Where society comes to misbehave beautifully
Sinclair Club is the most fashionable jazz room in the city. Clifford remembers every favourite drink; Ruby remembers every face. Her performances draw the wealthy, the famous, and the discreetly notorious. Cornelius kept a private table there, sometimes for music and company, sometimes for meetings that never appeared in an appointment book.
Cornelius was a valued patron. The Sinclairs protected his privacy because he paid for it handsomely and never caused trouble, not because they understood all of his business.
The club circle: the DuPonts, the Morettis, the Ashfords. Also the arts: Harcourt & Winslow.
Proprietor of the city's most fashionable jazz club
The proprietor and the warmest man in the building. Clifford is not the brooding figure in the corner; he is the one who gets him laughing. He makes introductions, proposes toasts, and remembers the small details people drop when they feel welcome. Expect him to be the host inside the host's house.
The loudest welcome in the room. Opens with a drink offer and a nickname, proposes toasts nobody asked for, and treats every guest like a regular. Says "my friend" constantly. Never lets a conversation end on a silence; fills it with a story or a refill.
Celebrated singer and dancer of the Sinclair Club
The glittering face of Sinclair Club. On stage she is radiant and untouchable; off stage she understands that a well-timed pause reveals more than a question. While Clifford draws a crowd, Ruby watches who avoids it.
Unhurried and low-voiced, with long pauses she lets other people fill. Watches the person who is not talking. Delivers compliments like verdicts ("That dress knows what it is doing"). Rarely asks a direct question; she makes a statement and waits.
Your private objectives, secrets, and leads are in the confidential dossier that opens with the word you receive at the door. Nothing on this page is secret.