The cell phone beeped as he pressed a button to end the call and then stared across the table at us with an eyebrow arched and a pained frown deepening the fatigue lines in his face.

“What?” I finally asked.

“I’m thinkin’” was his reply.

“Uh-huh,” I returned. “Now tell me something that isn’t obvious.”

“Chill, Row.” He reached up and rubbed his forehead. “This ain’t good.”

“What is it, Ben?” Felicity asked, her voice carrying far more concern than had mine.

“Well, that was Ackman back at the scene. Albright had him call. Looks like she wants you there after all.”

“Why the change of heart?”

“Seems Porter left you something.”

“What?”

“A note. But they aren’t sure quite what it says. Well, not all of it, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s apparently a page from a book,” Ben explained. “Or a copy of a page. His handwritten note reads ‘Gant-your wife has lovely hair.’”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I shook my head and frowned.

“Beats me, but the rest of the printed text is in German, so until it’s translated we won’t know much. Albright did recognize a few words; apparently, she took German in high school or somethin’. Prossneck, Deutchland, Folterung, Hexefertigkeit and the year sixteen twenty-nine.”

He stumbled over the pronunciations, but I’m not sure I could have done much better.

“According to Bee-Bee they roughly translate as Prossneck, Germany, torture, and WitchCraft.”

Felicity audibly caught her breath and jerked, dropping her coffee cup in the process. Hot java splattered across the table, spilling over the edge. The ceramic mug bounced once from the wet surface before falling to its demise on the tile floor. Ben jumped back in his seat and instantly began extracting handfuls of paper napkins from the metal holder next to the window. In his haste, he sent the salt and pepper shakers spilling into the seat and a bottle of catsup rolling toward me. The condiment-filled vessel came to rest against my own coffee cup with a sharp plinking noise, which is fortunate, because I wouldn’t have caught it. I was otherwise paralyzed by the words my friend had just recited.