Stone missed Harkness’s response to this, because his attention had been caught by a movement near the set. Cary Hilliard had stood up. Her eyes as wide as those of a frightened deer, she stood still for a moment, then walked quickly across the set, directly in front of the cameras. Barker and Harkness, distracted by the movement, both turned and watched her. The director pushed a button, and the show’s theme music came up again.

The announcer spoke up. “This has been the first Hi Barker Show. Tune in next Sunday night when Hi’s guest will be…”

Stone burst out of the control room and ran for the elevators. Cary was banging on the button as he approached, and, when she saw him, she bolted.

“Cary!” he shouted down the length of the hallway. “Stop! Wait!”

She ducked down another corridor, out of his sight. He followed and was met with an expanse of closed doors. He began trying them.

A dozen doors down the hall, one was unlocked. He opened it and heard the clang of footsteps on fire stairs. He stopped for a moment and leaned against the wall. The memory of another set of steel stairs in another building flooded back to him. Now he knew whose footsteps those had been.

He started down, only to realize that the sound of footsteps was coming from above. He reversed his direction and followed the sound.

One floor up, the exit door stood open, and he found himself on a gravel roof. A gust of wind nearly knocked him off his feet. He grabbed at a ventilator pipe and held on. The view was all the more spectacular because there was nothing between him and the lights of the city but blustery air. Twenty feet away, only the modern building’s low railing separated him from the lights. He looked around and saw a flash of mink coat disappear behind an air-conditioning unit. He followed.

He came around the unit, and she stood perhaps thirty feet from him, her feet spread in something like a fighting stance, leaning against the wind. She was no more than six feet from the low railing. Stone began walking toward her.

“Stop, Stone,” she said. “Stop right there, or I’ll jump.”

He stopped, but he had already covered twenty feet; only ten separated them.

“You made me believe you were protecting him, but all along you were protecting yourself, weren’t you? Right from the very beginning,” he shouted over the wind.

“No,” she said.

“You wanted to be with me so you would know what I knew about Sasha’s case, that’s all.”

“No, Stone,” she said. “I loved you from the start. I love you now, believe me. Get me out of this, and I’m yours. Barron can go to hell. Just get me out of this, and I’ll make your life wonderful. Really, I will.”