The secretary gives Inaaya a copy of an interesting new book about quantum physics. She does not give Oscar anything at all.

Maybe he is on some kind of blacklist?

He gives Inaaya a meaningful look-- trying to land on "Crazy, right?"

She shrugs. Worrying about what that might mean is-- probably not worth her time, since even if Sano has decided he hates Oscar for some reason she can hardly take any actions about it. She reads about quantum physics.

And forty-five minutes later the secretary says, "Mr. Sano will see you now."

"I'm very sorry for the delay, Miss Sinope, Mr. Latz. I was in an unavoidable meeting. If you make an appointment with my secretary you will not have to wait so long."

"I didn't mind. Thank you for the book."

"Sorry about that, Mister Sano," Oscar says. "We've dealing with some unusual circumstances. I hope you've been well, by the way."

"I have been excellent. Would you care for some tea?"

"That'd be wonderful. Thanks." He's heard quite a bit about Japanese tea preparation.

"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.)