Chap­ter XVII — The woman in the Alcove begins in the close, tense quar­ters of the dis­trict attorney’s office, where three men sit in qui­et antic­i­pa­tion of news that could shift an entire inves­ti­ga­tion. Sweet­wa­ter, the sharp and agile detec­tive, stands before the dis­trict attor­ney and the inspec­tor with a fresh report, but not before the doors are locked, seal­ing the room in urgent secre­cy. What he reveals changes the tone entirely—his recent infil­tra­tion into Mr. Grey’s life has opened a new front in their case. Dis­guised as a tem­po­rary valet, Sweet­wa­ter fol­lowed Mr. Grey into Maine, not just as a ser­vant, but as an observ­er plant­ed inside a per­son­al mis­sion of sur­veil­lance. Grey, bur­dened and mea­sured, car­ried an unspo­ken urgency, one that seemed to hinge on the qui­et pres­ence of anoth­er man. That man, as Sweet­wa­ter now con­firms, is none oth­er than the elu­sive James Well­go­od.

The detec­tive recounts how he shad­owed Mr. Grey with­out draw­ing sus­pi­cion, offer­ing care and ser­vice while close­ly study­ing his move­ments. In the process, he unearthed a trou­bling dual­i­ty: Well­go­od, known in some cir­cles as a mere stew­ard, was now liv­ing under a rein­vent­ed iden­ti­ty. Far from mod­est employ­ment, the man had rebrand­ed him­self as a pur­vey­or of patent med­i­cine, oper­at­ing a facil­i­ty with claims of inno­va­tion and heal­ing. This rein­ven­tion struck Sweet­wa­ter as less ambi­tion and more smoke­screen. Every cor­ner of Wellgood’s new world was lined with care­ful­ly con­struct­ed lies, each one pol­ished just enough to pass for truth. What made it more dan­ger­ous was the pre­ci­sion of it all—this wasn’t just a man hid­ing; this was a man plan­ning. Sweetwater’s instincts flared. The more respectable the façade, the more des­per­ate he believed the con­ceal­ment must be.

In Maine, Sweet­wa­ter did more than watch. He lis­tened. Locals, par­tic­u­lar­ly a shrewd but chat­ty man named Dick and a well-posi­tioned post­mas­ter, offered bread­crumbs that con­firmed the detective’s fears. Though the con­ver­sa­tions appeared casu­al, every word was col­lect­ed, mea­sured, and stored. Through them, Sweet­wa­ter pieced togeth­er a pat­tern. There were deliv­er­ies that didn’t match pro­duc­tion sched­ules, vis­i­tors who came late and left ear­ly, and a curi­ous absence of com­mu­ni­ty inter­ac­tion despite the manufactory’s promis­es of well­ness. What seemed like an upstart health enter­prise was begin­ning to resem­ble a cov­er oper­a­tion. Yet even with this grow­ing clar­i­ty, Sweet­wa­ter wres­tled with the lim­i­ta­tions of his role. He need­ed to act with­out tip­ping his hand. A sin­gle mis­step could push Well­go­od into hid­ing again—or worse, into action.

Return­ing to Mr. Grey with these find­ings, Sweet­wa­ter chose his words with cau­tion. Grey, nor­mal­ly com­posed, took his meal in silence as the detec­tive relayed the facts. The room remained hushed, the ten­sion between truth and con­se­quence hov­er­ing like a blade wait­ing to fall. Grey’s reac­tion was mea­sured, but his hands betrayed a weight heav­ier than any­thing Sweet­wa­ter had expect­ed. He was not sur­prised. Per­haps he had known more than he let on. Per­haps this mis­sion had nev­er been about uncov­er­ing a stranger’s iden­ti­ty, but about con­firm­ing a truth he already feared. The dynam­ics between Grey and Well­go­od now hint­ed at per­son­al history—grievances and guilt buried beneath years and names.

What makes this chap­ter so com­pelling is its fusion of method­i­cal inves­ti­ga­tion with per­son­al stakes. Sweetwater’s jour­ney into the role of a valet is not just a plot device, but a show­case of his adapt­abil­i­ty and intu­ition. He doesn’t mere­ly fol­low footsteps—he reads silence, inter­prets glances, and deci­phers the unsaid. At the same time, Mr. Grey’s com­posed exte­ri­or begins to crack, reveal­ing not a man chas­ing jus­tice, but pos­si­bly one chas­ing redemp­tion. The lay­ers of this nar­ra­tive deep­en not just through facts, but through the qui­et unrav­el­ing of inten­tions. Sweet­wa­ter is no longer just a detec­tive in pur­suit of a fugi­tive; he is a man stand­ing between two lives defined by secre­cy.

This chap­ter care­ful­ly sets the chess­board for what’s to come. Each char­ac­ter has made their move, yet the endgame remains unclear. With Wellgood’s iden­ti­ty now exposed and Grey’s involve­ment deep­ened, the next con­fronta­tion won’t be just about law—it will be about iden­ti­ty, lega­cy, and truth. And at the cen­ter of it all, the woman in the alcove remains a silent fig­ure whose sto­ry is still unfold­ing, her fate tied to the shad­ows that both Sweet­wa­ter and Grey must now con­front.