One Night to Forever novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Her Badge Opened the Door

On Thursday morning I waited for Ford Pellman in the Ryerson Tower parking garage, beside a black sedan with his initials on the key fob.

He came out of the elevator at 7:40 with a coffee in each hand and the folder under his arm.

He stopped when he saw me.

"Ms. Rowe. You can't be here."

"Mr. Pellman. You can't keep making me stand here."

He glanced at the camera in the corner of the garage, and then he sighed.

"One coffee," he said, and held one out.

I took it, because I didn't have the pride to refuse a flat white.

"Show me the log," I said.

"Mrs. Ryerson told me to show you. I'd have shown you anyway."

"Would you?"

"I don't like being wrong," Ford said, stiffly. "It doesn't happen to me."

He opened the folder on the hood of his car.

It was a printout, rows of small gray type.

He put a finger on a line near the middle.

"Suite 2210, door lock, card tap, 12:21 a.m.," he read. "Credential: B. THORSBY."

His finger slid down the page.

"5:41 a.m., door opens from inside. Same credential."

"Because the badge was in my pocket for the whole night," I said, "and then I left it on the nightstand."

"The log doesn't show who held it."

"You gave the black card to me in the ballroom."

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