Her Love Came Too Late novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Not Quiet

On Monday morning Elliott's name was on the front page of every site his phone could open.

STAGE DOOR MAN HAS 199 POLICE REPORTS, said the first.

Below it ran a column of his own contact reports, with his full name, his address and the date of every night.

Somebody had given the reporters the whole binder.

Briana had read the headline aloud to him in her kitchen at seven.

Then she had put her phone in the freezer.

"They can't print your address," she said.

"They did."

He went to work anyway.

The suspension was supposed to run another week, but a text from the partner had come at six.

Come in. Now.

Whitlock and Pierce Architects had a glass lobby with a model of the Pittsburgh skyline on a plinth.

The receptionist did not look up when he walked past.

The partner's door stood open, and a printout lay on the desk with a yellow highlighter lying across it.

"Sit down, Elliott."

"I'll stand."

"As you like."

The partner took off his glasses.

"We have clients who read the news. One in the Strip District called me at home last night."

"None of those reports are true."

"I believe you."

"Then you know who wrote them."

"I know a man named Slater called our lawyer at nine last night."

The partner rubbed his eyes.

"He said, very politely, that we'd be named if we kept you."

Elliott looked at the model of the skyline in the lobby, through the glass wall.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Her Love Came Too Late from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.