Marshall Noote was used to delivering bad news. He told parents when an unruly child broke his arm running on the pool deck. He asked obstreperous club members to leave the Pink Parrot bar. He escorted freshly fired employees to their cars, then posted their photos in the gate house, so they couldn’t come back. Now the head of club security blocked Helen’s aisle at work. He was flanked by two burly security guards with grim expressions. Unless Helen threw herself through a sealed window, she was trapped. This was a hanging party. She could almost see the rope. Rob was missing. She’d punched him on club property. Brenda the bad boss had snitched. Steven, Xaviera’s boyfriend, wasn’t one of the security guards. Helen wondered if Noote had deliberately cut him out of this assignment. These two guards were older, overweight, and uncomfortably stuffed into their Superior Club blazers. “Just a moment,”
