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“Of course.”

“The bad news is you couldn’t get back if you wanted to.”

“Well, I do want to, of course. But I’ll be staying over in the village tonight. What’s the good news?”

“Me and Watson are winning the snowball fight?”

Jack made a sound of amusement. “Glad to hear it. Anything else to report?”

“Watson will be crushed to learn you’re not coming home tonight.”

“Just Watson?”

Ellery scrubbed the snow from his eyelashes with his mittened hand. “You will be sorely missed by other household members as well.”

Jack chuckled, then grew serious. “Listen, I had a little free time this morning—”

“That’s hard to believe.”

“You’re not kidding. Especially with the way my afternoon is going. Anyway, I did some quick preliminary research on Noah Tandy’s death—”

Ellery’s good mood faded. “What?Why?”

“—and I’ve filed an official request for information with NYPD’s Records and Identification Division.”

“Jack. This is—this makes no sense. Why are you involving yourself in this? There’s no case here. There’s nothing here to investigate.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about, right?”

“But this is—I don’t understand what you’re trying to do.”

Jack said calmly, “I don’t understand why you’re so against this.”

“Because these people are my friends. Because there’s nothing to find out so there’s no reason to-to open old wounds.”

“I’m not opening old wounds. I’m checking into a few things to satisfy my own curiosity. No one other than you ever needs to know anything about it.” Jack added grimly, “Unless, my instinct is correct and there’s something not quite right about Tandy’s death.”

Ellery felt a chill that had nothing to do with the ice melting down the back of his neck.

“What do you think is not quite right?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t have to make an official inquiry.”

Ellery protested, “But if you don’t have anything to go on, I don’t understand why you’re making official inquiries.”

Jack hesitated. “Would you say you have an instinct for knowing when something isn’t right?”

Ellery said unwillingly, “You mean when I stick my nose into other people’s business whether they ask for my help or not?”

“Exactly. Because, although it doesn’t give me pleasure, I’ve had to admit that you do have a talent for solving mysteries. At the very least, you have a talent for sensing that there’s a mystery to be solved.”

Ellery knew exactly where this was headed. He said grudgingly, “I guess so.”

“And would you then agree that Ialsohave an instinct for knowing when things are not right? Call it a cop’s instinct.”

“Yes. Of course. We both know you’re good at what you do. But we’ve both gotten things wrong in the past, Jack. We’ve both made mistakes. You were wrong about Dylan.”

“I was. Yes.”