I nod. I say nothing. Sure enough, Blumenthal starts to say what I’ve been thinking.

“It’s possible that…” he begins. He hesitates and begins again, “It’s possible that…” He is reluctant to admit that he did something wrong.

I just can’t help myself. I help him finish his sentence. “You mean that it’s just possible the Russian mob got to Patrik Kovac and scared the shit out of him before you got it together to reach out to him.”

Blumenthal snaps his index finger at me and nods. “Exactly,” he says. “But hold on, Sherlock. On the surface of it, it seems that our interview with Patrik Kovac didn’t come to anything. But Cilia and I did get something good, something we could use.”

Again, I can’t help but interrupt. “I bet I know. You got some helpful info from the woman at Immaculate Conception, the mother over there who had her baby stolen.”

“Son of a bitch, Lucy Ryuan, you are smarter than a person needs to be.”

I don’t tell Blumenthal that this is the exact phrase my mother often used when I was a precocious kid. Only when my mom said it, she would smile and say, “You are smarter than a person needs to be, you annoying little pug-nose brat.”

Blumenthal is sounding like a coach at halftime. He’s enthused, intense, and angry, all at the same time.

“The mother of the kidnapped baby is named Hannah Neal. You can imagine what a mess she was. Eighteen years old. Heartbroken, just heartbroken. The tears, the screaming. It was grim. Sad. Really unbelievably sad.”

“Yes, I can imagine that,” I say.

“But we did get some good stuff from Ms. Neal. It turns out that she dealt with a guy who had a stupid name. At least the name was straight from Central Casting. Fyodor Orlov. Sorta like the names on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. You know, the villains, Boris and Natasha.”

“Jesus, Detective. What year were you born?” I say. “Rocky and Bullwinkle?”

He ignores me and keeps going. “Anyway, Hannah is in the exact same situ as Katra. Hannah Neal is just eighteen. Pregnant. The baby’s father disappears. A friend tells her about Orlov. Just like with the Kovac girl. Orlov and Hannah meet…Oh, and by the way, the first time Hannah meets with Orlov, he’s with a woman, and before they even talk, the woman gives Hannah Neal a pregnancy test, the kind you do yourself.”

“The kind you do yourself?” I say. “I didn’t think the woman showed up with an ultrasound machine.”

I know that Blumenthal is telling me this to remind me that a pregnancy test would be the first thing I would’ve had to do if I’d shown up posing as a pregnant woman.