He’d been quiet at lunch, and afterward, he’d slipped back to the basement lab while Grace and Annie had shown her around the offices. Despite being on well-traveled Walnut Street, the building was surprisingly quiet. The first-floor rooms were bright and large and painted in soothing shades of khaki and tan with Berber carpets throughout and artwork on the walls. The front door opened into Annie’s domain, the reception area. Another three rooms were situated behind the reception area. Mal and Janey’s office sat directly behind, while an empty office separated Nic’s office at the rear of the building. A stairwell near the back led to Grace and Frank’s second-floor offices and Nic’s third-floor apartment while another door across from the empty room led to the basement lab. She was to have the empty office on the first floor. Right across from the lab door. Jimmy’s lab. She must have been under a spell to agree to this. Didn’t she have any backbone at all? Grace had steamrolled her, though she’d done it with velvet instead of steel.
