Love After Layoffs novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Gray Coat

The garage was two levels under the hotel, lit by long white tubes that buzzed.

The man in the gray coat sat on a concrete bench with his camera bag between his boots.

Two of Brooks's security guards stood a polite distance away, and neither of them blinked.

Up close he was thin, forty or so, with a sunburned nose and a wedding ring he kept turning.

"I want a lawyer," he said again.

"You'll have one," Brooks said. "I'm not here to threaten you."

"Then what are you here for?"

"My name is Brooks Ketterman."

"I know who you are. That's why I want the lawyer."

I stepped forward in my mother's green velvet.

He looked at my face, and he flinched.

"You're the one who was asleep," he said.

"I'm the one you photographed."

"It was a job."

"Who gave it to you?"

"Client confidentiality."

"You're a man with a camera in a parking garage," I said. "You don't have clients. You have a payer."

His thumb stopped on the ring.

Brooks crouched until his eyes were level with the man's.

"Here's what I know," he said. "You were in the lobby before we arrived."

"You photographed us and left."

"That's stalking in this state, and the hotel has you on three cameras."

"I'm not asking you to name anyone."

"I'm asking whether you got paid for the whole job."

The man laughed, short and ugly.

"Half," he said.

"Half?"

"Twelve thousand total. She gave me six up front in a check and promised the rest after the blog post went up."

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