She flashed her electronic fob and entered the building, yawning as the lift doors started to close.

But then a hand appeared in the gap, followed by the toe of a snakeskin shoe. There was a flash of caramel hair as Chloe pushed the doors back open. “Hey, hon. Remember me?” She smirked, positioning herself in front of the button panel so Liv couldn’t reach it. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Liv stepped back and pressed her back against the glass. The doors closed again and the lift shot upward.

Chloe looked composed in a Breton striped top, jeans and red lipstick. “There seems to be something missing from your outfit,” she said, tapping a finger against her lips. “Oh, perhaps it’s a tie.” She took the one missing from Essie’s desk out of her handbag, slipping it through her fingers as if playing with a toy snake.

Liv touched her neck, which felt bare. “You lied to my teenage son and trespassed on private property,” she said. “How does that make you feel?”

“Hey, don’t be like that. I didn’t know he was your son. You don’t look old enough to have a kid that age.” The journalist’s lips straightened. “You act all high-and-mighty, but I heard you went to Croatia, supposedly with Essie. One of your bedrooms wasn’t slept in.”

Liv’s mind spun. How did Chloe know this? Did she have a contact at the hotel? She kept her lips sealed.

“You can’t blame me for being interested. Shall we get a coffee and chat?”

“Why would I want to do that?” Liv snapped.

Chloe’s smile displayed a hint of menace. “Because I know everything, hon,” she said.

Liv crept a hand to her stomach. What did she mean by everything?

Chloe stabbed the button for the twenty-ninth floor and the lift shuddered to a halt. When the doors opened, she stepped through them and jerked her head. “Are you coming, or not?”

Liv snatched the tie out of Chloe’s hand and fastened it around her neck. “Yes, let’s go,” she said.

Three people were busy setting out long tables with white cloths in the open space. Wire arches were covered with pink, white and lilac silk flowers, in preparation for a party or wedding reception. The room was on the opposite side of the building to Essie’s writing room, so the view from the windows was more industrial. Liv saw the canal, warehouse buildings, cranes and a freight train.

Chloe spoke to a man in a red T-shirt and pointed toward a roof terrace with large ferns and a glass roof. He nodded, gesturing she was free to use it.