Geoffrey inspected the bottles. “Yes, sir.” He cut away the capsule and went to work with the corkscrew. He uncorked it very carefully, then lit the candle and decanted it slowly. He poured a little into a tasting glass, sniffed it, then placed it before Stone, along with the cork. “I’m afraid the cork isn’t very good, sir.”

Stone picked up the cork, squeezed it, then sniffed. “I’m afraid it’s corked,” he said, squeezing it again. The cork broke in half, but did not separate.

“I thought so, too, sir,” Geoffrey said.

Stone looked at the cork, then pulled on it from each end. The two pieces separated, and he found himself staring at what appeared to be a needle, embedded in the bottom half. He beckoned to Geoffrey and handed him the cork. “Preserve this. Take the wine to the kitchen and recork it. Do not taste it, and do not allow anyone else to.”

“Yes, sir,” Geoffrey said.

“But first, please hand me the Mouton.”

Geoffrey did so; Stone inspected the capsule and found it apparently unbreached. “May I see the Palmer capsule? The top only.”

Geoffrey handed it to him. There was a pinhole in the top.

“Decant the Mouton,” Stone said.

Geoffrey did so, then handed Stone the tasting glass and the cork. Stone inspected the cork and bent it a little, but it did not break.

“Good cork this time,” Geoffrey said. “Excellent nose, too.”

Stone sniffed the glass several times. “I agree.” He tasted the wine and found it full-bodied, complex, and untainted. “Pour this one,” he said, “then deal with the other bottle.”

The women were talking animatedly and seemed unconcerned with the wines.

—

They finished their dinner and made to take their brandy upstairs. Stone allowed them to precede him. “I’ll be right along,” he said. He went to the gun case, removed one of the brace of Purdey shotguns, and picked up a box of double-aught shells, then followed the women. At the last moment, he remembered Lance’s caution to keep the Agency iPhone with him at all times, and he slipped it into his jacket pocket.

The women were both in Rose’s dressing room, still talking. Stone started to lay the shotgun alongside the bed, and then pushed the gun, barrel first, under the bed. It connected with something and stopped, with the stock still showing. Stone looked underneath, but it was too dark to see anything except what looked like a box. He took a small SureFire flashlight from a bedside drawer and shone it under the bed.

There were two large, leather-bound books stacked there. He read the title, The Short Oxford English Dictionary. Then he saw something else at the bottom of the spines: W. THOMAS.

59

As Stone got to his feet, the women were coming out of Rose’s dressing room, both naked and holding hands.