Page 118 of Dancing in the Dark

“Hi, Jacob. Thanks.” I lead Mia across the threshold and flash a wide—totally innocent—smile. “Chief Mayet asked me to swing by and pick something up from her office.”

“No, she d⁠—”

I wrap my hand around Mia’s mouth and pull her in until I can almost make this look like a hug. “You know the chief,” I fake a laugh. “Terrible communication. Rarely knows which way is up.” I step around the hulking man and lead Mia toward the elevator. “How are you, anyway? Are you well?”

“I…” He sets his hands on his hips and narrows his eyes. “I’m good, thank you. Are you sure⁠—”

I mash the elevator call button and drag Mia in. “So sorry. We’re in a bit of a rush. But I’ll catch you when we come down again.” I fix the slipped strap of my bag and select the fifteenth floor.

“Fifi!” The moment the doors close, Mia releases a noisy gasp. “Aunty Minka did not ask us to come here! You said we was sneaking!”

“I know. I’m being a bit cheeky, huh?” I study the control panel on the wall and frown. This is the same elevator I rode in back when I was employed inside this building. The floor and walls are the same. Even the long scrape on the inside of the doors, where the metal end of a gurney wasn’t quite inside enough not to cause damage as they closed, remains. But the electronics… they’re entirely different. And as I peek up at a tiny flashing red dot in the corner, I figure this might be why Sophia Solomon and her crew of merry computer nerds were at the mayor’s dining table a mere few weeks ago.

Chief Medical Examiner Minka Mayet called in a favor.

“Fifi?” Anxious, Mia tugs on my hand. “You told a lie to get in here.”

“I know. And lying is really, really bad. You definitely shouldn’t do that.”

“But you did.”

“How about this?” I take out my phone and quickly swipe the screen open. Moving to my texts, I find Minka’s name, type out a fast ‘I’m inside the GS. Don’t worry about it. Don’t come looking for us,’ then hitting send, I show Mia and wait as she slowly reads each word. “See? Now Aunty Minka knows. Does that feel better?”

She bobs her head, the wide gap in her teeth already sporting the tiny white spot of a new tooth sprouting in its place. “Much better.”

“Great. And look, we’re here.” As the elevator comes to a stop on the fifteenth floor, I take her hand and time my stride so as the doors slide open, I lead her forward. But then I come to a screeching halt and gawk at a room bursting with flashing lights and walls of computers. “Holy cannoli. What happened?”

“It’s hot in here, huh?” Mia fans her face and looks around the room with wide eyes. “Why do you fink it’s so hot?”

“Because they’re running all these computers. Yeesh.” Slower now, I lead her past a bank of… I don’t even know whats. They flash. We pass a massive screen, easily the size of my bed if I were to mount it to the wall, while, on that screen, a few dozen other screens create a chessboard of sorts and show footage of every floor, every office, every autopsy suite inside this building.

The last is a reminder for us to keep moving. Quickly.

“I guess Aunty Minka got all new stuff, huh? Which is probably way better than the security system we had before. Come this way, but be careful.” I point down at the floor and the thick collection of cords snaking across the room. “Don’t trip over, okay?”

“I’m confused.” Mia scrunches her little face and swings her gaze from one end of the room to the other. “You said you had a surprise for me, but this is a bit weird.”

“Trust me.” I circle the massive console stacked in the middle of the space, and moving to the door I know grants us access to the roof, I study the knob that isn’t at all the same as the one I remember from the last time I visited. “If you give me thirty more seconds, I can show you the surprise.”

“I liked the first surprise!” She pulls the front of her dress forward and stares down at the crisp black leotard I packed into storage forever ago. “It’s very soft.”

“Mm. You chose a really good one. It was my favorite back when I was your age.” I drop my phone onto my bag, purely to free up my hand so I don’t have to release Moo’s, then I grab the fancy new doorknob and pray Minka’s new tech won’t bar us from going onto the roof.

It swings wide and sends a flurry of cool air feathering across my face.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I draw Mia into the narrow concrete stairwell and move up a single flight until we’re met with the stars. The moon.

The world.

“Oh my gosh.” Mia tugs herself free and wanders alone, her fingers clasped together as she nervously approaches the edge of the roof. “I didn’t ever come up here before, Fifi.”

“Be careful over there, baby.” I set my bag on the ground and follow her. There’s a four-foot-tall lip lining the outside edge, so unless she climbs up and jumps, she won’t fall. Still, I stick close and study her as she studies the view. “It’s beautiful, huh?” I stop behind her, her back pressed to my front, and carefully run my hands over the smooth bun we worked on before leaving the apartment. “I used to come up here a lot back before I started working at City Hall.”

“It’s so pretty.” She gulps loud enough and sweet enough to make my lips twitch. Placing her hands on the concrete edge, she peeks over. “I can see Alfred all the way down there. Hey, Alf⁠—”

“Nope.” I clap my hand over her mouth for the second time tonight. Lowering into a crouch, I draw her around until our eyes meet. “We never lean over like that. We don’t call out to anyone on the ground. And we never, ever, ever come here alone. Alright?”

She nods.