Woodward Ave., a stone's throw from the Mayor's office, was home to the business hub of Detroit. Tall buildings, beacons of a new age, adorned with large glass windows overlooked the city, harbouring entrepreneurs, accountants, lawyers et al. Lost in the sea of concrete and glass, behind the window of a corner office, Magpie stood gazing off into the distance. The room was minimally decorated. Abstract paintings, a pot of bonsai, shelves lined with well-worn books, a small liquor rack and a cabinet of files. Framed on the wall opposite the windows were his two degrees in Law and Accounting. Prison hadn't been the most conducive environment for education but he had endured till he got them nonetheless. 

Outside, his legal division were busy in a conference room in a deposition for a murder with the District Attorney while his financial division was finishing up some paperwork for the latest round of expansion of shell companies in the Cayman islands and Switzerland. When he had started this business he had suspected that the ghosts from his past would return and he could never solely be able to cater to legitimate business owners. But he could never have estimated that his largest clientele and therefore his largest stream of revenue would be from the Mob. 

While they had started off small, the Group's capital had been growing faster than he expected. There was nothing like a customer who constantly fucked up and needed help after all. He would have enough to expand into other markets soon and yet sometimes he wondered if he had made the right decision aiding their illicit activities. Was the money really worth the hassle? The constant scrutiny? The distrust from his peers? Was everyone in these concrete towers just as complicit as him? 

A knock at the door interrupted his reverie and he glanced over his shoulder. His secretary Natasha stood at the door informing him his next appointment was here. Reluctantly he switched off the gramophone and the jazz gave way for silence. Taking his seat at his desk, he gestured for her to bring in the guest, leaving his thoughts for another day.