"Was it bad?"

"It was-- let me write this down--" She does. "--and. Yeah. It was bad. Not as bad as the King in Yellow but pretty bad."

"It would be convenient if there were books on this subject that weren't some kind of cursed." He looks at the note. "Did we know Aldebaran was red or Lake Hali was black? Or who Kaiwan is?"

"Aldebaran does glow slightly red, I don't know anything about Lake Hali or Kaiwan." Is she crying. Stop that.

...He puts an arm around her. "If this keeps happening I might stop believing you about how bad it is."

She melts into Sal before she's quite realized she's doing it. "That'd be fair of you. I solemnly swear most things I touch are not cursed, though. ...if we gave the book to Sano for him to keep in his back room with his fifteen King in Yellow copies, Oscar would definitely notice. Which is unfortunate."

"If we told Sano he had it he might buy it off of him. Or get it some other way, as the case might be."

That night, Sal dreams.

She sits at the bow of the boat. It’s a bright little vessel of polished wood with a white sail, and it moves gently across the lake in front of the breeze. She looks down into the water past where her trailing hand disturbs the surface; it’s spirit-thick and gray. Is that movement? She pulls up her hand and a mottled shape balloons past her not far below, then another — huge marine creatures. Up ahead the water slaps. The white and yellow back of one of the things clears the surface for a moment then dives. She sees it still. It’s coming right at her — bigger and bigger — and it rears out of the water fully now, looming above the boat like a cliff. She won’t wait for this. She stands and  step off into the water. Falling. Falling. Eyes closed.

When she wakes up the heaviness of water and the buoyancy of form have disappeared. All that she is left with is a bone-deep chill.

Meanwhile--

Jing Yi has, fortunately, managed to extract himself from That Conversation With Oscar. Thank goodness. Why was he in his house. He barely even spoke to Terrence anyway! And now he has a wide-open day in which to investigate as many mysterious murders as he pleases.

His letter from Graham Roby is technically only permission to look at the reports, but he can probably leverage it, his work for Dr. Aarons, and some other things, into a conversation with one of the officers on the scene. He needs to check on things that might not have ended up in the report. Gut feelings, and the like.

"Hello?" says the cop at the front desk.

"Hello, I've been looking into the Roby case for Dr. Aarons and the family-- dreadful business, wasn't it? I've had a look at the reports, but I was wondering if it would be possible to have a quick chat with one of the officers on the scene? I have some questions that it would be simplest to ask someone who was there."

The cop looks at Jing Yi suspiciously. "...And who are you, exactly?"

He would very much rather not do this-- secrets are better kept the less people know them-- but it's the simplest way, honestly. And it's important. --and technically job relevant.

He pulls out a business card. "I don't work for this nick, but I do work for you."

"...William Jing?" the cop says.

"The very same."

"Right away, sir." The cop pulls him into a quiet room.

And he follows!

"Are you the one who took down the triads?"

The cop's voice has a tone of awe.

"I wouldn't take all the credit," he demurs. "I work on the Bohemians now."

"And the Latz case," he said. "Corruption of morals."

"That one too, yes."

"I wouldn't be able to do work like that. With the drugs, and the degeneracy, and the horrible music. Jazz is bad enough, but some of that avant-garde stuff--" He shudders.

"The bohemians do have, uh, creative ideas about what to do with pianos." No comment on the drugs or degeneracy. "I've ended up getting into the Roby case kind of sideways: Dr. Aarons, who is treating him, hired 'consulting Bohemians' to see if he was still insane, or had gone back to more standard Bohemian eccentricity. I've seen the report, but I would be interested in hearing from someone who was on the scene."

"I'll fetch someone." The cop seems disinclined to do so immediately. "Do perverts ever hit on you?"

"--I've been lucky to mostly avoid it."