Page 107 of Lion & Lamb

VEENA LION: Where are you? What are you doing?

COOPER LAMB: I’m looking at vintage screenshots of high-priced Atlantic City call girls. How about you?

LION: I’m about to catch the Frankford El. Can you meet me at Thirtieth Street Station in twenty-five minutes?

LAMB: You know, I’m pretty wrapped up in this research at the moment.

LION: I’m sure you are.

LAMB: Our friend Maya Rain? She used to be one of Atlantic City’s finest escorts. And, even better, she used to work for Roz Cline.

LION: Incredible.

LAMB: Also, I discovered that Mickey Bernstein moonlights for the Atlantic City Mob, which runs all of the escorts in town. So it’s not a huge leap to assume that Mickey and Maya go way back.

LION: Nice work, Cooper. But I can do you one better.

LAMB: Ha! No, you can’t.

LION: Yes, I can.

LAMB: Impossible. There’s no way you can top this. I’m like one baby step away from figuring out this whole sordid story. I just have to sort out why the Mob wanted Archie dead a week before the championship game. I’m thinking it was some kind of—

LION: Cooper.

LAMB: What.

LION: I have a video clip on my phone showing Archie’s killers leaving the scene of the crime.

LAMB: I’m sorry, you have what, now?

LION: I’m also wearing his Super Bowl ring on my middle finger.

LAMB: No, you’re not.

LION: Yes, I am.

LAMB: No, what I mean is, you should absolutelynotride the Frankford El wearing Archie Hughes’s Super Bowl ring. Someone will knife you for it. Hell,I’dknife you for it.

LION: So you can sell it for crackhead prices?

LAMB: What?

LION: Never mind. Okay, okay, it’s in my pocket now. Are you going to say it?

LAMB: Say what?

LION: Are you going to say, “Veena, how on earth did you manage to solve this case all by yourself?”

LAMB: No. I figure you’ll tell me all about it when I pick you up from Thirtieth Street Station in twenty-four minutes.

LION: Perfect. Oh, and bring your gun. And leave Lupe at home.

Chapter115

AN HOURlater, Cooper Lamb and Veena Lion knocked on the front door of the Hughes estate and were met by a monster.

“You two need to leave right now,” Jimmy Tua said, practically growling the words. “Francine doesn’t want to see you.”

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