Page 41 of Lucky Night

She doesn’t answer. She grabs the remote from the table under the television. The screen blinks to life, and she starts flipping. CNN. Fox. Some old movie.

Jenny. What are you doing?

She reaches NY1. A pretty, dark-haired reporter, bundled in a heavy coat, is standing on the sidewalk outside their hotel.

Behind her, firefighters are swarming through the lobby doors.

As you can see, Ron, dozens of firefighters have descended on the building here at Fiftieth and Park, the location of a newly opened luxury hotel.

He ends the call. He’ll try again later.

The fire is believed to have started approximately three hours ago in a laundry room on the twenty-first floor.

Not the fifteenth? he says.

She turns from the television. Fifteenth?

Fucking hell. He blurted that out, he didn’t…now she’s staring at him.

Nick? Why did you say not the fifteenth?

The screen splits to show a pair of news anchors listening as the reporter speaks. Firefighters haul equipment into the building behind her.

Look at all those firemen, he says. They’ll have this under control in no time.

Not the fifteenth, you said. Like you expected it to be the fifteenth.

Her eyes are boring into him. Goddammit. This is going to complicate things.

When I called down the first time, the desk clerk mentionedthere was a minor error in the original announcement, he says. The alarm hadn’t been triggered on the fifth floor, but the fifteenth.

And you didn’t tellme?

Does she really need to look so outraged? What does it matter? he says. Apparently it wasn’t on the fifteenth, either.

You knew it was ten floors closer to us. You let me think it was farther away.

I didn’t want you to worry, Jenny. I’m sorry, but…

He trails off, riveted by the television. She turns to see what’s distracted him.

The camera has panned upward. About twenty stories above the ground, smoke is pouring out of the building.

Thick black sheets of it, billowing up the side of the building and rippling into the sky.

What you’re seeing now is smoke escaping from the building’s exhaust vents, which are just above the location of the fire.

They watch in silence. Until:

Is there anything else you were told that you didn’t want me to worry about?

No, Jenny. I…

The camera has cut back to the lobby doors. People are emerging, some of them assisted by firefighters. Evacuated guests. They look tense and dazed. Some are wearing white bathrobes.

The camera zooms in. You can see their faces, very clearly.

Oh, this…this is not good, he says.

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