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I can apologize to all my guests.”
    He returned the computer and locked his desk drawer. I stepped to the door.
    “Mrs. Nelson,” he said. I turned back to him. “I’d be a negligent scientist if I didn’t examine all the evidence.” I looked at him quizzically. “Would you show me your tattoo?” he asked.
    I hesitated. Why did I feel as if he had just asked me to strip naked? “All right,” I finally said.
    Not wanting him kneeling before me the way Nina had, I pulled over a nearby wooden chair and put my foot up on it. I lifted my pant leg and pulled down my sock.
    He crossed to me and leaned over to get a better look. His subtle scent reminded me of fresh mountain air. “You don’t know where you saw this design?”
    “I just made it up.”
    He looked up at me and for a moment, I was afraid he could see through my deceit. “Either this is an amazing coincidence,” he said with the hint of a wry smile, “or I should be contacting the FBI immediately.”

 
    CHAPTER 3
     
    When I awoke the next morning, Matt was already up, taking advantage of the girls’ late sleeping habits to get some chores done around the house. I could hear him raking leaves in the front yard. Normally, I found the sound familiar and comforting, but today it felt irritating, as if I’d been awakened from a pleasant dream by a startling, discordant noise.
    My mind swirled with last night’s encounter. Dr. Stewart didn’t report me to the authorities. Instead, I followed him downstairs to the living room where he announced that he had run into me in the hallway. After apologizing to the gathering and telling them that there had been no progress in the negotiations with the North Koreans, he went to the kitchen and brought out the chocolate torte he had baked earlier. Refusing multiple offers from his students to take one of their seats, he pulled out the piano bench and sat. Taking small forkfuls of the delicious treat and letting them melt on my tongue, I quietly observed him. The atmosphere in the room changed when he entered it, as if his presence distorted space and time, pulling it into his orbit. He said little at first, but his students no longer engaged in frivolous conversation. Instead, they speculated on what would happen to Magoa now that outsiders were no longer allowed there. Everyone feared it would be destroyed, though no one said why. I noticed that Dr. Stewart subtly shifted the conversation by sharing harrowing and amusing stories of living and working with Nina and their North Korean handlers and colleagues on a remote mountain in North Korea.
    At one point, Elena went to the kitchen to fetch a fresh bottle of wine. When she returned, she refilled glasses and then squeezed onto the piano bench next to Dr. Stewart. I silently speculated on how he felt about his beautiful young graduate student. It was obvious how she felt about him.
    When we got back into our car an hour later, Matt immediately turned to me. “That was strange. He didn’t even ask about your tattoo.”
    “I’m sure he thinks it’s just a coincidence.”
    “Well, duh. What else would it be?”
    ~*~
    My phone vibrated. I picked it up from my nightstand. It was a text from Van.
    Well?
    The food was good, I wrote back.
    And Dr. Stewart???
    Interesting, arrogant.
    Nothing more?
    Nothing more.
    :-( Van typed back.
    I climbed out of bed and went downstairs in my pajamas. I found Anna sitting at the kitchen table, picking the marshmallows out of a bowl of Lucky Charms. I recognized the phone in her hand by its red case covered in faux jewels and a rose. “What are you doing?” I asked.
    She looked up, her face serenely innocent. “Eating breakfast and reading Lily’s texts.”
    I took the phone out of her hand. “Would you want Lily reading your texts?”
    Anna shrugged. “It’s not like she has one iota of interest in my life.”
    I glanced at the screen, where a message featured an entire line of winking emoticons. Is this what passed for