“Stanley?” he asked.
“Hour out. He’s quiet. Maria put her hand on his shoulder when he left. He’s coming in carrying that .”
Collins’s headlights came up Brattle at seven-twelve.
I was at the bay window. Wiley had moved to the library to sit with Köhler. Samuel was in the kitchen with something onthe burner. The smell of garlic and butter wafted down the hall. None of us had eaten since noon.
Collins opened Cabot’s door first. He climbed out with his cable-knit and pressed trousers a little rumpled. He didn’t make eye contact when he walked through the door. He took his coat off and held it folded over his arm.
“Stanley, your coat.”
He looked at the coat in his hand as if he hadn’t realized he was still holding it. He hung it on the hall tree.
Dane walked in with the camera bag and the canvas jacket. He set them down on the bench in the front hall. Collins stayed outside to do a perimeter pass before coming inside.
I took Cabot to the small parlor and closed the door.
“Sit.”
He sat.
“Look at me.”
He looked. His eyes were unfocused at the edges.
“You walked into her kitchen this morning, and you sat at her table. You watched her for two hours and you came back with three names. That’s a successful job.”
“She put her hand on my shoulder.”
“As you said.”
“This time she let it stay one count longer. Farrow, tell me something positive.”
“Your three names. Federal moves Tuesday at oh-five-hundred. Wednesday, Maria will be in custody before the ceremony starts. Eleanor will find out who Maria was at six the next morning, sitting across a table from Eamon, with you in the room.”
“With me in the room?”
“ou’re the only person in Boston who can tell Eleanor what she just lost and make her believe it.”
He pressed both palms flat against his eyes for three breaths and took them away. His hands were steady.
“Okay.”
“Samuel is making dinner,” I said. “You’re going to eat it. Wiley and Köhler are in the library. You’re going to sit in there with them for thirty minutes before dinner and not talk about today.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not working tonight, Stanley.”
“Understood.”
I opened the door for him. Then I joined Dane in the small parlor. I crossed the room and stopped beside him at the window. Brattle was dark. A single sedan was parked across the street with no lights. Collins had run the plate when he came in. The widower in the brick house behind it didn’t drive after dark.
“We have four more days starting tomorrow,” Dane said. “We have three names, but we don’t have the device.”
Chapter nineteen
Dane