CHAPTER ONE
Rachel slung her laptop bag over her shoulder and crossed 42nd Street at Fifth Avenue. The broad steps and terraces of the New York Public Library rose between the marble lions—Patience and Fortitude—that had guarded it for more than a century. Tourists gathered in the library’s palatial lobby, marveling at the polished architectural detail and reveling in the air conditioning away from the blaring traffic and the sticky Manhattan humidity that had wilted the trees of Bryant Park.
Rachel wished she could take off her suit jacket, but the seven-block walk from Rockefeller Center had reduced her blouse to sweat-soaked transparency.
“Ms. Walton.”
Rachel looked up and pulled her lapels together. The concierge held out a package about the size of a large boot box, wrapped in bro
