Lorenzo looked back at her.

“Tell her I’ve been warned.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all she needs to carry tonight.”

Aaron reached the hospital shortly after one.

He wore the same overcoat.

The same concerned expression.

He showed his badge at the desk and said he needed to see a vulnerable woman who might be making unreliable statements.

The nurse asked whom he was there to interview.

“My girlfriend.”

“Is she requesting you?”

“She’s confused.”

“Then the treating team will assess her.”

His smile thinned.

“I’m a detective.”

“I understand.”

He leaned closer.

A uniformed officer standing near the entrance watched the exchange.

She had been one of the officers outside the lounge.

Aaron noticed her.

“Officer Park. You were there. Tell them.”

Dana Park did not immediately answer.

She remembered the ambulance.

The woman inside saying clearly that she did not want him with her.

She remembered Aaron’s expression after the doors closed.

“I can confirm she refused contact,” Park said.

Aaron turned.

For one second, the look on his face no longer belonged to a worried boyfriend.

Elena saw it.

So did Park.

Neither moved aside.

Upstairs, Chloe heard nothing of the exchange.

She slept for twenty-seven minutes.

Then woke with an apology already in her throat.

Sarah sat beside the bed.

“You haven’t done anything.”

Chloe stared at her.

“I know.”

But she did not sound as though she knew yet.

The coat was recovered the next afternoon.

Chloe did not have to return to the apartment.

Neither did Sarah.

Investigators working through an independent channel obtained access through the proper process, preserved what they found, and documented the recovery.

The red coat had been pushed behind a suitcase.

The lining was uneven where Chloe had opened and repaired it.

Inside lay a small digital recorder.

Aaron had apparently kept it as insurance against his own associates.

Chloe had found it by accident while looking for a document he claimed she had lost.

She had recognized his voice before she understood what he was saying.

Then she heard another man say, “He’s my brother. I know which invitations he accepts.”