Page 48 of The Mafioso’s Bride

“And the card.”

“You left those too.” I point to the open end of the bench.

She checks the path behind me. “Did your guards follow the taxi?”

“They lost it.” I sit at the far end of the bench. Enough room remains between us for her coat.

“Then how are you here?”

“I asked where a woman would go after leaving her husband. The answers were stations, hotels, shelters, churches, and crowded public buildings. We sent men across the city.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“No. It explains why I failed.” I don’t move.

She rubs the seam of her trousers. The same motion she used in the basement while her father hurt her.

“I was asking where an ordinary missing person would go,” I say. “You aren’t a category in a report. So I asked where you would go.”

“Here.”

“Somewhere warm and quiet, with plants, moss, and enough moisture for tardigrades to move through the water around them.” I point toward the moss.

She releases the seam. “They might not be present in this moss,” she says. “It may have been treated. The conservatory may use pesticides or other controls.”

“I considered that.”

“You did not.” Her shoulders draw inward.

“No,” I admit. “I assumed moss plus moisture would give you a reasonable chance.”

“A sample would require a microscope to confirm it,” she says.

“I’ll buy the conservatory a microscope if they allow you to collect one.”

“They probably won’t,” she says.

“Then I’ll ask.”

Her attention stays on the moss. Water runs over stone in the next room. The air dampens the front of my shirt beneath my coat.

“You remembered,” she says.

“I remember everything you tell me.”

“Why?” she asks.

“Because you’re fascinating.”

Her mouth presses flat. “People say that about things they consider strange.”

“I say it about you because you give me facts I’ve never encountered and connections I would have missed. You correct me when I’m wrong. You tell the truth when every person around me has learned to hide it. Listening to you is never an obligation.”

“You listen to people for your work,” she says.

“I listen for lies, leverage, and threats. With you, I want the next fact.”

Her eyes close for two seconds. “There are more than fourteen hundred described species of tardigrade.”