by Dark Harbor
“That’s just the point, I don’t want to tell you anything, but maybe I should. It’s just that you are a very moral person, and if you thought I had killed Vance you’d never look at me the same way again.”
“You’re starting to worry me, Arrington.”
“I don’t want you to worry. Let’s just say that, if I had killed Vance, I would have done it for very good reasons and to protect myself and Peter. Could you believe that of me?”
“I believe that you would not murder your husband, but that if you did, there would have been some justifiable reason, yes.”
“More than justifiable,” she said. “Imperative. And if I had done that and the facts had been presented in court, I would very likely have been acquitted, but it would have destroyed Peter’s life. So my decision would have been between that and keeping quiet and risking conviction. That would have been an impossible situation.”
“What are you saying, Arrington?”
“I’m not saying anything, Stone. This is all hypothetical, don’t you see?”
“All right.”
“Then let’s leave it at that,” Arrington said. “It would not improve our relationship to go any further, and I don’t want anything to change.”
Stone thought about that. “As you wish,” he said finally. “Let’s leave it at that.”
Arrington crawled under the covers, snuggled close to Stone and rested her head on his shoulder. “Then let’s never speak of it again,” she said, fondling him.
The phone rang.
“Shit,” Stone said.
“Who could that be at this hour?”
Stone reached over her and picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“It’s Ed Rawls. They found Janey.”
“Is she all right?”
“She was floating facedown in Dark Harbor.”
“Oh, God,” Stone breathed.
“She’d been beaten, raped and strangled.”
“Are the state cops on top of this?”
“They’re all over it. They’ve taken the body back to Augusta for autopsy.”
“When did they find her?”
“At sundown. They kept it as quiet as they could until they told the parents and got the body off the island.”
“And you think this is connected to Don?”
“I think Janey knew something about somebody, and she told Don, and that person killed them both. I just can’t see it any other way. I think all this Kirov horseshit is just that, and we ought to forget about it.”
“I’ll let Lance know in the morning.”
“I’m sorry I called you so late.”
“It’s all right. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Stone hung up.
Arrington was staring at him intently. “Who’s dead?”
“A seventeen-year-old girl,” Stone said. “Her name was Janey. She was kidnapped, raped and murdered.”
“Peter and I are flying back to New York tomorrow.” She reached for the phone.
“Don’t bother calling Centurion; I’ll fly you back myself.”
“All right.” She turned her back to him and pulled her knees up into the fetal position.
“I’m sorry about this,” Stone said.
“It’s not your fault, Stone.”
They didn’t speak again until morning.
31
BY MIDMORNING THEY were off the Islesboro landing field and headed southwest. An hour and a half later they touched down at Teterboro, New Jersey, and taxied up to Atlantic Aviation, next to a chartered jet waiting for Arrington and Peter.
“I wish you’d stay longer,” Stone said to Arrington as her luggage was being transferred.
“Peter wants to get back to his pony,” she said, “and I’m redesigning the gardens at the main house, so there’s lots of work for me to do.” She kissed him. “Take care of yourself.”
Stone knelt and gave Peter a hug and watched them board the jet, then walked with Dino through the terminal building to the parking lot, where Joan, his secretary, was waiting with his car. Half an hour later, they were back at Stone’s house.
He went to his office and wrote a check to the Samuel Bernard Foundation and gave it to Joan, along with the file on Dick’s estate and a letter to his old mentor. “Please have this hand-delivered to Sam Bernard,” he said. “I want it to pass through his hands on the way to the foundation. Then book a table at Elaine’s and call Lance Cabot and tell him I’d like to have dinner with him and Holly Barker.”
ELAINE’S AND ELAINE were as ever. Stone and Dino shook some hands, then sat down at their usual table, waiting for Lance and Holly.
Elaine came over and sat down. “So, you couldn’t stand it up there any longer, huh?”
“It was very nice up there, but I had to fly Arrington back.”
“So, you couldn’t stand it up there with Arrington, huh?”
“You’re not gonna win this one,” Dino said.
“I give up,” Stone said, raising his hands in surrender. “I just couldn’t stand it up there any longer.”
“That’s what I thought,” Elaine said, then moved on to another table.
Lance and Holly arrived, they ordered drinks, then Stone got down to business. “It looks as though our theory of a work-related death for Dick and his family may have been wrong.”
“I’m not convinced of that,” Lance said.
“There’s more news. After Don Brown’s death, his niece, a seventeen-year-old named Janey Harris, was kidnapped, raped and murdered on the island. Ed Rawls thinks the two deaths are connected, that Janey told Don something that got both of them killed. Ed thinks it’s local, and I have to agree with him.”
“And how about the Stone family’s deaths. Does he think those are connected, too?”
“Dick’s daughter was eighteen, and the two girls had to have known each other. Maybe whatever Janey told Don she had told Esme Stone, too.”
“And the killer wiped out the whole family to protect himself?”
“It makes more sense than the Russian mob theory,” Stone said.
Lance seemed unconvinced. “For somebody who used to be a cop, it’s odd that you would form a theory on so little evidence,” he said. “This is an air theory, like air guitar is making music.”
Dino spoke up. “I’ve seen solutions of a lot of murder cases that were based on less, in the beginning. An investigator needs a theory, if only to have it proved wrong. You have to work with the evidence you’ve got, even if it’s thin.”
“Lance,” Stone said, “have you heard anything from your friend at Langley about who Don Brown wanted the background check on?”
“Not yet,” Lance said. “It could be days or weeks before I hear from him.”
The waiter brought menus, and they ordered.
When they were halfway through dinner, Lance spoke up again. “My people are not going to buy your local theory.”
“It’s Ed Rawls’s theory,” Stone said.
“That won’t matter to them. They’re not going to be distracted by the deaths of Don Brown and his niece. They won’t be inclined to believe that a high-ranking officer like Dick was killed by some information shared between two teenaged girls.”
“Lance, the facts surrounding what happened to Dick and his family are not going to be shaped by what Langley believes. They are what they are, and you need to explain that to them.”
“You obviously haven’t had much experience with large bureaucratic organizations,” Lance replied.
Stone laughed. “I worked for the NYPD for fourteen years.”
Lance laughed. “Touché.”
“Too many murder investigations are shaped by what the hierarchy wants to believe,” Dino said, “especially in high-profile cases. When you’re working a case, you have to ignore that, or you’ll come up with the wrong result.”
Holly spoke for the first time. “Who has motive?” she asked.
“Nobody,” Stone replied.
“How about Dick’s brother?”
“Caleb didn’t have a motive.”
“Our background check showed he was perpetually short of cash. That’ll do it in most murders.”
“Yes, but Caleb didn’t inherit from Dick, who changed his will.”
“Did the brother know Dick had changed his will? I mean, you only got the new will a couple of days before Dick’s murder.”
“You have a point,” Stone said. “It came as a surprise to Caleb when I told him. I’ll grant you he had motive, and he had a key to the house, so I’ll give you means, too, but he didn’t have opportunity. The state police put him in Boston at the time of the murders; he and his family didn’t arrive on Islesboro until the day after.”
“And how good are the state police? They didn’t do such a hot job on the first investigation of Dick’s murder, did they?”
“Again, you have a point,” Stone said.
Holly turned to Lance. “You know, we have an ex–Boston cop, Bob O’Neal, in our group. Why don’t I ask him to use his contacts at the Boston PD to reinvestigate the brother’s alibi? Maybe Caleb is smarter than we’re giving him credit for.”
“Good idea,” Stone said.
“All right,” Lance said, “but tell Bob not to make a career of it.”
“Are you going back up to Maine, Stone?” Holly asked.
“Not until I get more to go on,” Stone replied. “I’ve got to make a living, after all.”
“If you go back, maybe Lance will give me some time to go with you. I’d really like to get my teeth into this one.”
“Maybe,” Lance said. “You want to use vacation time?”
“Remember, the Agency has a stake in this.”
“Oh, all right. Get your desk cleared.”
“I’m happy to have all the help I can get,” Stone said, thinking he’d be happy to have Holly up there, in any case.
32
STONE WAS AWAKENED by the telephone too early. He glanced at the bedside clock: 6:30 A.M. He picked up the phone. “Hello?” he croaked.
“It’s Ed Rawls.”
“And good morning to you, Ed.”
“Did I wake you?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry. You better get back up here, Stone.”
“What’s going on?”
“All hell has broken loose, that’s what.”
Stone pressed the button that raised the head of his bed and rearranged himself. “What do you mean?”
“The people on the island, both locals and summer folks, are up in arms. They had a meeting at the yacht club yesterday.”
“And what happened at the meeting?”
“Mostly they just aired their complaints.”
“About what?”
“Lack of police protection, mostly. They’ve sent the state police a request to have officers stationed on the island round the clock until this situation is resolved.”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
“What’s not a good idea is they’re arming themselves. Sergeant Young told me they’ve had something like a couple of dozen applications for carry licenses, the most ever in one day from one town, and this is a village. Several carloads of people went over to Ellsworth yesterday afternoon.”
“Is there something ominous about Ellsworth?”
“No, it’s just that the only gun shop in this part of the state is in Ellsworth, a place called Phil’s. There are more guns than people in Maine, but for some reason, not very many gun shops.”
“I’m trying to find this alarming, Ed. Are you afraid they’re going to start shooting each other?”
“Something like that. Everybody’s really on edge. They were all shocked by the killings of Dick and his family and Don, but Janey’s murder has really got them spooked. A bunch of people have just packed up and left.”
“I can understand that, Ed, but why does that make it important for me to get back up there right away?”
Rawls cleared his throat. “Well, your name came up at the meeting.”
“In what regard?”
“Somebody, I forget who, asked a question that implied that you might have had something to do with Dick’s murder, since you inherited his house. The guy was shouted down, but the thing is, the idea is in the air now.”
“Oh, swell. Did somebody mention that I was in New York at the time of the murders and that I didn’t even know about Dick’s murder until the day after?”
“I said you weren’t on the island that night, but that just started a discussion about how anybody could get onto the island in a boat. I think you need to be seen up here dealing with this. There’s another meeting at five o’clock this afternoon, and I think you ought to be here for it.”
Stone clicked on the TV and went to the Weather Channel just in time to see the national radar displayed. “All right. I’ll be there,” he said. “But I don’t know what I can do to placate them at this point.”
“Just being there will let them know that you’re not afraid to show your face. That’ll mean something.”
“All right, Ed. I’ll see you this afternoon.” Stone hung up and called Holly.
“Hello?” She didn’t sound sleepy.
“Good morning. It’s Stone.”
“Good morning.”
“I just got a call from Ed Rawls. He thinks I’d better get back up there today, before the merry villagers torch my house and slay my cattle.”
“What?”
Stone explained as best he could what he didn’t understand himself. “Can you be ready to go at, say, one o’clock?”
“I’m sure I can. I’ll talk to Lance.”
“Pick you up at one?”
“I’ll come to your house.”
“Okay, bye.” Stone hung up and called Dino.
“I’ve got to go back to Maine this afternoon.” He explained the situation. “You want to go?”
“Can’t do it; a couple of big cases landed on my desk while I was gone, and I have to deal with them. Maybe later.”
“Go back to sleep.” Stone hung up and struggled out of bed.
THE MIRAGE TOUCHED down on the Islesboro airfield at 3:30 that afternoon, and he was surprised to find not a single airplane parked on the ramp. When he had departed the day before, there had been at least half a dozen there.
Seth Hotchkiss met them in the station wagon. “Glad you’re back,” he said, and that was all he said.
The drive through Dark Harbor was a little spooky; no cars were on the street or parked in front of the shop. He and Holly parked, went inside and found Jimmy Hotchkiss at his desk in the back office. He was wearing a gun on his belt.
“Hi, Jimmy,” Stone said.
“Hello, Stone. I thought you’d left the island.”
“I just flew Dino down to the city and brought back another friend.” He introduced Holly.
Jimmy stood up and shook her hand. “I’m glad you’re back, Stone,” he said. “You know about the meeting this afternoon?”
“Yes. Ed Rawls called me.”
“I think you should be there.”
“I will be. Where is everybody? The village is deserted, and there are no airplanes at the airport.”
“A lot of folks ended their summer yesterday,” Jimmy said. “We’ve got a couple of state cops due in this afternoon. I found them a rental, so they’re going to stay on the island for the rest of the summer. They’ll be at the meeting.”
“See you there,” Stone said, and left.
SETH PUT STONE’S BAGS in the master bedroom and Holly’s in Esme’s room; Stone didn’t correct him. The phone rang.
Stone picked it up. “Hello?”
“It’s Lance. Put Holly on an extension.”
Stone paged Holly, and she picked up. “Okay, we’re both here.”
“I finally got an answer from Langley about the inquiry Don Brown made right before his death.”
“And?”
“He wanted to know if Caleb Stone’s twin sons, Eben and Enos, had criminal records.”
&
nbsp; “Did he say why he wanted to know?”
“No. He just asked that they be checked. He stayed on the phone while they ran the search.”
“What did they come up with?”
“Zip. They checked in both Boston and in New Haven, since the twins are at Yale. They’re clean. Even the campus police didn’t have a bad word to say about them. They’re apparently upright lads.”
“One more dead end, then?”
“Looks that way.”
“Thanks, Lance.”
“Have you heard anything else since you got back?”
“A bunch of people have packed up and left for the summer; a bunch of others have bought guns.”
“Swell.”
“There’s a town meeting at five o’clock, and the state cops are supposed to be there. Maybe they’ll have something new.”
“Good luck,” Lance said, then hung up.
33
STONE WALKED OVER to the yacht club, passing a group of children playing in the parking lot watched over by two women. Nobody was taking any chances.
Inside, people were gathered in little groups, talking quietly but earnestly. Stone shook the hands of a few people he’d met before. He waved at Caleb Stone, sitting at a table with his twin sons. A moment later, Sergeant Young of the state police and another uniformed officer walked into the club, and the commodore rapped on a table with a beer bottle for quiet.
“Good afternoon,” he said. “Sergeant Young from the state police is here and would like to speak to us.” The commodore stepped aside, and Young replaced him.
“Hey, everybody,” he said. “I’ve met a lot of you, but I’d like to introduce my colleague, Corporal Tom Best. Tom and I are going to be living on the island for the rest of the summer, or until there’s an arrest for the crimes that have occurred here. We’ve had a telephone line installed.” He gave them the number, and many people wrote it down. “You can call us anytime, night or day, if you have anything important to report. Make that anything at all, whether it seems important or not; we need all the information we can get.
“Now, I want to bring you up to date on our investigation, tell you what we’re doing. We’re running criminal record checks on everybody on the island, full-time and part-time residents, and yes, this means you, no exceptions. We’re particularly interested to know if anybody on the island has ever been arrested or convicted of a crime of a sexual nature, so if there’s something like that in your background or the background of a person you know, I urge you to come to me directly about it, rather than wait for the record to turn up.