**Chapter 260 — The Coat**
The late window belonged to a captain named Torv who had stamped every rib we asked for and coughed blood on his sleeve in the hall.
Mei had the list before we docked. Six stayed after Yuren left. Two left fast. Torv stayed, then left by the service stair, then came back with a runner and a face like a man who had remembered a debt. His window was the only one lit. Sable put a watch on the well and another on the far cistern and did not argue when Elizabeth took the stair.
I went because the thread had a faint pull toward that window, the same ugly lean it had felt on the water.
Torv opened the door on the second knock. He was still in the hall coat. The sleeve was dark where he had wiped his mouth. He saw Elizabeth's eyes and stepped back without being told.
"I did not take a book," he said.
"Then you will not mind if we look," Elizabeth said.
