“There’s a lot for me to unpack in that statement.”

“It’s an important rule, all right?”

“And extremely specific.” Larkin hiked to the next landing, and then asked, “How do you know he’s into—”

“He told me.”

Larkin grunted, then nearly jumped as an office door slammed open, the doorknob cracking loudly against drywall.

A stout, middle-aged black woman, with eyes that cut like knives, stood in the threshold. She tapped a cigarette free from a Marlboro pack in her hand, stuck it unlit between her lips, then asked in that gravelly voice Larkin remembered from the phone call in his car, “Which of you is Larkin?”

Larkin raised his hand. “That’d be me, ma’am.”

“You’re late.”

Larkin quickly pulled back his sleeve to check his watch: 11:02.

“Hm-hm.” Mable addressed Doyle next. “Cookie, you’d best be a package deal, because unless you plan on asking me follow-up questions about recently deceased flora while I’m on the john, I’ve only got the time for one of you.”

Doyle jutted a thumb at Larkin. “We’re together.”

Mable looked dubious, muttered, “I’ll bet,” then made a come-hither gesture with the cigarette before stepping into the office again.

Larkin followed first. The room was more the size of a glorified closet. A corkboard hung on the wall to the left of a desk that was planted in the middle of the room. Every square inch of the board was covered in memos, flyers, newspaper clippings, printed-out emails—some appeared to date back years. Clearly, it was not kept current. The desk held a dinky seventeen-inch monitor, sticky notes surrounding the screen, and an In-N-Out tray was overflowing with more crumpled printouts, receipts, a spiralbound notebook, half-eaten granola bar, and two mugs—one empty, the other half-full with what smelled like days-old coffee. Behind the chair that Mable sat at were two black filing cabinets with a potted and dying spider plant on top. (Were you allowed to have a black thumb and work for the Parks Department?) The remaining wall space was covered in aerial maps of Madison Square Park at what looked like different time periods and pointing out different artifacts. The window on the right was partially open and an ashtray full of butts sat on the sill.