I T TOOK A VERY GREAT DEAL MORE THAN PATTING DEBORAH on the shoulder and saying There there to get her calmed down this time. In fact I had to force-feed her a large glass of peppermint schnapps. I knew that she needed some kind of chemical help to relax and even sleep if possible, but Debs had nothing in her medicine chest stronger than Tylenol, and she was not a drinker. I finally found the schnapps bottle under her kitchen sink, and after making sure it wasn’t actually drain cleaner I made her chug down a glass of it. From the apparent taste, it might as well have been drain cleaner. She shuddered and gagged but she drank it, too bone weary and brain numb to fight.

While she slumped in her chair I threw a few changes of her clothing into a grocery bag and dropped it by the front door. She stared at the bags and then at me. What are you doing, she said. Her voice was slurred and she sounded uninterested in the answer.

You’re staying at my place for a few days, I said.

Don’t want to, she said.

It doesn’t matter, I said. You have to.

She shifted her gaze to the bag of clothing by the door. Why.

I walked over to her and squatted beside her chair. Deborah. He knows who you are and where you are. Let’s try to make it just a little bit of a challenge for him, all right?

She shuddered again, but she didn’t say anything more as I helped her to her feet and out the door. Half an hour and one more slug of peppermint schnapps later she was in my bed, snoring lightly. I left her a note to call me when she woke up, and then I took her little surprise package with me and headed in to work.

I didn’t expect to find any important clues from running the finger through a lab check, but since I do forensics for a living it seemed like I really ought to give it a professional once-over. And because I take all my obligations very seriously, I stopped on the way and bought doughnuts. As I approached my second-floor cubbyhole, Vince Masuoka came down the hall from the opposite direction. I bowed humbly and held up the bag. Greetings, Sensei, I said. I bring gifts.

Greetings, Grasshopper, he said. There is a thing called time. You must explore its mysteries. He held up his wrist and pointed to his watch. I’m on my way to lunch, and now you bring me my breakfast?

Better late than never, I said, but he shook his head.

Nah, he said. My mouth has already changed gears. I’m gonna go get some ropa vieja and plátanos.