“Hmm. Nice. Oh—there are some really good reptile ones: a quiver of cobras, a lounge of lizards, a rhumba of rattlesnakes.”

“Are all the reptile ones alliterative?”

“A float of crocodiles isn’t.”

“I have to say, two of my favorites are still the ones you mentioned on Monday: a bloat of hippopotami and a fluther of jellyfish.”

She took a bite of her falafel burger and hadn’t quite finished chewing it when she went on. “You think those are good? There are some really weird ones that I found earlier today: a fesnying of ferrets, an implausibility of gnus, a deceit of lapwings, and a trip of dotterels.”

“Are you making these up?”

She swallowed. “Totally true. I promise.”

I’d heard of dotterels but couldn’t place exactly what they were. “At the risk of sounding animal illiterate, what is a dotterel?”

“Find out. That’s your assignment.”

“Well, I guess that’s why Al Gore invented the Internet.”

“No. The Internet is for cat videos, celebrity death rumors, conspiracy theories, and dragging down the world’s collective IQ a dozen points a year. No Googling dotterels. Too easy. You’re Dr. Analog. Find another way.”

“Fair enough.”

++++

Ralph Hawkins was leading the joint task force that was tracking down Blake, so after dinner I contacted him. Ralph was based at the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime near the Academy just outside D.C. Normally, his group focused on consultations between the Bureau and state and local law enforcement, but he’d been assigned a more active role in this case. Currently, he split his time between D.C. and New York City.

“You got word that we caught Mannie, right?” I said.

“I’m reviewing the files now. Is he talking?”

“Not yet.”

“I’m coming up there tomorrow. There’s a pile of paperwork staring me in the face here, but I’m about to flamethrow the whole freakin’ thing and fly up to the city.”

“Sounds good. By the way, ‘freakin’?”

“Trying to clean up the language for Brineesha.”

His wife must have finally put her foot down, and when she did that there was no moving it aside.

“Anyway,” he went on, “I should be there tomorrow afternoon. Maybe Mannie will have decided to be a bit more cooperative by then. If not, maybe I can convince him.”

“You can be quite persuasive when you need to be.”

“Yes, I can.”

++++

Julianne had ordered an appetizer of garlic knots and was finishing her second one when Blake arrived. He slid her a manila folder and she passed him the still-warm rolls. “Try one,” she said. “They’re to die for.”

“I’m good. Thanks.”

“Where’s Goliath? I thought he’d be coming along. You two seemed quite close.”