Chapter 20
SEATTLE (Monday, Dec. 3, almost midnight) — Howard Parker nursed a brandy, holding up the snifter to the lights from the city streets below. Sitting in a comfortable chair looking out the glass doors of the penthouse suite of the Ambassador, Parker felt relaxed, safe. The Ambassador was an old hotel, immaculately restored with marble tile floors, high ceilings, and all the gracious amenities. Brand new was not for him; he liked the old-fashioned services and feel of the Ambassador. He liked the fact that he was greeted by name and treated as royalty. He kept the suite rented year-round. He and his wife came here after events at the SAM or Benaroya Hall. He stayed here often when he was in town, sometimes never going to the lake house at all.
He liked it better than home, than
