Köhler considered it. He shook his head once. “I had what I needed,” he said. “He’s gone.”
Eamon stood. He walked around the table, placed a hand on Köhler’s shoulder for a moment, and walked out into the corridor to call Reed.
I stood and held my hand out across the table.
Köhler looked at it. Then he took it. His grip was firm, and his hand was freezing.
“Mr. Köhler. He told you to call us. He trusted us with you. We will keep that trust.”
“Thank you.”
I let go and stepped back.
***
The carriage house kitchen table had leaves that could be inserted to seat eight. Eamon and I drove in from the field office at a quarter past seven for an operational meeting. Köhler was already upstairs with Reed, sleeping, or trying to.
Wiley was at the table in a sweater he’d been wearing for two days. Cabot was beside him, a notebook open in front of him. Farrow stood at the counter, pouring coffee. He looked up when we arrived.
“Sit down, everyone,” Eamon said. “Köhler talked.”
The room was quiet.
“The architect of the operation against the Harcourts is a woman named Maria. She has worked in Eleanor’s household for forty years, and she runs the kitchen and staff. She has known every member of that family since they were children. Her brother died in 2014 on a fishing boat owned by a Harcourt who gave the order to sail in gale-force winds. Eleanor has never known the connection. Maria has known it every day since. She built Onyx Bay around her. She is the silent center.”
He let the information sit for a beat.
“The wedding is her target. A device is in or being placed against a structural cavity behind the orchid corridor on the cedar paneling side. Maria selected the venue and the cavity in the wall. They coerced Henry into writing messages through threats to Köhler. Henry burned his cover Thursday morning to put a napkin in Stanley’s hand. He died yesterday afternoon because Onyx Bay saw it. Köhler called us last night. He is upstairs sleeping. He is the most operationally valuable witness we have.”
Cabot’s expression didn’t change. Wiley looked down into his coffee.
“Six days,” Eamon said.
He didn’t elaborate. It wasn’t necessary.
“Köhler stays here. Reed stays on him when he’s not sleeping. Collins takes the door, and they adopt a sleeping schedule like Dane and Farrow. Vega comes in tonight when Samuel arrives. That’s five professionals on four principals.”
Wiley looked up. “Samuel?”
“We’re bringing Samuel here. The Newton perimeter was adequate for what we knew yesterday. It’s not adequate to what we know now.”
“Eamon, are you telling me you are moving my husband into this house?”
“I am telling you that as of this morning, a household-wide threat has a name, and Samuel is part of this household. Samuel teaches at a school where his schedule is public. Vega is competent, but she has been working alone. He’s safer here.”
Wiley held the table’s edge with both hands.
“He’s going to ask why.”
“You’ll tell him when he arrives. You won’t walk him through every word, but he is overdue for the easier version of a hard truth.”
Wiley looked at Farrow. He nodded. Wiley looked back at Eamon and exhaled.
Eamon turned toward Cabot.
“Stanley, I need you back inside that family within forty-eight hours. That means by Sunday. You are a society reporter writing a wedding profile. Your way in is the piece you’ve been working on. Eleanor will expect you. We’re making sure of it.”
Cabot spoke. “Eamon, you said Maria knows. She knows I was in the café Thursday, and she knows Henry handed me something. “