"If you do the talking it'll be fine, right?" Contrary to popular belief he is not the worst liar in this room. Might not even be the second worst now, he's been practicing.

“If we look through public records we can look for anything on Portia Sapienza, too, I don’t think we’ve searched for her name yet, and anyone else with the last name Donovan?”

And the party splits.

In the newspaper morgue, Araari finds that Portia Sapienza was a socialite who attended many parties and other events covered in the newspaper's society pages. She died in February of 1934 but her obituary is silent on the cause. 
 
 
 
 
 

Why can't anyone organize libraries in a way that makes any sense at all to Zoe. She starts flipping through things at random, and unsurprisingly fails to turn up anything by this strategy.

Having failed to find any relevant information, the next obvious thing to try is finding a cafe near Donovan's house and loitering there.

Montgomery Donovan lives in a fortified townhouse in northwest Valletta, located on a hill just south of Great Siege Road, overlooking the waters north of Valletta (and Donovan’s yacht). A private garage, underneath the house, is the only access in the rear, aside from windows. The whole affair was constructed in the 17th century and renovated in the early 20th. It’s a structure of solid stones and sturdy bricks, with no windows on the house’s right or left sides except for the topmost fourth storey, which stands higher than the neighboring buildings. She keeps her curtains drawn on all but the fourth story’s front windows.

A dead gull lies rotting in the street, half-crushed by passing cars, its feathers matted and sticky with blood.

Zoe orders a cafe au lait and a newspaper and asks for a pastry recommendation, and sits and sips and reads.

The chauffeur arrives in the early morning; they overhear him say something in English to a man who is probably the valet. It's just logistical stuff about Donovan's plan for the day-- she apparently has a lunch meeting.

Donovan leaves her home in the late morning. She departs on foot, with an entourage of six-to-eight men and one woman, but her car — a silver town car with tinted windows — leaves about 90 minutes after she does and heads southeast. The entourage is dressed in nice suits that do not quite hide their guns.

Araari recognizes the way her guards hold themselves-- they're military trained, ready to fight, and packing heat. (She leans over and tells Zoe this, quietly.)

"Sounds like she may be expecting to run into some trouble at lunch. Or before."

“Or she goes everywhere like this. I’m unsure which possibility is more frightening.”

The cook, valet, and cleaning lady all seem to be live-in staff. Zoe can hear snippets of their conversation, some of which are in languages she knows and some of which are languages she does not; she relays as best she can phonetically, and between her ability to hear things and Araari's ability with languages they discover that the valet speaks English and French; the cleaning lady speaks English and French; the cook speaks English, French, and some language neither of them know; and the driver speaks English, Italian, and some language neither of them know.

During a lull in the eavesdropping: "I kinda wanna see if we can find a way to snoop on Donovan's meeting, but I don't like the look of her escort."

“I would— rather avoid them, yes.” This is an understatement. Araari very much does not want to anger the military-trained guards. “Did they even say where it was—?”

"No, but there's probably not that many places for ten people eight of them armed to get lunch that would fit the tastes of someone who has a yacht. ...assuming they're not having lunch on the yacht, which actually might be a great place for a lunch meeting.

I figure we could look for that car around the fancy part of town, maybe ask around about where she likes to eat? Or maybe just stake out her office or the warehouse or the boat and see if she shows."

“Alright. That—seems reasonable.”

There are gargoyles on top of the townhouse. As Zoe watches, on one of the gargoyles, a mouth briefly forms.

"Uhhhh. Araari. On that gargoyle up there."

Araari does not see ANYTHING on that gargoyle over there??? Are you sure there was something???

"There was a mouth. I saw it open, like it was yawning."

Araari squints at the gargoyle for a bit longer and then shakes her head. “I still don’t see anything. You have exceptional vision.”

"Well. I would be careful about trying to pay Miss Donovan a visit uninvited."

“Certainly.”

Looking closer: "Hey... doesn't that part look like..?"

“—The warding stone? Yes. Look there, too—“ Point. “I assume the other symbols are also protective.”

"Oh huh, I bet you're right. I wonder what she's warding against."

“I recognize one of these—“ Point again. “It’s a ward against the evil eye. And the warding stone meant the person in Dallol couldn’t see me.”

"But if she's part of the cult, why would she want to ward against it?"