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late.”
    She closed her eyes and nodded, the day’s tribulations, the fading adrenaline from her run-in with Michaels downstairs and the receding anger leaving her drained. She thought maybe it would be better to lay some fresh, rested eyes on what was happening instead of continuing on tonight, but asked anyway, “Are you sure, Cap? It’s pretty odd up here.”
    “Go home and get some sleep, Nox. You’ll feel better about it in the morning.” Cap hung up.
    Andrea shoved the phone back into her pocket and made her way to the elevator. The porter had stayed with Johnson outside the room, finishing his statement before going back downstairs to man the desk. She pressed the button for the ground floor and the gold-tinted doors slid shut, closing out the dark blue carpet. It was the same color as the band that ran through the middle of the walls. It made a strange optical effect as the gap in the doors disappeared as they closed.
    *****
    She walked across the lobby at a steady pace after the elevator let her out and came outside just in time to see a third car pull up next to hers and the police cruiser across the street. Andrea was still amazed at the quiet on the streets. It seemed like there hadn’t been one car or pedestrian the whole time she had been inside, and there weren’t any around now. The street looked strange and too big in its emptiness.
    The man who stepped out of the third car was balding, and had round glasses. They would have suited his face, had they had been pushed up all the way on his nose. For a split second she thought of the investigator who couldn’t wait for her to be discharged before questioning. The one Hynes had reportedly punched in the face.
    The car itself had the back converted into a rolling inspection kit, complete with space for a gurney. The newcomer went straight to Michaels, who had stood to meet him after pushing away from his perch on the front of the cruiser.
    Andrea watched unseen from the lobby doorway. The man in glasses spoke quietly and quickly to Michaels, whose face turned an angry red before he turned away abruptly and paced a few steps with his hands on his hips. As Andrea started to make her way across the road, she could see Michaels had stopped pacing and was facing away from the man in glasses, nodding. Getting an earful about drinking on the job , Andrea thought. Good for him .
    When she approached the m, the man with glasses turned and stuck out his hand, quick and confident. “Glynn Seye r. I’m from the crime scene crew. I’m on late call tonight. Don’t worry, Detective, we’ll have this tagged and ready to go. My guess is I can have some preliminary results by tomorrow.”
    That’s odd , she thought. Things usually took a hell of a lot longer than that. Maybe it was an attempt to be cocky in front of a female detective, poorly executed by a man who spends his nights alone with the dead.
    She noticed a small cut on the bridge of his nose.
    “Sure thing, Seyer. What about the one upstairs?” Andrea pointed with her chin at the building behind her and holding out the wrapped evidence bags from her coat.
    Seyer turned to look at Michaels, but only with a slight movement. A suggestion of intent by a minute change in his angle, then he shifted his body imperceptibly back. Andrea, her senses already fired up from the night’s strangeness, caught it, and a faint whisper of doubt flitted across the projection booth of her mind. It felt as if someone was blowing cigarette smoke at the back of her head. She looked at Michaels, who was looking at the body with his back turned to them, hands in his pockets.
    “Don’t worry about it, Detective,” Seyer said, grabbing the bags from her outstretched han d. “I can rig a harness up for both. You can go and file your report; Officer Michaels and I will manage from here. Pleasure to meet you.”
    Seyer was already heading to the back of his converted car van hybrid and opening the doors, when she called out to