Chapter 21: The Roof

Lena's POV

Hayes called me at 9:40 from the garage, and I had never heard his voice so thin.

"She's on the roof," he said. "She took the dog."

"Call the police."

"I did. They're on their way." He swallowed. "She won't want anyone but you."

"How do you know?"

"Because you're the only person she's wanted to talk to for four years."

I took the elevator up alone, with my bandaged hands against my chest.

Hayes waited in the lobby, as I had told him to.

The roof door was propped open with a brick.

Wind pulled at my sweater, and the city lay below in a long orange sheet.

In the middle of the roof was the helipad, a wide circle painted yellow with a white H.

Camille stood at its edge, beside the low steel rail, with Duchess in her arms.

She had taken off her shoes.

Her shoes stood side by side on the concrete, white heels, perfectly neat.

I walked out onto the yellow circle and stopped twenty feet away.

"Hello, Camille."

"You came alone."

"Hayes said you wouldn't want anyone else."

"Hayes is kind," she said. "It's a terrible habit."

She did not turn around.

Duchess saw me and wagged her tail once, and then pressed her face into Camille's neck.

"I've been standing here for twenty minutes," Camille said. "I've been trying to think of one person who'd notice if I weren't at my desk on Monday."

"I would."

"You're being polite."

"I'm being honest. I'd notice, because I'd have to live with the fact that I never said this to you."

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