NOVEMBER 5, 1934
THE APARTMENT HAD APPARENTLY been Lazar’s workspace. It had a desk, a foldout bed, and not much else. It suited me just fine after a couple nights in the Three Rivers and out on the streets.
I glanced out the window. All I had a view of was the grimy street below. It made me, weirdly, long for the garret above Ed and Joey’s place. I shut the window, then put my hand through the holes where glass should have been. It’s a good thing the cold didn’t bother me.
I spotted a deck of cards snapped in a rattrap. Either the rat had been smart enough to use a decoy or someone had carelessly tossed the deck on the floor. I carefully extricated the deck, then flipped the cards out one by one onto my desk. There weren’t quite forty, not even enough for a proper game of Patience.
So
