Caroline was already there, pacing the tight confines of the bridge while Otis and Captain Haig both nursed cups of coffee at the compact table.

“Why are we all here?” she asked as soon as Gray entered and secured the door behind him.

“Because your friends at the White House weren’t so welcoming the last time I was there to talk about Luke.”

She sucked in a quick breath. “What about Luke?”

“Rumor has it he was awarded a diploma from the Naval Academy last year. Do you know anything about that?”

He locked eyes with Caroline, who seemed baffled. “That’s nonsense. He would have told me.”

“Are you certain?” he pressed.

“Gray!” she said in exasperation. “We all know how you berated him for the past eight years over getting kicked out of school. He hated it. He would have done anything to make you proud of him, and if he somehow managed to finagle forgiveness and a diploma out of the Naval Academy, he would have run it up a flagpole for all to see.”

He clenched his fists, wishing he could take back every harsh word he’d ever said to Luke about getting kicked out of school. His brother was sweltering in a prison cell and probably would be for the rest of his life. This odd bit of gossip from Annabelle was the only sliver of hope that there might be more to the story than Gray assumed, and Caroline’s wholesale dismissal of it hurt.

He turned his attention to the others. “Otis? Did you ever notice Luke meeting with people from the navy? Or hitting the books for no apparent reason?”

Otis shook his head. “He hit the taverns and bars of Washington, but I never noticed any studying.”

Captain Haig was a little less certain. “Getting kicked out of the Naval Academy was always a bur under his saddle. He acted like he didn’t care, but that was typical Luke. That boy always hid whatever bothered him the most. Covered it over and made jokes about it.”

It was true. Gray once brought a parrot back from French Polynesia as a pet for Luke, who doted on the bird. He trained the parrot to say a few words and let it ride on his shoulder as he walked around town. When Luke was twelve, the parrot died, and he tried to pretend he didn’t care. He joked throughout the makeshift funeral he’d arranged in their backyard, but that evening Gray heard Luke bawling in his bedroom. If Luke was hurting, he’d make a joke before admitting it.

“What about Philip Ransom?” Otis asked. “Does he have an opinion on this?”

Of anyone, Luke’s old college roommate might know enough about the Naval Academy’s internal workings to shed insight.

“I haven’t talked to him,” Gray said. “I came straight to the three of you first.”