Chapter 9: Hello, Kendra

"Ellis is in Denver," Kendra said again in the car on Friday night.

She had said it four times since I showed her the seating chart.

"He's been in Denver since Sunday, Miles. It's a coincidence. It's a common name."

"Bretherton isn't common," I said.

"Then it's a trick," Kendra said.

"Leigh is trying to rattle me, and it's working because you're so jumpy."

I parked in front of the hotel ballroom and turned off the engine.

"We don't have to go in," I said.

"Yes, we do," Kendra said.

She had on the green dress and her hair was pinned up.

Her hand on my arm was ice cold.

The ballroom held two hundred people under chandeliers.

The managing partner shook my hand at the door, looked at Kendra, and let his eyes go politely blank.

"Miles," he said.

"And your guest."

"Kendra Lowe," Kendra said.

She said it loudly, so the people behind us could hear.

Heads were already turning.

I had spent three years being careful, and I had been wrong to think I'd get away with it.

I saw women I'd known for a decade look at her, then at me, then across the room.

I followed their eyes.

Leigh was at table four.

She wore a dark blue dress I'd never seen, and her hair was down.

She was laughing at something the man next to her had said.

He was standing behind her chair with one hand resting lightly on its back.

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