She’d been a model border, they’d be happy to continue to look after her, but I was feeling anxious and bereft. Peppy was gratifyingly happy to see me as well, twining herself around my legs and making little grunting sounds in the back of her throat. Who needs a bass player when you have a golden retriever? “So there, Jake Thibaut,” I muttered, shepherding Peppy into the Mustang.

We had a leisurely evening together, a welcome change. I baked a piece of cod in the toaster oven in the B and B’s common room, made a salad, was curled up in the bedroom with a glass of pinot grigio watching Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis fleeing the Chicago mob in drag when one of my burner phones rang.

“Ms. Warshawski . . . I know it is late—I am sorry, but . . .”

“Aanya.” I recognized her voice despite her agitation and muted the television. “What’s up?”

A moment too late, I remembered the transmitter under the desk. Damn and double damn. Maybe the TV masked my saying her name. I took the phone out onto the patio.

“I’m at Dr. Roque’s, only . . . it is terrible. Someone has broken in, the house, his beautiful orchids, his papers . . . Who would do this?”

“What were they looking for?” I asked. “Something big or something small?” Small was what intruders had hunted at August’s home and gym. Big, that might mean they were looking for Doris’s soil samples, or Colonel Baggetto’s fuel rods.

“How can I know that? I only know that the door was locked when I got here. I switched off the burglar alarm, I turned on the lights, and I saw a disaster. And why does it matter, big, small? His computer is gone, that is the only thing I could notice.”

“Have you called the police?”

“I called you first, but I will call them, yes, only I do not want to stay here waiting for them. What if these criminals are hiding in the house? What if they attack me?”

She was in her car, the doors locked. I told her to stay there, and I would meet her as fast as I could. As fast as I could make my tired body move through time and space. I didn’t want to risk leading the sheriff, the colonel, or anyone else to Roque’s house before I had a chance to look at it, which meant no downloading maps or using my phone app. I made Aanya step me through the directions, one exit at a time, read them back to her, and told her to call me if someone approached the house but otherwise to sit tight.