Chapter 23The singer Darby had found to replace Owen wasn’t nearly as good, a pale wisp of a girl whose reedy execution made Mathias want to drown himself in his whiskey. Literally or figuratively. If he couldn’t plug his ears from the dreadful sounds, then the least he could do was drink himself into an oblivion where he didn’t care any longer whether or not his eardrums were bleeding. It didn’t help that Edmund and Darby were otherwise occupied at the moment, she with Birdsong business and he with a surprise telephone call.
Something was up. Mathias didn’t know what it was, but when the call had come through as they pulled up to the club, Edmund had sent him inside, insisting on taking it privately. Though he wouldn’t admit as much to Edmund’s face, he missed the time when he would have
