Chapter 17: The Bar in the Loop

Nina's POV

Sam laid the gray folder on my grandmother's table and told me what was in it.

I read the margin myself.

L. Rhodes, badge log, 19th fl, 9:40 pm.

Why didn't she come down with them?

"Her ex-husband's firm leased that floor," Sam said. "And the sticker rolls came from their bank account."

Marco was leaning on the counter with a dish towel over his shoulder.

"So her ex-husband is paying for her pharmacy?" he said.

"Or somebody who has his account is."

I turned the page over, and over again, and nothing else was on it.

"I want to talk to him," I said.

"Nina," Sam said.

"I'm asking you something. Will you drive me?"

He let out a breath through his nose.

"Where?"

"Marco found him this morning. He drinks in a bar under the tracks on Wabash, from four o'clock."

"I'm not going in with you."

"I know. I want you to stay in the truck."

He looked at me for a long moment, and I saw him swallow the argument.

"Forty minutes," he said. "Then I come in."

"Forty minutes."

The bar had green glass in the windows and a floor that shook whenever a train went over.

He sat at the far end with a bourbon and a folded newspaper.

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