the innocent with me. Sure, you might not have sold it, but that don't mean you didn't give it away to any shmo with a five-dollar suit and three-dollar haircut. Anyone who looked like they could take you away from places like this. You probably handed it to them on a silver platter."

She slapped me as hard as she could, and in her moment of rage, I reached out and grabbed her wrist, twisting it until the gun fell to the ground.

I pushed her back, she tripped backwards through the doorway, landing on the bed.

I bent down, picked up the pistol, checked the safety was on and tucked it in the back of my trousers.

I looked through the doorway, and she lay on the bed, staring at me in disbelief.

"Sorry, doll", I said, "this ain't no five-dollar suit."

"Why you disgusting, vile--" She grabbed the nearest thing to hand - a pillow - and threw it at me. I barely had to duck for it to fly right past me, sliding across the top of the desk, and knocking the ashtray over.

"Relax, will you? Just needed to get my gun back. It was a present. Now, why don't you and me take a ride and you can fill me in on the rest of the details?"

"Why should I?" She sat on the edge of the bed, arms folded.

"Well, you don't have to do anything you don't want, but I figure you and I want the same thing, at least up until a point. And I figure a dame like you might do alright against a stand-up guy like me,"

At that, she huffed.

"But", I continued, pretending not to hear, "sooner or later, you're going to run into some people that aren't as considerate as me. The kind who'll shoot you down with more than just words. The kind who'll take you on a ride, but only the one way."

She sat the obstinate, but clearly unable to think of a better option, grabbed her bag from the bed, got up and walked to the doorway, where I was stood.

"Ladies first", I said, as I stepped aside.

She stormed past and, tripping on an empty bottle, dropped her bag, the contents scattering across the floor, through the spilt cigarette ash.

She knelt down and started tossing items back in, ash and all.

"Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to clean that later", I said.

"I hate the smell of that stuff", she said, as she stood up, looking me in the eye, mere inches from my face.

"Well, it ain't much better over here."

She huffed and turned and we both headed for the door, only it wasn't closed anymore. It was wide open, and there was someone standing in between the frame.