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Cora glanced at her phone. It was still buzzing. She had managed to get a couple of hours of sleep.
An expensive nap. But she had wanted to stay on the move though it would have partially depleted the card she had given Rain. But Cora was doing the best she could. Now, she felt a crick in her neck. The back of the taxi hadn’t been the most comfortable. And by the smell of things, before his sandwich, the driver had managed another cigarette.
Her buzzing phone displayed the alarm she had set two hours ago.
She yawned briefly and was suddenly hit by a surge of hunger.
She frowned in jealousy at the Italian beef the driver was currently munching on, the aluminum foil slick with grease and mayonnaise.
But she suppressed her rising appetite, and instead pushed out of the back of the taxicab. “Just keep the meter running,” she said.
The man flashed her a thumbs up, adjusting his glasses, and running a hand over his slick, bald head, leaving a streak of grease from his sandwich.
Cora didn’t want to read too much into the subconscious reason for such a gesture. A sort of grooming habit.
She shook her head and approached the small sandwich kiosk.
As she moved, she took slow, careful steps.
A couple of hours of sleep helped refresh her mind. While dozing, she had even imagined herself back at the mayor’s mansion.
A couple of people were waiting in line for their own sandwiches, and she paused, hands in her pockets, standing beneath the sun. She still wore the same black outfit she had before. It smelled of chlorine, sweat, and cinnamon.
She considered her options. Something kept nagging at her, though.
It took her a couple of moments to realize what.
The guards back at the mayor’s house.
She frowned, biting her lower lip.
One of the clients at the kiosk accepted their sandwich, paid, and hurried off with a big grin on their face of anticipation.
Cora’s stomach twisted. She pined wistfully after the card she’d loaned away.
She would have to make sure she canceled it within the week, like she’d said. Hopefully it would be enough to keep Rain on her feet. Cora wasn’t sure how she felt about promising the woman to drop everything and come running in the case of an emergency. Prostitutes could often find themselves in multiple emergencies all at once.
There was something of a stigma around work like that. Cora understood it. Especially given how she had been raised. But there was a stigma around what she was doing too.
Perhaps that was the affinity she had some felt for the frail, scared woman.
Or perhaps it went deeper than that.
Rain. Rose.
The names weren’t that close. And yet Cora had let her sister’s name slip. She frowned, wondering if she ought to get in touch with Gabriel, and let him know that if he didn’t come up with something soon, she was going to make good on her threat.
For all she knew, he was playing her. He thought he could get the better of her and lead her in circles.
But her sister had gone to meet with Gabe the night she’d vanished. Rose was a determined person. If she said she wanted to meet with her boyfriend, then it meant she would.
The only reason Gabe was denying it was either because something even more forceful than Rose had disrupted her nightly plans or because Gabriel was lying.
Cora knew which of these two eventualities she would bet on.
Not that she had much to bet with.
She stared forlorn as another sandwich was handed to the second customer.
