"Yes please."

"I have some chai for Miss Sinope," Sano says, "and some excellent green tea from Japan for myself and Mr. Latz."

(Fact: According to Sal, Sano ended the performance of the King in Yellow, which, Inaaya doesn't actually have evidence that it's cursed and nobody should read it or see it but it sure didn't feel like something people should be exposed to.

Hypothesis: to whatever extent there's something not-conventionally-held-to-be-possible going on, Sano is probably more aware of it than anyone else Inaaya talks to.

Corollary: Oscar Latz is not. Like, extremely not, ridiculously not, makes up absurd stories out of thin air to justify how conventionally-held-to-be-possible things have to be. She doesn't know what to do about this. If there are codes for letting people know that you also know about magic, Inaaya doesn't know them. But there's got to be something there, right?)

In the meantime she smiles extremely sincerely and thanks him. She has, in fact, missed chai.

This green tea is great!

He pours it incredibly gracefully. In fact, all of his movements are very graceful. He's quite pretty.

Whatever he thinks of the flagrant displays of wealth, Oscar has to admit, Sano's so refined.

"What did you want to speak to me about? I must admit I didn't know that you two were acquainted."

"We were investigating the case of one Alexander Roby; Mr. Latz tried to set up a meeting with his friend Christopher Parker, and hit a dead end, and -- since you're in the rare books business -- I suggested asking you."

"It's in the interest of helping an artist in some very bad circumstances." He has no idea if this tack will work on Sano.

Mr. Sano purses his lips. "I would suggest not speaking with Mr. Parker. He is a dangerous man."

"I've heard my share of stories," says Oscar knowingly. "He turned us away at the door. Didn't seem to care about helping a friend."

Inaaya quietly adjusts her credence in the mummy story upwards. Not to the point where she thinks it's more likely than not, yet, but upwards. "I wasn't intending to; I was wondering if you could tell us more about him, or if you knew anything else about Roby-- apparently he'd published his own book, heavily referencing The King in Yellow?"

"I tend to specialize in older works, unfortunately. I don't know Roby. --Mr. Parker has organized crime connections."

Oh, is that it? "Huh, first I'm hearing of this."

"Rare books, art, antiques-- there's a lot of money in them. The right collector can be ruthless. He specializes in works where, mm, the collector doesn't care so much about a clean provenance. He is very skilled at his job and-- that is not a safe kind of man to cross."

"Clean provenance"-- huh, Oscar hopes that he's misreading the subtext here. Maybe that's-- "Have you ever known him to be violent?"

(He really doesn't need to be taking Sano's statements so goddamn personally. It's not like they're buddies or anything, but you know, part of Oscar has always respected him.)

"Yes, on occasion. If there is enough money in it."

"He's mercenary." Hmm. "Not for fun, or anything?" Oscar makes a face.

"Not as far as I know, but it would not surprise me."

Organized crime connections might be a euphemism? It also might not be; Inaaya is not exactly confident that Oscar would have heard of it if Parker were a completely ordinary mob boss. Most organized crime is just organized crime. Most impossible murders turn out to have been entirely possible.

But, also, The King in Yellow is verifiably super cursed, and if anyone knows it then Sano does, and Inaaya does not know the codes.

"I heard kind of a grim story about that recently."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, uh," Oscar says. He tell Sano the story about the tramp. "I don't know what to make of it," he adds, as a lame/general disclaimer. Here he is, sitting in Sano's office, talking about mummies.

"What an appalling story," Sano says. "Do you think any of it might be true?"

Oscar sits in awkward silence and then says. "Hard to tell. Carter seems like an imaginative type, to say the least. But sincere for sure."

Sano probably thinks he's become some kind of crackpot in the last few months. Jesus.