Thats catchy. Buzz yourself in, she said. Its taped to your handlebars. Good. Perhaps youd like one of my cigarettes. He picked up a small, highly polished wooden box that may have been made out of rosewood, opened it, and offered it to me. It contained long brown cigarettes. I took one. So did Chanson. He produced a gold lighter from a vest pocket and leaned forward to light my cigarette. Then he lit his own and leaned back in his chair, drew some smoke down into his lungs, and exhaled it. I took a puff of my own. It wasnt bad. I reversed my course and went back through the house room by room in case Id missed some explanation of what may have happened to her. A short time ago, a rather remarkable group of men gathered at my ranch in Southern California. These men collectively knew more about murder than all of the fictional detectives in history put together. They were Dr. Richard Ford of Harvard, Dr. Russell Fisher of Baltimore, Dr. Samuel Gerber of Cleveland, Dr. LeMoyne Snyder of Lansing, Michigan, and Dr. Joseph Spelman of Vermont. Is he with you right now? When I sat down at the table Gallops said to me,Id sure admire to buy this lunch for you and Brother Murfin. Thats what we were to him then. Brother Murfin and Brother Longmire. We called him Brother Gallops because he seemed to think thats what everybody called each other in labor unions. Dear sir and brother. Yes. Okay, last chance, guys, he said. Walk away now or I can guarantee it will not end well for any of you. Why? Were you involved in her death? I nodded and smiled.Well, you know what the mails are. Yeah, sure you would. All right. I want you to do exactly as I say. Do you have some woman whom you can trust? Its family business now, Slick, I said, and I dont want to talk about it all jammed up against somebody else. The public employees union headquarters was a five-year-old glass and steel cube on G Street between Eighteenth and Nineteenth. It was almost within hailing distance of the White House and only a short, pleasant stroll to the Sans Souci restaurant, which is where Arch Mix had liked to eat lunch, usually in the company of fellow deep thinkers from either the government or the news business or both. What was the last time you saw her? Devine felt like saying,Look whos talking. But what would have been the point?.