“Don’t keep looking back to see if the car is there,” he told her. “It will be. If you have to look, use your makeup mirror. Keep facing forward. When you get to the Biltmore, walk straight inside the back entrance. Take the hallway to the left. Go right on through the kitchen and the dining room and out to the front lobby. Walk fast, and don’t look back. Nobody’s going to stop you if you just keep moving. Head out the front doors. There’ll be a row of yellow cabs waiting. Get the one at the front of the queue and come here.”

Keegan gave her the address to his apartment, and they both rang off, without saying more. Fully awake now, he sat in the dark, listening to the mumble of Mr. Soto’s radio on the other side of the wall.

WHEN HE FINALLY opened his apartment door to her, Eve stood before him in a gray dress with a red belt. Her face was drawn and pale, but her curly hair was brushed out impeccably. Her pale hands, linked in front of her, held a silver lamé clutch. Keegan hadn’t expected her to look so well appointed at this hour. Had she actually stopped to think of what to wear? Again, he was struck by how little she seemed to fathom the treacherous waters they were treading. But then Moore’s voice nagged at the back of his mind: That girl is strychnine. Was it possible? Could he, Keegan, be the one swept out of his depth?

There were no hellos, no small talk. Keegan took her arm and pulled her in through the door and closed it quietly. He put a finger to his lips—warning her to be quiet—but the gesture wasn’t needed. Eve walked past him as if in a daze. She seemed to float through Keegan’s modest living room without seeing it and sat down on the love seat that must have still been radiating Keegan’s body heat.

She finally turned her head to look at him. “Can we maybe turn on a light?” she asked, her voice too loud.

“Shhhh,” Keegan hissed. “Keep your voice down. I’d rather no one knew we were here.” He thought of Mr. Soto in the next apartment. Had things suddenly fallen silent over there? Had he turned off the radio when he heard Eve arrive? Keegan held up a hand, to keep Eve silent. He looked at the wall and listened hard. After a beat, tinny orchestra music started up on the radio again. A little dead air, was all. He was just being paranoid. He let go the breath he’d been holding. “We should probably go back to the bedroom,” he whispered.

Eve shot him a hard look he couldn’t interpret.