“Or me.”

Wesley got up and began rearranging the fire again.

“Do you think it would be wise for me to send Lucy back to Miami?” I asked.

“Christ, Kay, I don’t know what to tell you. She doesn’t want to go home. That comes across loud and clear. You might feel better if she returned to Miami tonight. For that matter, I might feel better if you went with her. In fact, everybody - you, Marino, Grueman, Vander, Connie, Michele, me - would probably feel better if all of us left town. But then who would be left?”

“He would.” I said. “Whoever he is.”

Wesley .glanced at his watch and set his .glass on the coffee table. “None of us should interfere with each other,” he said. “We can’t afford to.”

“Benton, I have to clear my name.”

“It is exactly what I would do. Where do you want to start?”

“With a feather.”

“Please explain.”

“It’s possible that this killer went out and bought some specialty item filled with eiderdown, but I’d say there’s a good chance he stole it.”

“That’s a plausible theory.”

“We can’t trace the item unless we have its label or some other piece to trace back to a manufacturer, but there may be another way. Maybe something could appear in the newspaper.”

“I don’t think we want the killer to know he’s leaking feathers everywhere. He’s sure to get rid of the item in question.”

“I agree. But that doesn’t preclude your getting one of your journalist sources to run some trumped-up little feature about the eider duck and its prized down, and how items filled with it are so expensive that they’ve become a hot commodity for thieves. Maybe this could be-tied in with the ski season or something.”

“What? In hopes someone out there will call and say that his car was broken into and his down-filled jacket was stolen?”

“Yes. If the reporter quotes some detective who supposedly has been assigned to the thefts; this gives readers someone they can call. You know, people read a story and say ‘The same thing happened to me.’ Their impulse is to help. They warn to feels important. So they pick up the phone”.

“I’ll have to give it some thought.”

‘Admittedly it’s a long shot.”

We began walking to the door. “I spoke briefly with Michele before leaving the Homestead,” Wesley said. “She and Lucy have already been conferring. Michele says your niece is quite frightening.”

“She’s been a holy terror since the day she was born”

He smiled. “Michele didn’t mean it like that: She says that Lucy’s intellect is frightening.”

“Sometimes I worry that it’s too much wattage for such a fragile vessel.”

“I’m not certain she’s all that fragile. Remember, I just spent the better part of two days with her. I’m very impressed with Lucy on many fronts.”

“Don’t you go trying to recruit her for the Bureau.”

“I’ll wait until she finishes college` That will take her, what? All of a year?”