“Why?”
“From observing through the doors when he went in, it appears he is known there so my guess would be, he goes there often.”
My voice got high when I asked, “He’s a cop?”
“A what?”
“A police officer. An officer of the law. A –”
“Do these men carry gold emblems?” Tor interrupted to enquire.
“You mean a badge?” I asked back.
“Perhaps. He carried such as this on his belt.”
“Yes, a badge and yes, cops carry badges.”
“Then yes,” Tor stated, “it would seem this man is a… cop.”
Holy crap!
I whirled to sitting and stared into the darkness.
This, I reckoned, was not good.
Tor sat up and called, “Cora?”
I focused on his shadow. “I don’t think this is good, Tor.”
“I would say there’s no thinking about it, my love,” he replied and I stared at him.
Great.
“Why would you say that?”
“Is this poker illegal?” he asked.
“Um… no, if it’s done in a casino, of which there are some around here. But, yes, if the games are illegal.”
“Then Cora is attending illegal games,” Tor declared and I blinked.
Then I cried, “How could she even find illegal games? And, how did she even learn how to play poker? She was here less than two months! I wouldn’t even know where to begin to find an illegal poker game and I never understood poker. And… and… not only how but… why?”
His arms came out and he pulled me to him, saying, “The Cora of my world is what she is, and she does what she does, and very little of it is good. We cannot waste our energy trying to understand how or why because the answer to the first is superfluous and even if we knew the answer to the second, we would not comprehend it. What we need to expend our energy on is what kind of danger she has placed you in.”
Okay, it must be said, sometimes Tor being sensible and logical was a good thing.
“Right,” I agreed.
“Share your thoughts,” he demanded and I relaxed into him.
“Well,” I started, processing them in my head. “The best case scenario is that he’s a dirty cop and he’s in on whatever she’s in on, they’re playing at it together. This would be good since I won’t be going to any games, I’m making it clear he’s out of the picture and he’ll have to find another sugar mama who can count cards.”
“Go on,” Tor urged when I stopped.
“The worst case scenario, and the one I’m thinking it is, is that he’s undercover and he’s either investigating her activities or using her as an in to bring down some illegal gambling racket.”
“This would be bad,” Tor muttered.