“Hello?” I called thickly, my throat burning with unshed tears. I came around the corner to find David on a stepladder, hanging a banner across the wall of glass. Congratulations, Shay! it read. You’re a superstar!

The tears came then. He jumped down from the ladder and held me close as I sobbed out my devastating news. “I’m sorry, babe. I’m so so sorry,” he choked. It wasn’t until I felt his arms trembling around me that it occurred to me to ask: “What are you doing home at this hour?”

We were alike in every way. He’d been laid off, too, way back in October.

For Wall Street, the world may have ended on September 15, but December 19 was the day it ended for us.

Chapter 7

I wonder if you can help us out with the timeline,” Detective Cruz said.

I nodded. “If I can.”

The detectives had excused themselves about twenty minutes earlier. When they returned, Cruz was carrying a computer tablet. He set it on the table in front of him. “Your building’s equipped with CCTV, did you know that?”

I nodded again. “There’re cameras in the lobby and in the elevator banks on every floor. In the elevators, too. Motion-activated, I think.”

“Right. Well, building security gave us the feed from the thirtieth floor.”

“Okay.”

He touched the screen on his tablet, and as it lit up, so did the big TV screen on the end wall of the room. A video started to play, and I recognized the elevator bank on the thirtieth floor of my office. A blond woman walked into the frame, turned her back to the camera to face the etched gridwork of the elevator doors, and pressed a finger to the destination touch screen. The date and time stamp appeared in the upper-right corner of the video.

Cruz paused the playback. “Can you identify that person?”

“Yes. That’s Lucy Carter-Jones.”

“Arriving at the thirtieth-floor elevator at nine-oh-two last night?”

“And thirty seconds, if the time stamp’s accurate.”

“Any reason why it wouldn’t be?”

“Not that I know of.”

He resumed the playback, and I watched myself enter the frame. I looked a little unsteady on my feet, and I remembered how weak I felt last night. How tired. On-screen I glanced at Lucy, then I turned to face the elevator doors as well. Cruz paused the video again.

“Can you identify the next person to arrive?”

“That’s me.”

“You arrived at nine-oh-four?”

“That’s what the time stamp says. It sounds right.”

“Ms. Carter-Jones was already there when you arrived.”

“Yes.”

“What did you say to her?”

“Nothing.”

“No? Look here.” He rewound the video. “Right before you turn. See there? You look at her and your lips are moving.”

I peered at the screen. “Oh. Well, I guess I said hello.”

“It looks like you said I know.”

“Does it?” I leaned in as he played it again. “I think it looks like hello.”

“What did she say to you?”