"I'm sorry." He patted the space beside him, and Mary came across the swaying carriage willingly.

"I know you had hopes that he could help us." That comment surprised her.

"I haven't given up. Perhaps he still can. You saw how he was with Senator Hamilton and Anna Leigh. He might be willing to help if for no other reason than to get his own revenge. I've not seen or heard anything that makes me think we shouldn't ask." Ryder slipped his arm around Mary's shoulders. He gave her something else to think about.

"I need to get into the War Office records," he said.

"I'd be pleased to entertain some ideas as to how that could be accomplished."

"I'll do it," she said immediately.

"What are you looking for?"

"Out of the question." He leaned forward as the hansom slowed to take a corner. Ryder looked out the window, marked the street, then relaxed and settled back.

"I want to see the transfer orders and records for anyone connected to Fort Union."

"You could find those things there?" He nodded.

"Every document finds its way to the War Office sooner or later." Mary considered what Ryder might be after for a moment.

"This has something to do with those men who left the theater early, doesn't it?" Ryder smiled, not at all displeased that she had put it together.

"No one will ever accuse you of being slow off the mark," he said.

"Yes, it has to do with them. The taller one was vaguely familiar, but I recognized the other one. He was a private when I last saw him. I can't think of any reason for those stripes he's wearing now except that he was one of the two men who brought me in." Mary's eyes widened.

"You mean at Colter Canyon?"

"Patrick Carr," Ryder said.

"He accompanied Davis Rivers up to the ridge to search for me and Anna Leigh after the raid."

"I met Lieutenant Rivers," Mary said slowly, trying to place the time and situation.

"It was my first day in Arizona. The lieutenant and a small party of soldiers accompanied my family and me from Tucson to Fort Union. I don't recall ever seeing Carr."

"You weren't at the fort very long," Ryder reminded her.

"And he may have already been transferred back here." His dark brows were drawn together as he tried to make sense of it.

"His part in the trial was done a while back, but it's still surprising that he would have been brought East. No one moves privates around like that."

"But you saw that he's an officer now."

"A sergeant," he said.

"It still seems unlikely that he should find himself in Washington. And the promotion was accomplished rather quickly. He was still a private when he testified against me." Now Mary was frowning as well.

"What can it mean?"

"That's why I have to get into the War Office," he said.

"Apply yourself to solving that problem. I'm known to too many people there to simply walk in and ask to see enlistment and transfer rolls."

There was no time to give it any thought as their hansom slowed again.

They looked out together and saw that Senator Hamilton's carriage was leaving the street to enter a wide, semi-circular drive in front of a gray stone mansion.

Ryder slid back the communicating panel and ordered their driver to keep going down Jefferson Street. When they were out of sight of the Hamilton residence, he had the driver stop. He got out of the carriage, helped Mary down, and paid the driver.

"We won't be needing you any further," he said, adding a generous tip for the man's time.

"Now what?" Mary asked when they were alone on the street. In the distance she could hear the approach of another carriage.

"Do you have any plan?" The words were drawn out of her rather breathlessly as Ryder was pulling her off to the side where a row of sturdy, bare-limbed oaks lined the avenue like palace guards. He took her behind one of them so they were completely out of sight of any passersby.

"What are we doing?"

she asked, leaning back against the tree. The bark was wet from the earlier rain and droplets of water fell from the limbs overhead. She wiped one away from where it splattered her cheek.

"Ryder?"

"We're waiting."

"Waiting? But-" He pressed a finger to her lips.

"Shhh." Mary stilled instantly and listened with all of her senses.

The night air was cool and crisp, and it seemed to sharpen the occasional dropping of water, the rhythmic click of carriage wheels, and clop of horses hooves. She became aware that the carriage in the distance wasn't coming any closer, but had turned. Sound and rhythm were altered as the equip page moved over gravel instead of wet cobblestones. She looked up at Ryder and saw he was looking intently in the direction of Anna Leigh Hamilton's home. There was almost nothing he could see from such a great distance. His view was obstructed by the iron fence bordering the property and the row of hedges that lined the driveway. But they both could hear Anna Leigh's clear melodious voice raised in greeting. The words were not clear, but the intention was, and her guest-only one voice was raised in reply-was invited inside. The carriage left immediately and passed within a few feet of them. It was a hired hansom and offered no means to identify who had arrived in it.

"Apparently we were not the only ones following Anna Leigh's father,"

Mary said. Her eyes narrowed on Ryder's face.

"But I think you suspected that."

Ryder nodded.

"I saw the hack when I looked to see where we were turning." He pointed to the house.

"I'm going over there to look around. I want you to wait here." Even in the dark Ryder had no difficulty seeing that Mary's mouth was pursed to one side in obstinate disapproval.

"All right," he said, giving in because there was so little choice.

"But you follow me-follow me quietly."

Mary saluted smartly.

"Very amusing," he said in a tone that made it clear that wasn't so.

She shrugged unapologetically and gave him a small push in the direction of the house, then became his shadow. The carriage that had deposited Anna Leigh and her father at their front door had been taken to the rear of the house.