“Stand up.”
Maria stood. She put her hands on the counter, palms down.
The lead moved behind her. The second agent took a position at Eleanor’s side without touching her, hands clasped in front of him.
The lead read the rest of the warrant. We all listened. I didn’t move.
Weber cuffed Maria’s hands behind her back.
She turned her head a quarter turn toward Eleanor, and held her gaze. Eleanor didn't blink.
The lead turned Maria toward the service door. She stopped at the threshold.
“Eleanor.”
“Yes.”
“Tell Sofia I’m sorry I won’t be here tomorrow.”
Eleanor closed her eyes and didn’t answer. I watched a single tear roll down her cheek.
She didn’t answer.
Chapter twenty-two
Farrow
Dane checked in at five a.m. from the Edgartown command post. He had only three hours of sleep, but his voice was clear and short, his usual cadence at the start of an op day.
I’d been at the kitchen table since four. The coffee in my mug was still hot because Vega had refilled it twice without asking. She sat across from me in an army-green sweater, hair pulled back, and both hands wrapped around her own mug.
A floorboard shifted in the corner room upstairs. Köhler was awake. He’d been sleeping in stretches of two or three hours for a week, and his weight moving across the boards above the kitchen had become as familiar to me as the ticks of the radiator.
Vega lifted her mug. “He’s going to be fine.”
Eamon was in my ear.
“Farrow, federal got three names from Maria overnight.”
I set my mug down. “She talked.”
“Two were already in Tuesday’s sweep. The third is Marc Voss, an independent contractor, husband of Anneliese Voss. Federal has him flagged but not located as of five a.m.”
“Where was he last seen?”
“Lowell yesterday morning when he bought gas at six-forty. No phone signal since seven. Federal has him flagged at every ferry checkpoint in New England.”
“He’s going to the Vineyard,” I said.
“Reasonable assumption. They’ve swept the cedar wall, corridor, and vestibule three times. The device is in evidence on Albany Street. Nothing on that property right now can hurt anyone.”
“Except a man with a sidearm and a wife in custody.”
“Yes.”
“Eleanor’s decision on the wedding stands?” Vega asked.
“It stands,” I said.