"They found the whistle in the house," the cat clarifies. "The nasty humans didn't bring it themselves."

"--oh. In that case I have no idea. Hm. Did the whistling have a tune one could recognize, or was it all just one note?"

Cat has a thorough vocabulary for describing sounds and the stray cat can describe it completely. 

Oh good. "Did anything else weird or interesting happen that night, do you know?"

"Not that I can remember."

Nodnod. "Thank you."

Meanwhile--

"Hey Terrence," says Oscar. He's grateful for the unusual lull in activity in the shop-- it's not so much the chance of someone overhearing, more that he doesn't want a patron to interrupt this conversation with a raised-voice argument about Marx. "Before we talk to Parker, there's one thing I want to ask you."

Terrence leans back on the counter, from looking over various titles while he was waiting. "What's that, Oscar?"

Terrence sometimes comes in here and looks at books kind of intently, but Oscar's not sure he's ever bought anything since the time he tried (and failed) to acquire a first edition of the King in Yellow. Anyways, Oscar's pretty sure he's given his rhetorical strategy enough thought. Here goes. "To be honest," he says, "Silly as it might sound-- I'm pretty nervous about talking to Parker. We don't know if the tramp story is true but we're still reaching out to-- by all accounts a very prickly guy-- about his friend who's locked up, right."

"That's - that's true. It'd be a sensitive topic no matter who we're dealing with."

"Yeah, it's very sensitive," says Oscar. "And as much as I'd like to think we're all in it for the love of books, I doubt Parker overlooks that I'm his competition. So." Here he goes. "It makes sense to discuss it if it comes up," he says. "Like with Roby, by all means. But on the whole-- I'd prefer if you didn't press the King in Yellow thing." He looks at Terrence for a second. "For Parker's sake."

O_o "I wasn't - I mean, I don't even know if Parker's read it. But if he has, surely it's relevant to the case? Roby made it sound like it was a big part of his, his work with his friends, or his life's work or what have you. I don't know if Parker was one of those friends, of course."

"Of course you can discuss it if it's relevant to the case," Oscar says. "As I said. I just think--" how to put this-- "Parker, Parker might have bad associations with the play, or (God forbid) he might insult it. It's better not to be too effusive."

No matter how much Oscar rehearsed this, he's still not sure how to say "Please don't embarrass me with that one banned French play in front of my colleague Chris Parker".

Terrence shrugs. "I suppose. I can play it safe. Get a read on him."

"That's the spirit," says Oscar. "Sorry if I come off a scold. I've just been dreading this conversation, and in my defense you brought up this play a lot even when it wasn't relevant to"-- anything that a sophisticated person should spend his time on-- "the case."

"Roby literally brought it up himself, my dear."

"I'm not talking about Roby. Just so you know." There's a bit more acid than Oscar intended, but Terrence is definitely making fun of him with that 'my dear.' "Forget I said anything. You and Parker can talk about whatever you want, I guess."

"Oh. Um - alright. Understandable. I know it's not your cup of tea, so much."

That afternoon, they go to Parker's office to see Parker.

Parker is not exactly a young man but he sure is in his thirties and not his fifties and has a full head of brown hair.

"What is it?"

"It's Oscar Latz. I wrote you a letter about your friend Alexander Roby." If Parker recognizes him he'll let him bring it up.

"Why are you here?"

He addressed this pretty well in the letter.

"I understand if you don't want to talk about the situation," he says. "But we heard you were pretty close with Roby, and we're trying our best to help him."

"Your card?"

He hands Chris Parker a business card which reads:

Oscar Latz, Owner
Forward Bookshop and Springtide Press
68 Red Lion Square, Holborn
London

"You've been misinformed," Parker says.

He looks down at the the book he's reading. Oscar and Terrence have obviously been dismissed.