Chapter 49

Chapter Forty-Nine

Matten stepped out of his office, carefully balancing two steaming cups of coffee in his hands. He made his way toward one of the benches nestled beside the courtyard fountain, the gentle sound of water adding a calm backdrop to the morning air. Settling down beside a man engrossed in the New York Times, Matten took a slow sip of his black coffee, savoring the warmth.

“There are a few suspicious characters hanging out in the lobby,” Matten remarked casually.

The man rustled the newspaper as he flipped to the next page. “Suspicious? No, just harmless. The guy in the fedora is visiting his sister on the seventeenth floor. The man in the trench coat? He’s a strippergram sent by the modeling agency on thirty-two. As for the guy in the cheap suit questioning my competence after two decades on the job… well, he’s about to get a black eye for assuming I’m sitting here doing nothing.”

Matten offered his coffee to the man. “Just making sure you’re paying attention, Leo.”

Leo accepted the cup with a doubtful hum and returned to his reading.

Setting his own coffee down, Matten pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “He’s coming back this morning,” he said, slipping a cigarette between his lips. “I’ll meet him at the club around seven to catch him up on what he’s missed. I expect we’ll be there most of the night.”