Nina looped her arm through mine and started to walk me toward the steps. “Why didn’t you bring Mike with you?”

“I tried. Once I told him it was black tie he sent me home to shower and change. No penguin suit for him, not even to see you. He’ll catch you later in the week.”

Mike Chapman was a homicide detective. Best one on the job, in my view. Nina Baum was my closest friend, and had been for exactly half my life. We were eighteen when we met, assigned to be roommates at Wellesley College when we arrived freshman year. She was married now, living in California with her husband and young son. She had met Mike many times during the decade that he and I had worked together on cases, and she looked forward to spending time with him whenever she was in town.

“First we’ll find Jake.” She led me up the steps, past the lone palm tree that stood on the platform below the great temple. “Then I’ll introduce you to my boss and all the museum heavyweights.”

“How’s Jake behaving? You still have a job after tonight or is he hounding everybody here, looking for scoops?”

“Let’s say we’ve raised a lot of eyebrows around town. I keep telling people that I’ve only borrowed him for the evening, but when you read tomorrow’s gossip columns, you might begin to wonder. You must have a lot of friends here, ‘cause they can’t figure out why I’m hanging on to him and why you’re nowhere to be seen.”

“‘Who is that auburn-haired beauty who whisked in from the coast and stole NBC correspondent Jake Tyler right out from under the long arm of the law? Prosecutor Alexandra Cooper has a warrant out for her arrest. And also for the return of the terrifically sexy-and backless-navy blue sequined dress that this interloper slipped out of Alexandra’s closet when she wasn’t looking.’ That’s what I’m likely to see in the tabs?”

“I figured you loaned me the guy for the evening, how sore could you be about the sexy, backless gown?”