“When did you last use the code?” Daniel asked.
Julian sat slowly in a chair opposite me. “Around twelve-thirty. Maybe one. I came in through the east entrance.”
“Was anyone with you?”
“No.”
“Did you write the code down?”
Julian hesitated.
Ethan noticed. “Julian.”
“It was in my phone.”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened. “Unlocked?”
“For convenience.”
Ethan closed his eyes briefly.
Julian snapped, “Spare me the lecture.”
“A woman is sitting here with bruises on her throat.”
Julian flinched.
“I know,” he said, softer. “I’m sorry.”
The apology seemed directed at me, but his eyes could not quite settle on mine. Guilt makes people look everywhere except where it belongs.
“It isn’t enough,” Ethan said.
“I know that too.”
Daniel asked, “Where was your phone between midnight and three?”
Julian frowned. “With me.”
“Continuously?”
Another hesitation.
Ethan’s voice turned cold. “Answer.”
Julian swallowed. “No. I left it in the billiard room for a while.”
“Who was there?”
“No one.”
“Julian.”
He looked exhausted suddenly. Older than his photographs.
“There was someone,” he said. “A woman.”
Ethan’s expression sharpened with weary familiarity. “Name.”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel stared at him.
Julian rubbed his temples. “I met her at the Bloom Room. She said her name was Lena. She came back here for a drink. We argued. She left.”
“When?”
“Maybe two.”
My skin prickled.
“Describe her,” Daniel said.
Julian did.
Red coat. Dark hair cut at her chin. A small silver scar near her eyebrow.
The room blurred at the edges.
Ethan saw me change. “Ivy?”
I gripped the sofa cushion.
“I know her,” I whispered.
All three men looked at me.
“Not her name,” I said. “But I’ve seen her before.”
“Where?” Daniel asked.
My mouth had gone dry.
“The hospital,” I said. “When my mother was sick.”
Ethan took one step toward me, then stopped himself.
I tried to gather the memory. Hospital lights. Vending machine coffee. My mother sleeping under thin blankets. A woman at the nurses’ station in a red coat, arguing softly with a man whose back was turned.
Ryan.
“She was with him,” I said. “With Ryan.”
