On either side of the hotel rooftop garden rose buildings—one rose another story to a similar rooftop terrace. The other side hosted a small building, maybe an apartment connected to the hotel. And beyond that, another building, its clay roof jutting out even with the garden, that opened to a window to what might be an apartment.

Everything jammed so close to each other, it reminded her of many Mission-Impossible rooftop chases.

Of course her brain had to go there. Good grief. She wasn’t going to suddenly run across the skyline of Florence, maybe leap into the deep blue Arno River.

This was real life, not a Winchester Marshall move.

The thought of him gave her stomach a pinch. No, he couldn’t be mixed up with Alan Martin. Win was kind, not sinister. He might play a spy, but he didn’t seem to have a bone of deceit in him.

She sort of wanted to delete the text to Coco.

A couple more patrons emerged from the stairwell, dark-skinned men who wore lanyards around their necks. She guessed they might be from the medical conference.

They sat at an outside table and also ordered.

Phoebe delivered RJ’s drink, in a chilled bottle and a glass, no ice. She uncapped it and poured some into RJ’s glass.

“Sandwich?” she pointed to the case of pre-made sandwiches.

RJ shook her head. Maybe they’d score a nice dinner after Logan took Grey off their hands.

The door opened and Ziggy came out onto the patio. She spotted RJ and came over, standing next to the table.

“The guys are on their way up. The lift is so tiny. But, bad news. Grey isn’t here.”

“What?”

“Yeah.” Ziggy pulled out the wire café chair. “We searched the conference. No secret service, no personal secretary. We even went up to his room—I think his is right below the guys’ room. Only it has a balcony. We searched it—no go. No suitcase, no toiletries in the bathroom. The CDC director has left the premises.”

“Did he check out?”

“Not according to the front desk.”

RJ just frowned. “That’s —”

“Unnerving.”

Ziggy nodded. “When does Logan’s flight get in?”

“Around 2 o’clock. He said he’d be here by 3 o’clock in the afternoon.”

Phoebe came up to Ziggy. “Ciao —”

She never finished her sentence.

An explosion shook the building. The entire structure shuddered, then, the floors cracked around them.

“Get down!”

Ziggy turned over the table, even as RJ reached for Phoebe, yanking her down.

Behind them, smoke coughed up, billowing out over the river.

What—?

“It’s a couple floors down, but we need to get off this roof,” Ziggy said. She’d crawled over to the side of the building.