In her fifties, she managed to turn more heads walking into a room than most of her employees. Which was quite the statement, given the fact that she was in charge of a bevy of beautiful sex workers who kept the wealthy Washington, DC, elite satisfied.
I handed her an espresso on a delicate saucer and took a seat on the edge of the desk I’d commandeered. The hotel manager was outside, probably nervously pacing and wondering why the man who owned this place and signed her paycheck was using her office to meet with the most notorious madam on the East Coast.
“I need information,” I said.
“Don’t be greedy, Lucian. It’s unbecoming.”
“Don’t pretend you feed me out of the generosity of your heart, Maureen. I’ve made your life easier in a number of ways.”
It was a symbiotic relationship we shared. She divulged information on any problematic clients her workers encountered, and I used the information to make sure there were no further problems. Depending on the individual in question, my tools ran the gamut from blackmail to sometimes more creative means.
“Sooner or later, someone could draw a connection between us, and then where will we be?” she asked before taking a delicate sip of espresso.
“We’re both too cagey for that.”
“Hmm. How very optimistic of you. But people get distracted. They get sloppy.”
“Is that why your name came up in connection to Felix Metzer’s untimely demise?” I asked, dropping the information like a dead body at her feet.
Her face remained perfectly impassive, but I didn’t miss the rattle of china when she set her cup down.
“Who have you been talking to?”
“Someone you’re lucky enough is too stupid to connect any dots. He assumed Felix was a client.”
“What a limited imagination your little birdie has,” Maureen said, patting her hair.
“Why were you seen having lunch with a man who was—by all accounts—a likable, networking, criminal middleman until his body was fished out of the Potomac?”
She sighed. “First tell me why you’re involved.”
“Felix sold a list with my friend’s name on it to Anthony Hugo. Hugo made it known that every name on the list needed to be eliminated.”
“You have friends?” She arched an eyebrow, her brown eyes sparkling.
“More like family,” I said.
“Then you already understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Felix is…or was family. We were cousins in what feels like a past life. We grew up together. I went my way, he went his. But we stayed in touch, met up on occasion. Never anywhere that someone would recognize me, of course. I have a reputation to uphold.”
Except someone had recognized her, and now Maureen was my only lead.
“Did Felix ever talk to you about work?”
“We thought it best not to discuss our professions. Plausible deniability and all that.”
“But you would have looked out for him. You would have had an idea of the company he was keeping,” I pressed. Maureen was a caretaker at heart and a guard dog when necessary.
“Why are you focusing on Felix and not Hugo? Lord knows that man has broken enough laws to earn a few lifetime sentences in prison.”
“Someone who wasn’t Hugo put my friend’s name on that list for reasons I want to know. That person needs to pay.”
“Sounds like someone had a vendetta against your friend.”
“I need to know who.” Even if Anthony Hugo finally went down for his crimes, there was still someone out there who thought of Nash Morgan as a threat. And I wouldn’t rest until I had them.
Maureen studied her pale-pink nails. “As I said, we didn’t discuss business.”
“That’s never stopped you from acquiring information before.”
She inhaled deeply. “Fine. Not all of Felix’s friends were on the wrong side of the law. Some of them at least worked on the right side.”
“A cop?” I asked.
“There was a gentleman—and I use that term loosely.” She glanced at her discreet Cartier timepiece. “He showed up at a family backyard cookout this summer. I wasn’t there, of course. My aunt mentioned that Felix’s cop acquaintance made quite the little show of introducing himself around as Felix’s ‘old friend.’ It rattled my cousin, which was not an easy thing to accomplish.”
“So you looked into him?”
“Someone gets that close to my family, and I will do what’s necessary.”