“But since the harm’s been done, and you’re already out of bed, I’m hoping we can turn that mistake . . . inexcusable as it is . . . into something productive—”

“Anagkazo,” Gilbert said abruptly.

“Excuse me?”

“You told me you’d seen an individual walking a black German shepherd from the window of a car.”

Glenn remembered the hastily improvised line he’d fed him. “Yes, that’s right, a taxicab . . .”

“Told me it was a longhair.”

“Right.”

“Told me you wish to look into acquiring such a dog to guard home and family while you travel on business. Which is commendable.”

“Right . . . ah, and thanks . . .”

“I try to recognize positive traits in all species,” Gilbert said with no hint of sarcasm whatsoever. “At any rate, if you’d taken the extra time on your computer, you would have found the Schutzhund USA registry’s online genetic database. It lists DNA-based evaluations of each and every certified dog’s pedigree, physical conformation, and susceptibility to hip dysplasia and other health problems going back five or more generations. It also would have shown you that pure black longhairs are quite scarce. Just a handful of breeders sell them in this country. Virtually all have been imported from Europe or sired by imported breeding stock—”

Glenn wanted to get back to what Gilbert had said at the outset of his lecture.

“I don’t meant to interrupt, sir, but that word you used a minute ago . . .”

“Word?”

“Started with an ‘A,’ I think . . . ana-something-or-other . . .”

“Anagkazo.”

“Right, right . . .”

“That’s a name,” Gilbert said testily. “John Anagkazo. Good respectful fellow up in the hills. Our homepage has a link to his Web site. If the shepherd is indeed Schutzhund qualified and was purchased in the state of California, you can be guaranteed his farm is where it came from.”

About eighty miles west of San Jose, the Anagkazo ranch sat on multiple acres of rolling grassy field laid with training tracks, hurdles, agility and obstacle course equipment of various configurations, and a large open pen area for the dogs out back of the main house, a restored wood-frame that might have been a century old.