“And the venue?”
“Maria suggested the hall on the Vineyard. She told Eleanor that the gardens would be too cold in December, so it should all take place indoors. She specified the wall where the orchids will be displayed. They will sit in front of the cedar paneling on the corridor side of the partition. The structural cavity is behind them. The device, once installed, will be there.”
His hands stayed flat on the table.
“You don’t know it’s installed.”
“I do not. Henry didn’t share operational specifics. He kept it to himself to protect me. Much of what I know I learned in late October, when I woke in the night and overheard him on the phone with a man named Stein.”
Eamon spoke for the first time. “Do you have the names of other operatives at the wedding?”
“I have one name, a Belgian named Verhaege. Henry mentioned him to me in passing. I don’t remember where or when. He’s not the lead, and I don’t know if he will be there.”
“Do you know who Maria’s people inside the house are?”
“I don’t have them either. Henry didn’t know. Maria never told him. Maria didn’t tell anyone things they didn’t need to know. Henry was useful to her because she could give him drafting work, and he would do it under threat. He wasn’t useful to her as a person who needed the household roster. He was a tool.”
"One more name," I said. "Theo, Pierce Harcourt's nephew who runs the family's environmental fund. Stanley remembers Henry going inside with him at the August luncheon. Was he part of this?"
Köhler shook his head once.
"Theo is the cousin Henry loved. He used to send Henry articles about coastal restoration. Henry pulled him onto the terrace that day to tell him he was sick, that the family didn't know, and to ask Theo to look after his mother if anything happened. He didn't tell Theo about Maria or me. He gave the boy the part of the truth he could survive carrying."
A brief pause.
"Theo is not part of this."
Köhler stopped.
He looked down at his hands.
“Henry was different.”
Köhler’s voice dropped. Eamon didn’t move.
“Maria had known him since he was four. She fed him in that kitchen, on a stool by the prep counter, three afternoons a week from the time he was four until he was nine. He called her Mara because he could not say her name. She let him stir the soup. There are photographs of this in the family archives. She knew what she was doing when she chose him.”
He pressed a thumb into his palm.
“I don’t know why. Henry believed she was punishing him for something specific he had done to her, that she had not forgiven, and that he couldn’t remember. I don’t believe that. I think she chose him because he was the one most likely to do what she asked once she had him.”
I looked at Eamon.
Eamon looked at Köhler.
“Mr. Köhler. Will you stay with us for a few days?”
“I have no other options.”
“I’m not asking because you have no other options. I am asking because if you stay with us, you are inside a perimeter that we control. The people who killed Henry yesterday afternoon will assume you are dead too. They won’t look for you for at least seventy-two hours. After that, we will have you elsewhere.”
“Yes. I will stay.”
“There’s a property in Brookline. Two reporters are there now. You will be the third principal. Reed will take you. You won’t call anyone. We will get a message to your sister in Connecticut that you are safe. That’s your only contact for the next forty-eight hours.”
“Understood.”
“Is there anything you need before Reed takes you?”