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to own an object like the goblet. It is a very small group, but they will not talk. They have lawyers and functionaries to talk and lie for them. We are also questioning jewelers on the chance the thief might have been greedy and ignorant and stolen the goblet just for the stones. If that is thecase, he will have to go to these jewelers to sell the stones he has pried off the piece. That prospect is too frightening to think about.”
    He was like the Eeyore of cops, seeing only failure and gloom, Kate thought, staring down at her coffee. It was so thick, she wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to drink it or eat it like pudding.
    “There’s a long shot we could try,” she said. “I’d like you to get the guest lists from all of the four- and five-star hotels in the city and the passenger lists of all the flights, trains, buses, and boats arriving and departing from Istanbul over the last four days, and then send them to my colleagues at the FBI.”
    “What can they do with the information that we can’t?”
    “Fox likes to use the names of TV characters as aliases. I have a contact who will compare your lists with names in
The Complete Directory of Episodic Television Shows.
”
    “Those names would be meaningless to most people here, so I can see why he’d choose one,” Atalay said. “But wouldn’t it be wiser for him to choose places to stay that are less conspicuous than five-star hotels?”
    “Fox likes the finer things in life.”
    “Who doesn’t? Getting the airline, train, bus, and boat passenger lists will take a day at least, maybe two. I can get the hotel guest lists today, but it will take a few hours. This is a big city with many fine hotels.” He glanced at his watch and did a quick mental calculation. “If we get the guest lists by midafternoon,that means it will be ready first thing in the morning for your colleagues in the U.S.”
    “That would be terrific.”
    Atalay and Kate finished their coffees and walked back to the museum, where a uniformed police officer was waiting to drive Kate to her hotel.
    “I would go to the station with you to help with the investigation, but I suspect I would only be in the way,” Kate said to Atalay.
    “This is true. Unless you speak Turkish and have contacts in the Istanbul underworld, there is not much for you to do right now.”
    Kate checked into her hotel, changed out of her wrinkled suit, and set out to be a tourist. She bypassed Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque, choosing instead to walk the congested, winding side streets. She ate food from street vendors, had another coffee, and browsed through the shops and outdoor stalls.
    Shortly after five, she returned to her small boutique hotel in the Old City. It was located on a narrow side street that came to a dead end behind a mosque. The
ezan,
the late afternoon call to prayer, was being broadcast from speakers mounted on the mosque’s minarets. The melodic chant, which summoned devout Muslims to the mosque six times each day, was so loud that she almost didn’t hear her phone ringing. It was Chief Inspector Atalay calling to tell her that he had the list of hotelguests and that he would be right over. Twenty minutes later, Atalay and four of his men pulled up outside the hotel in two unmarked cars. Kate met them on the street and took the list from Atalay.
    “I sent the original list in to your colleague Maxine Cutler, as you suggested,” Atalay said. “This one I just handed you is the list she sent back after checking in the television book. There are twenty-three names.”
    The number of hits didn’t surprise Kate. Most TV character names aren’t as unique as Thomas Magnum, Napoleon Solo, or Horatio Caine. She quickly scanned the list, which included Robert Ewing, Michael Brady, Alex Keaton, Fred Sanford, and Alan Shore. One name jumped out at her. Dale Cooper, the FBI agent Kyle MacLachlan had played on
Twin Peaks.
It was exactly the kind of name that Nick would have chosen back in the