"A slaver?" Simms' smile faded as quickly as if he had just been slapped. He frowned, reaching out to take the piece of metal that she had found.
He held it up to examine it, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the chunk of metal. It was curved; a piece that looked as if it would slot into something else to complete the circuit. There was no doubt; he'd seen similar objects before.
His frown deepening, Simms slid the piece of metal into his coat pocket.
"No, miss, you ain't in trouble. I'm sure glad you told me."
Sure glad that someone had. From the way that May spoke, it seemed to be common knowledge, maybe around Jake's establishment. It seemed that most folk were too afraid to come forward, but it was an embarrassing fact to Simms; this was going on right underneath his own nose and he had no idea. Every time he had seen the pair, the taller man, this Joe, had always had his neck covered and this explained why.
"You get any trouble from Jake, you just come and tell me, miss. All right?"
Simms turned towards the door, grimacing; he was going to have to have a long chat with Jake. He paused, glancing back at the young woman and his expression softened.
"Here." He held out a handful of caps. "For your trouble, miss."