“Further, I want each of you to give serious thought about the circumstances under which you might use a firearm. It would be best if you had a plan of behavior if someone should enter your home, or if you should otherwise feel the need to use a weapon. Tomorrow afternoon at three, Corporal Best and I are going to hold a seminar here at the yacht club on the storage and use of firearms, and you should bring your weapons with you. Do not, however, bring any ammunition. Before you leave your home, check to see that your weapon is unloaded. We will only do dry firing during the seminar. Any other questions?”
From a rear corner of the room came Ed Rawls’s distinctive voice. Stone had not seen him there. “At yesterday’s meeting somebody expressed some curiosity about Stone Barrington’s role or interest in all of this. Maybe Stone would like to address that now.”
Sergeant Young turned toward Stone. “Mr. Barrington?”
“Thank you, Sergeant,” Stone said. “Dick was my first cousin, my mother and his father being brother and sister. On the day that Dick and his family were murdered, I was in New York City. I didn’t learn of their deaths until the following evening, when a colleague of Dick’s told me the news.”
“I should say that we’ve verified Mr. Barrington’s whereabouts at the time of the murders,” Young said.
“I want to tell you all I know,” Stone said. “Shortly before Dick’s death I received a package from him containing a letter hiring me as his attorney and naming me as his executor, as well as an envelope to be opened in the event of his death. When I opened the envelope, after being informed that he had died, I found a properly executed will, and since I am under no obligation to keep its contents confidential, I will tell you what his bequests were. Dick left the use of his house to me and my heirs in perpetuity; if I choose to sell the house, the proceeds would revert to his estate.” He thought it better not to mention the exclusion of Caleb and his family from ownership of the house. “There were a number of personal bequests to friends and relatives on Barbara’s side of the family, and the residue of the estate was left to a charitable foundation. Additionally, there were two large insurance policies in the estate: Three-quarters of their combined value went to Caleb Stone, and the other quarter to the foundation.”
“Why did Dick leave his house to you?” somebody asked.
“Quite frankly, I don’t know, and Dick offered no explanation in his letter to me. I had seen him only once, for dinner, about eight years ago, since the summer I spent on this island when we were both eighteen. Dick said he planned to see me on his next trip to New York, when he might have explained things more fully, but, of course, that trip never took place.” Stone looked around. “Does anyone have any other questions?” Apparently, there were none.
Sergeant Young spoke up again. “I should tell you, if you don’t already know, that Mr. Barrington spent fourteen years with the New York City Police Department, many of them as a homicide detective, and he has been very helpful to me in my investigation. Any other questions?” No one spoke. “Then, unless the commodore has something else, that concludes this meeting. I’ll be seeing you soon.”
The crowd broke up, and people moved into the parking lot to collect their children and their cars. Stone shook a few hands, then started back toward his house.
Ed Rawls caught up with him. “That was good,” he said. “You’ve nipped a lot of rumors in the bud.”
“I hope so. By the way, Lance Cabot found out who Don Brown wanted checked for criminal records.”
“Who?”
“The Stone boys, Eben and Enos.”
“And?”
“They were squeaky clean, both in Boston and New Haven, where they’re in college. The boys got an especially good report from the Yale campus police. So it’s a dead end.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Rawls said, “but how come Don ran the check on them? He must have had a reason.”
“I suppose he did,” Stone said, “but there’s no way to know what it was.” He looked at Rawls closely. “Ed, you seem depressed.”
“I’m not depressed,” Rawls said. “I’m angry, angry at what was done to these murdered people, all of whom were friends of mine. If I met the man who did this face to face, I’m not sure I could account for my actions.”
“I understand your feelings,” Stone said, “but what Sergeant Young had to say about firearms was important. If you take a shot at someone the consequences could be worse for you than for your victim. I’ve seen this happen before: Some citizen fires a weapon at a supposed criminal, kills or wounds him, then he has to deal with criminal charges, followed by a lawsuit. Believe me, it’s not a position you’d want to put yourself in.”
“I hear you,” Rawls said. “See you later.” He turned and walked back toward the yacht club parking lot.
Stone hoped to God Rawls had truly heard him.
Chapter 34
STONE TOOK HOLLY TO the Dark Harbor Inn that night for dinner. He wanted to wipe away all the tension surrounding the murders on the island, if only for the evening.
“So, how is the new job working out?” he asked.
She took a sip of her wine. “Without getting too specific, very well.”
“Do you like working with Lance?”
“I do. He can be autocratic at times, but that’s to be expected, given the position he’s in.”
“Which is?”
“Let’s just say that he has a lot of responsibility. But most of the time, he’s open to the ideas of others, and he’s inclined to delegate responsibility among those he trusts, and that seems to include me. I’m lucky, in that being pretty new on this job, I’m getting a lot more responsibility than I would if I had come out of training and started work at Langley.”
“From what I hear Lance is held in high regard at the Agency, and that should rub off on you.”
“That would be nice.”
They ate silently for a moment, then Holly spoke up again. “Arrington was up here for a visit, wasn’t she?”
“Well, yes.”
“Not a very long one, though. What happened?"
“She was upset about the murders: Janey Harris’s body was found while she was here.”
“Is that all?”
“Well, she and I pretty much agreed that there’s no permanent relationship in store for us.”
Holly smiled. “That’s awfully nice to hear. I’d hate to think that I’m up here only as an investigator.”
“Don’t worry, you’re not.” He poured her some more wine.
“I got a little worried when you let Seth put our luggage in different rooms.”
“I was just catering to Seth’s sensibilities; I didn’t want to shock him.”
“Can Seth hear what goes on in the house?”
“No, his place is well out of earshot.”
“That’s good,” Holly said. “I wouldn’t want him to hear your pitiful cries tonight.”
Stone laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, Seth and his wife are on the mainland tonight. They went to dinner at her sister’s house in Rockland, and the last ferry is at seven p.m., so they’re staying the night. We can lock down the house and not worry about being disturbed.”
“The best of all possible worlds,” Holly said.
THEY WERE DRIVING HOME when Stone’s cell phone vibrated. “Hello?”
“It’s Ed Rawls.”
“What’s up, Ed?”
“I thought you ought to know that Janey’s mother just told me her daughter’s diary disappeared.”
“When?”
“She can’t be sure, but since her death. She saw her in her room writing in it the afternoon before the evening she disappeared.”
“Could she have had it in a pocket or purse?”
“I asked about that: It was big, about eight by ten, so probably not. Her mother thinks someone came into the house, searched her room and stole it.”
“So whatever Janey might have told Don Brown might have been in her diary?”
“Right. Do you know if Esme had a diary?”
“As a matter of fact, I do and I’ve got it in a safe place.”
“Have you read it?”
“No, but in light of the theft of Janey’s diary I’m going to read it tonight.”
“Let me know if there’s anything relevant in it, will you?”
“I’ll call you in the morning.” Stone hung up.
“What’s happened?” Holly asked.
“Janey Harris’s diary has disappeared, but I’ve got Esme’s at home in the safe.”
“And Rawls thinks there was something in the diary that might have led to her murder?”
THEY WERE HOME in ten minutes. Stone unlocked the door and stepped into the entrance hall, ready to tap the alarm code into the keypad there. He stopped. “Didn’t I set the security system before we left?”
“Yes, I saw you put in the code.”
Stone looked at the small screen on the keypad. “Well, it’s not armed now.”
“Who could have disarmed it?”
“Only Seth and his wife would have the code, and they left before we did.”
“Could you have entered the code incorrectly?”
“Possibly. Maybe I got a digit wrong.”
“Or maybe not,” Holly said. She reached into her purse and came out with a Walther PPKS.
Stone unholstered the little .45 on his belt. “Let’s have a look around,” he said quietly. “We’ll go together, room by room, starting upstairs.”
The two crept up the stairs, listening. They did a standard police search, entering each room, checking each closet, any place that could hide a man. Stone paid particular attention to Esme’s room and the little bedroom across the hall that she had used as a study. This was where Peter had found her diary. There was no sign that anything had been disturbed.
They went back downstairs and searched the kitchen and dining room and the garage, then went into the study.
“Uh, oh,” Stone said.
“What?”
Stone nodded toward the back door. The vacuum cleaner sat just inside the door to the terrace. He went over and opened the canister. “Bag’s gone,” he said.
“Just like before.”
“Exactly like before.”
“But nothing seems disturbed.”
“Let’s look more closely,” Stone said. They worked the whole room, looking for some small sign that someone had been there.
“As far as I can tell,” Holly said, “everything is exactly as it was before.”
Stone tried the door to the terrace. “Locked.”
“Didn’t you say that Dick had some sort of special locks?”
“Yes. They use a key that you can only get from the manufacturer.”
Holly put her gun back into her handbag and came out with a small leather case. “You said the door to the terrace was locked?”
“Yes.”
She walked over to the door and tried it, then got down on her knees and opened the little case, which held a selection of lock picks. “Standard issue,” she said. “I’m supposed to be able to open just about anything.”
“You did a pretty good job on Dick’s safe, as I remember.”
“This is going to be harder,” she said, then went to work.
Stone walked around the study again and opened Dick’s secret office. It seemed undisturbed. The weapons were still in their cabinet. He went back and watched Holly work.
She stood up and put her lock picks away. “I can’t do it,” she said. “I mean, I’m not a genius at this, but the training I got at the Farm made me a lot better than all but the best burglars. These locks are made by a company called Assa, and we were told about them in our training. The U.S. Government uses them in special security situations.”
“I want to read Esme’s diary,” Stone said. He went to the cabinet that held the safe and opened it. “Holy shit,” he said.
“What?”
“It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?”
“The safe. Come and look at this.”
There were four crudely cut holes in the base of the cabinet, where the safe had been bolted down.
“He used a hammer and a chisel,” she said. “Took the whole thing right out. I guess he couldn’t open it.”
“Right,” Stone said.
“And if he couldn’t open that little safe, he certainly couldn’t have opened the terrace door,” Holly said.
“Then he must have used a key,” Stone replied.
“Does anybody else have a key?” She asked.
“Not as far as I know. Caleb Stone had one, but he returned it to me.”
“And he couldn’t have had it duplicated,” Holly said, “since only the manufacturer has the special key blanks required.”
“Right,” Stone said.
Chapter 35
STONE WOKE SLOWLY the following morning. Holly was lying naked next to him on her belly, and his hand rested on her ass. He found it companionable to wake up with her next to him, warm and bare.
He ran a finger up her ass, between the cheeks.
“Hmmmmm,” she muttered. “More.”
“More what?”
“Just more.”
He rolled over and lay on top of her.
“You’re nicely heavy,” she said.
He was growing in size, and in response she opened her legs wider. “More,” she said.
“Where?”
“Anywhere you like.”
She was wet, and he slipped inside her.
“Good choice,” she said.
Stone moved slowly in and out.
“That’s so good,” she breathed, pushing back against his belly.
“It’s better than that,” Stone said, close to her ear. “You’re in wonderful shape.”
Holly continued pushing rhythmically against him. “They toned us up at the Farm.”
“Thank you, Farm.”
Holly rolled over. “I want to be able to get my hands on you,” she said, taking him in her hand and reinserting him. She pulled her knees up and rested her ankles on his shoulders. “There,” she said. “Now.”
Within a minute they had come noisily and lay sweating and panting in each other’s arms.
“What a wonderful way to start the day,” Holly said.
“It makes me want to go right back to sleep,” Stone said.
“Sex renders men unconscious,” she laughed. “I’m quoting you.”
THEY WERE AT BREAKFAST, eating without much conversation. Holly spoke up. “I want to meet this burglar of yours,” she said.
“What, you want a date?”
“Thanks, but I’m all booked up,” she said, kicking him under the table. “No, I’m just surprised you aren’t paying more attention to him.”
“Dino and I eliminated him as a suspect.”
“On what grounds?”
“Since his father’s death and his own release from prison, he’s become a valued member of the community; he’s married with a child; he earns a very good living making very expensive cabinets; and he’s too smart to foul his own nest, especially such a small nest. He also has nothing in his record to indicate that he’s interested in committing crimes of a sexual nature, raping and murdering teenaged girls.”