I was too embarrassed to admit that I liked the wig’s simple transformation. Punk, redheaded Maggie was disguise enough for me. “I could go as you. I have an old dress of yours.”

“Ha. Too scary.”

“Do they sell fake British teeth?” I said. “I could dress up as Johnny Rotten.”

Her silence spoke more than a comeback.

“Maybe you should go with Hiro,” I said.

“I can’t go with Hiro,” said Yegina. “He hates loud music. And anyway, I told him I wasn’t ready to answer the proposal. He flew out this morning.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. I felt both disappointed and relieved. I wanted Yegina to be happy, but I didn’t want to face months of conversation about wedding plans. Yet. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“What I want is a real night out.”

“I’ll find something to wear,” I promised, wanting to relate everything we’d discovered at LAAC, and Janis’s decision, wanting to breach the confidentiality I’d promised to Detective Ruiz and kept breaking for Yegina, but I held back.

“How was Janis today?” she asked.

I thought of Janis speeding around LAAC, her determination and grim cheer. “She’s coping.” My voice wavered.

“The first time I met her, she came into my office and asked to use my phone,” reminisced Yegina. “She called some board member and chewed him out, right in front of me, for voting down the budget because of growing exhibition expenses. ‘We’re here to uphold art and artists,’ she told him. ‘Not to mind our personal collections.’”

“That sounds just like her,” I said, laughing.

“By the end of the call, he agreed to donate another five hundred thousand dollars. It was amazing.”

“She’s never given up on the Rocque,” I said. For the first time, that troubled me. I said as much to Yegina but kept the details vague.

“It’s like Hal wins or she does, and there’s no in-between,” I said. I told her about the pool party, my last chance to observe the crew who built his show. “It’s clear they worship him the way we worship Janis. What if his museum is good for downtown? Should we destroy the vision because the man behind it is flawed?”

“He’s not the only one who can dream it,” said Yegina.

I CHECKED MY INBOX BEFORE leaving. The only nonwork transmission was from my mother, who was still pressing me about coming home for Thanksgiving. We’ll buy you the ticket, she wrote. Just name your days.