A Dangerous Man with Excellent References

How it begins

All three of Darian Cole's references described his discretion. None mentioned how they had met him.

Alma read the letters while he waited outside her office.

Good suit. Clean shoes. No photograph on the public profile he had approved. He had asked more questions about the agency's client-support fund than about anyone she might introduce.

She opened the door.

“Come in.”

He sat where she indicated, leaving the second chair clear of his coat.

“Have you found someone?”

“Possibly.”

“Should I be encouraged?”

“That depends whether you're seeking a partner or a ledger.”

For the first time since their initial meeting, he looked less composed.

Alma had built her work around the useful difference between what a person said they wanted and what they kept arranging their life to avoid. She did not require clients to be simple. She required them to understand that other people were not evidence in a private argument.

Darian placed his hands on his knees.

“What have you found?”

“A reference from a company that closed six years ago.”

“It existed when I worked there.”

“The signer joined it three years later.”

He looked toward the frosted glass.

Outside, the receptionist answered a call in the low reassuring voice Alma had taught her. The agency's rooms were designed to make uncertainty feel expensive rather than frightening.

Alma moved his profile off the desk.

“Whatever this is, we stop pretending it's matchmaking.”

“All right.”

She had expected denial. The agreement unsettled her more.

Darian took out a photograph of an adult woman Alma had introduced to a client last spring.

“Do you know where she is?”

“Yes.”

“Will you tell me?”

“No. Not until she knows you're asking.”

He considered the answer.

Then, slowly, he nodded.

Alma looked at the photograph again. The woman's bright, guarded smile seemed suddenly less like a successful introduction than a question the agency had stopped asking once the invoice was paid.