Worldbuilding!
I waited until Graciella was off chasing the Lore before I went to go have a chat with Mira. Why her? Because if you volunteer to help a Shamus, you should learn right off the bat what that means.
Mira worked out of one of the soup kitchens the Syndicate runs, all over the city. It takes an effort to starve in Cin City, but it’s easy to miss a few meals; those places always have people coming and going, all hours of the day or night. Seems like the kitchens always have pots of this or that, bubbling away. Amazing how many different kinds of ingredients you need for soup or rice, too. And the Syndicate funds it all themselves! Guess charity is its own reward.
She was going through some papers when I arrived, and her nose gave the same little wrinkle at the sack in my hand as had every other cleaning lady I passed on the way. “That’s a bad habit,” I muttered as I plopped the sack on a spare desk.
“I know,” she agreed. “We’ve gotten spoiled, the last few years. We’re working on it. So, what in God’s name is that?”
I opened up the sack, to reveal my little friend from last night. It didn’t look any better now. “Funny: I was going to ask you the same question.”