Ettore. My name is Ettore Malandri, and I left my balcony door open at one in the morning on purpose.
Ettore: You can come out. I know you're already here.
She came out from behind the door and stood where the lamp could get her. Small. Dark hair pulled tight. A split lip going yellow at the edge.
Ettore: You left a note in my office about my own guard.
Odile: You left the door open. I thought you wanted a cleaner.
I moved a step so my shoulder blocked the way back inside. Not fast. I didn't want her running.
Ettore: You knew where the bomb was before my men did. You knew where the sniper was before I did.
Ettore: So I'll ask it plain. Did you kill the man in the tank?
Rina: Ettore. Get away from her.
Rina had two of my men behind her and her gun already out of the holster.
Rina: You stupid bitch. You walk in here twice and nobody tells me?
She had Odile by the jaw before I could move. The back of her head hit the rail and the sound went down my spine.
Rina: You dumb cunt. You think I don't remember your face from my stairs?
Her lip split again and blood ran down her chin. She didn't make a sound. That was the part that got me.
Rina: Say one wrong word and I'll open you up right here. They'll drag you out of the water with the fish.
She believed it. I saw it in her eyes. She had already worked out how it would go.
Ettore: Rina. Let go of her.
Rina: She's a fucking cleaner who had a bomb on your floor.
Ettore: I said let go. Now.
I took Rina's wrist and pulled her off hard enough that she stumbled.
There were four red marks on Odile's jaw. They'd be purple by morning. I knew whose hand made them.
Ettore: Out. All three of you. Shut the door.
Rina: Ettore. She's inside your house.
Ettore: She's been inside my house for months. You're the one who just found out.
The door clicked shut. The city hummed under us. She stayed against the rail with her hand at her jaw.
Ettore: You didn't answer me.
Odile: Yes. I killed him.
She said it the way you'd say your own name. No shaking. No begging.
Odile: He was about to put a bullet in your skull. I didn't give him the chance.
Ettore: Why?
She looked at me a long time. Long enough that I heard my own pulse.
Odile: You were laughing under the sharks. He was going to take that away. So I took him.
Ettore: How long have you been watching me?
Odile: Long enough.
Ettore: That's not an answer.
Odile: It's the only one you get tonight.
I took the key out of my pocket. A small brass thing. Private elevator, east side. No one used it but me.
Ettore: Nobody's eyes on that car. Not even Rina's. She doesn't get a key to everything.
Odile: You should call her back. She'll want me in a room with no windows.
Ettore: She will. I'm not going to.
She took the key. Her fingers were cold and they stayed on mine a second longer than they had to.
Ettore: Tomorrow. One in the morning. Use that and come up.
Odile: And if I don't?
Ettore: Then I'll leave the door open again. And I'll be standing right here.
She looked back once. Blood on her chin and the key closed in her fist like it was the only thing she owned.
Then she was gone, and the balcony smelled like her and like nothing.
I stood there with my hands on the rail and my heart going like some stupid kid's.
I had just handed a killer the key to my private elevator, and the only thing I felt was glad.
Something old turned over in my chest, a locked door with a scared shape behind it. I pressed my palm flat on the pocket where her face used to live.