Chapter 9 Chapter Nine

• “You shouldn’t be here.”
• Sylvia’s voice stayed low in the narrow service hallway behind the ballroom. The last of the charity reception guests had left twenty minutes earlier. Most of the lights in the main room were already dimmed. Only the emergency strips and a single work lamp near the loading doors remained.
• Alex stood three paces away, jacket unbuttoned, the usual precision of his posture slightly loosened by the late hour. “Carmen said the closeout would take another forty minutes. I waited.”