2.3 cont, evening of the same day

[al-shairan.livejournal.com]

Jazz Funeral, a sombre-toned jazz bar buried in a back alley of Excolo. It's Thursday night, and a pianist is quietly playing in the background. The air smells of tobacco and bourbon, and tonight the breeze has brought in the scent of the river, almost swampy-green in the heat. Al Shairan is sitting at a table, holding a cigarette like a prop, a glass of whisky in front of him, facing the door but not looking at it.

It is another hot night, and I have much on my mind. Lysander, I know, was called in for questioning at the police station - I have a helpful source who leaks these things to me - and apparently they thought he shot at Glass Beddau. That was certainly not on my instructions. If Lysander had his own reasons for shooting at her, we need to have a little talk about discretion... And if his reasons came from someone else, well. We shall have quite a different kind of talk. I do not allow my dogs to serve two masters, and Lysander is without a doubt a cur. Useful enough, in his way, but he has a limited life expectancy, I think.

And then there is Lily. She is up to something - and not her usual sort of mischief. She has been absent from home a few times in this last fortnight, which is not in itself unusual, but I think she has been lying about where she has been. I rang up the townhouse on a pretext, telling the housekeeper I was wondering if Lily had left a bracelet behind? "Oh, Mr Shairan, Mrs Shairan hasn't been here since -" she said, and then caught herself as if she had said something she did not mean to. I could have pressed her, but that was not politic. Instead I just said "I must have been mistaken; thank you, Mrs Djinn." If Lily has not stayed at the townhouse, she has stayed somewhere else. My suspicions are increased by having not heard from her today; I know she met with my mother this afternoon, and normally after that Lily flies into a rage with me complaining about how awful my mother is. But I haven't heard a word, and I am not naive enough to think that their meeting went smoothly. Something is wrong, and I am determined to know what. So I have called a number, and am awaiting a contact.