“Right.” She fumbled the car into reverse and nearly backed over an elderly man carrying three medium coffees on a cardboard tray.

“Did you want me to drive?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

A skateboarder flipped her the finger as she cut him off.

“I’m just saying . . .”

“Well, don’t!”

They got to the studio at 11:02, only to find that the code on the soundstage keypad had been changed. Three sets of wrong numbers would set off the alarms. Tony remembered with one number to go and snatched his hand away from the pad. Alarms would bring police and with his luck Constable Elson would ride back into his life. “Can you do something about this?”

“No.”

“Can you pop inside and open it?” He knew the answer before she opened her mouth. Reaction had finally kicked in and her cheeks had turned an alarming shade of gray. “Are you all right?”

“I’ll manage.”

“This thing’s been the same since I got here.” The pad was off limits so he kicked the concrete foundation blocks. “Why are they fucking changing it now?”

“They had to change the front door lock. It probably reminded them about the back.”

“Fucking great. Hang on; you have a key for the . . . old front door lock. Never mind.” 11:07. This was going to be close. Actually, if he didn’t come up with something, it wasn’t going to be at all. “The carpenter’s door!”

“The what?”

“The big door they use for deliveries of lumber and building crap. Three of them smoke and they won’t want to keep locking and unlocking the door every time they want a butt.” He started to run and stopped when he realized Arra wasn’t beside him.

“Keep going,” she snapped. “I don’t sprint!”

“You’ll catch up?”

“If you don’t move your ass, I’ll run you over.”

Kicking up gravel, Tony raced around the corner and up the west side of the building. As long as she didn’t ditch him again . . .

The carpenter’s door looked like a corrugated section of the wall. Because the tracks were hidden and the latch had been painted with the same dark brown antirust paint as the door, it was hard to find without knowing where to look. Deliberately so.

And it looked like it weighed a fucking ton.

Fortunately, it was already open about an inch. Tony hooked his fingers around the edge and threw all his weight against it. It flew open so fast it dropped him on his ass, the big door sliding soundlessly along its tracks until his dangling weight stopped it.

Plus ten for maintenance. Minus several thousand for not warning a guy!