In the doorway from the front hall, Dane appeared. Cabot followed down the steps behind him.
“I’m early,” Dane announced, “but some overlap is good.” He reached up and raked his fingers through his short, dark hair.
“I’m the last one up,” Cabot said as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
“There’s tea,” I said, “and extra mugs in the kitchen.”
“That’s the best you can do?” asked Dane.
“At five in the morning, in someone else’s kitchen, with three men I’m not sleeping with? Yes.”
Wiley laughed. It was genuine.
Dane took up a position by the shuttered windows instead of sitting while Cabot headed for the kitchen. He came back with two mugs and sat in the chair opposite mine..
“I thought of something while I was waking up.”
“Important?” Dane asked.
“I’m not sure, and it’s only one word. It sounded wrong when the stranger said it last August.”
“Wrong in what way?” I asked.
Cabot poured himself a mug of tea. “The word was nephew, and it was the ph. It came out hard, not the usual form of speaking at these events. It was almost Germanic.”
“Who heard it?” Dane asked.
Cabot turned his head. “Only me.” He paused. “Well, I suppose anyone speaking with him could pick up something like that.”
“Köhler?” Wiley asked.
“Have you told anyone else outside of the family about the stranger, Cabot?”
“Only Patterson. It was in a meeting after the August event. I wanted a second opinion on what I should cover and what I shouldn’t.”
Wiley needed air.
He didn’t say so. He started pacing in small, tight loops from the couch to the front window and back. His focus began to fray.
I caught Dane’s eye across the room. He nodded slightly toward the front hall.
“Coat,” I said to Wiley.
He stopped and blinked. “What?”
“We’re walking.”
“That’s not—“
“It is. Twelve minutes.”
“It’s still dark out.”
“With the gaslights, this neighborhood is never fully dark,” I said. “The world is waking up.”
He hesitated for one beat, and then he headed for the hall closet to retrieve his coat.
Dane stepped up to my side. I held out my hand, and he set an earpiece in my palm without comment. I seated it, tested the channel with a single tap, and got the soft tone back.