“Good,” Houndstooth responded. He glanced around the bar. It was empty but for them and the bartender. “Now, we need to find the fifth member of our crew.” He slid a photograph into the center of the table—the same photograph that Gran Carter had left sitting on the felt of the poker table earlier that day. Adelia Reyes stared unsmiling out of the photograph. Everyone at the table examined the photograph, but it was Cal who reached for it first. He looked at it for a long time, swallowing hard; then he set it back in the center of the table and stared at his hands for a few minutes, clearing his throat every few seconds.

“You’re all familiar with Adelia Reyes. She’s been missing for seven months.”

Cal coughed. “Seven and a half.”

“Right,” Houndstooth said, frowning at Cal. “Seven and a half months. She rides two hippos: a Standard Grey and an Arnesian Brown. She switches between the two so she doesn’t have to rest either one—so we’ll probably find her near the water somewhere. Can’t travel overland with two hippos for long.”

Neville, who had been silent until that point, raised his hand. Archie gave him a quelling look, but he kept his eyes fixed on Houndstooth, who, after a long minute, waved a hand at the boy.

“Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Houndstooth sir, but I’ve seen that woman.”

All eyes at the table swivelled toward Neville.

“You’ve what?” Hero and Archie said at the same time. Cal looked at the boy with an intensity so sharp it put Winslow’s knives to shame.

“I’ve seen her. Just now, outside. She was . . . well, she was at the tobacconist, sir. She looked . . . a little different from how she looked in that photo, sir. She spotted me ’n Archie, and while I was putting Rosa up in the pond out back, she came by the water to visit, and she—” He met Cal’s eyes and paused.

“She what, Neville?” Hero asked gently.

“Um, well.” Neville turned to Houndstooth. “She came by the pond, and she took a look at Ruby—that’s the hippo with the gold tusks, right? She looked inside Ruby’s mouth and asked if I knew who rode her here, and I said I didn’t, and then she looked at the other grey in the pond, the one with the nasty scars? She talked to that one for a while.”

Cal sucked in a breath at this and looked back down at his hands. A little blood had started to soak through the bandage over his ear.

Houndstooth sprang up from the table and made for the door. Archie gave Neville a little shove. “Go after ’im, now. Show ’im where you saw ’er.”