June Hudson jolted awake from a vivid dream of sabotaging a coal mine by fire and flood, the imagery mirroring her pent-up feelings about Edgar Gilfoyle’s distant letter, Sandy Gilfoyle’s return injured, Hannelore Wolfe’s instability, and whispered judgments about Mr. Francis’s politics. She recalled Mr. Francis’s training to see what lay under people’s surfaces and recognized Gilfoyle’s habit of fleeing conflict. Angry at his glib “Keep the old chin up,” she resolved she might be done waiting for him. Restless, she paged through the updated guest ledgers, was startled by an entry, and encountered her swing chef Floréal at the stairs at an odd hour.

At 3 a.m., Tucker Minnick arrived at the Avallon’s valet garage, ordering exterior lights cut and rebuking drinking Border Patrol guards. In the painted, former-stable garage, three detainees—journalists Archie Boyle, Géza Breznay, and Lieselotte Berger—sat in stolen Avallon maid uniforms after an attempted escape. Pennybacker, distractedly enthused about the stable’s history, ceded interrogation to Tucker.

The detainees claimed fear of German retribution if repatriated, with Boyle dramatizing and Berger—scarred with twin deliberate cuts—pleading not to be sent back. They admitted to a failed plan: stealing uniforms, fleeing into the mountains, panicking at a mountain lion, and being intercepted on the road after a scuffle. Tucker imposed an 8 p.m. curfew, threatened lasting federal scrutiny if they shielded accomplices, and sent them back to their rooms at their own expense for the uniforms.

In private, Pennybacker told Tucker that repatriation negotiations had collapsed because Angela Bickenbach refused to return to Germany, derailing the one-for-one exchange; he fretted especially about Berger’s status and the slow transatlantic communications. After Pennybacker left, Tucker pressed June on whether staff aided the thefts; June deflected while confirming detainee 411 remained onsite.

June led Tucker deeper into the garage to her navy Pierce-Arrow limousine—once an Avallon house car and now her impractical bonus—where she applied peppermint and hot pepper deterrents for mice. They traded personal details: June’s attachment to the car despite rationing, Tucker’s suggestion of Pensacola as a place she could drive a “reasonable” car. Their rapport grew as June insisted boundaries would blur—“Sometimes your business will be my business.”

June then delivered a key finding from the ledgers: maintenance and switchboard activity tied the silent sixth-floor cloakroom calls to Sabine Wolfe. Tucker cautioned June not to approach Sabine and reiterated Bureau observation policy. As they parted under the floodlights, their formality softened—June invited first names, and Tucker told her to call him “Tucker.”