Dino looked intently toward the shore. “We’re grasping at straws,” he said.
“I know,” Stone replied. “But I don’t know what else to do.”
Chapter 48
STONE AND DINO ARRIVED back at the dock, tired and cold, a little after seven o’clock. They put out bumpers and made the picnic boat fast, then went into the house. Everybody was sitting around looking disconsolate.
Lance got up and went into the little office, silently waving Stone to follow him.
“What’s up?” Stone asked.
“I’ve heard from our ex-Boston cop,” he said. “He found nothing new in Caleb Stone’s background, but something cropped up on his two sons, Eben and Enos. You remember, they had a sealed juvenile record.”
“Yes. Was he able to crack it?”
“He was. The twins were arrested when they were thirteen for torturing and killing small animals, neighborhood pets.”
“That’s a marker for later criminal behavior,” Stone said.
“Yes, but there hasn’t been any further criminal behavior. The boys got a year’s probation, the family moved to another neighborhood and it was over.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes. You asked me to check with the Yale campus police and the New Haven force.”
“Right. Anything turn up?”
“Same as before with the Yale cops: They’ve had no problems with the twins. Neither has New Haven.”
“But?”
“But, you were on the money about something else: There are four unsolved cases of kidnapping, rape and murder of women in New Haven over the past two years, none of them students. Three were townies, girls who hung out in local bars, and one was a young housewife.”
“Is there anything to connect them to the twins?”
“No, there’s nothing to connect them to anybody, so calling the twins suspects is a real stretch. You can’t accuse them of four murders because they harmed some animals when they were kids.”
Stone picked up the phone and called Sergeant Young’s cell phone.
“This is Young.”
“It’s Stone Barrington. You have a list, don’t you, of everybody who’s present on the island and those who have left?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Will you look up Caleb Stone’s family? I’d like to know where they all are.”
“Just a minute.”
Stone could hear papers being shuffled.
Young came back on the line. “Caleb Stone and his wife are at home on the island; his twin sons left five days ago to participate in a yacht race in Newport, Rhode Island.”
“Has the location of the twins been confirmed?”
“We confirmed that they took the ferry, but nothing after that.”
“Will you see if you can confirm their location for every day since they left the island?”
“And this is important why?”
“We’ve learned that the boys have a juvenile record for torturing animals.”
“That’s not good.”
“We’ve also learned that the City of New Haven has four unsolved murders of local women over the past two years. The boys are students at Yale.”
“Yes, I know. Can they connect any of the murdered women to the twins?”
“They have no suspects.”
“I’ve pretty much eliminated the twins as suspects here because of their absence from the island.”
“I’d very much like to know if their presence in Newport can be confirmed.”
“So would I. I’ll call Mr. Stone and find out how to reach them.”
“Thank you, Sergeant.”
Young hung up.
“What do you think?” Lance asked.
“I think this theory is too thin to mention to Ham; he’d want to hunt down the boys. Still, we don’t have anything else to go on, so this lead, however slim, needs to be run down, and Young is on it.”
“Oh,” Lance said, picking up some acetates, “we’ve got the thermal images for last night.”
“Let’s take them into the study; everybody needs to be involved, especially Ham. He’s worrying me.”
They left the little office.
“We’ve got last night’s satellite thermal images of the island,” Lance said.
Everybody gathered around the coffee table, and Lance spread them out and pointed as he talked. “As you can see, at three-twenty-six a.m., when these images were captured, the public parts of town are empty of warm bodies: The yacht club, the Dark Harbor Store, the dining room at the inn are all empty. Everybody is in bed, pretty much.”
Ham pointed at a warm spot. “Is that a car?” he asked.
“Yes, probably a police car on patrol,” Lance replied.
“What is all this telling us?” Ham asked.
“That people are where they’re supposed to be. Nobody’s out prowling the island, kidnapping people. They’re all at home in bed.”
“A lot of empty houses,” Stone said.
“That’s because so many people have left the island,” Lance pointed out.
Mabel Hotchkiss came into the room and announced dinner.
They had finished dinner and were on coffee when the phone rang. Stone took it in the study.
“It’s Tom Young,” the sergeant said.
“What did you find out?”
“I called Caleb Stone and got a cell phone number for the twins, then I called the number and got voice mail instead of an answer.”
“So we know nothing more about their whereabouts?”
“Not exactly. Eben called me back a few minutes later and reported that they were off Martha’s Vineyard in a race around the Vineyard, Nantucket and Block Island, then back to Newport. They started this morning.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I had no reason not to,” Young said.
“If the race didn’t start until this morning, then where have they been for the past four days?”
“According to Eben, in Newport, getting the boat ready for the race and partying. I called the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, who are running the race, and the twins are listed as crew on the yacht
Hotshot,
which is owned by a friend of theirs. They have a crew of six aboard.”
“Did anybody remember seeing them in Newport before this morning?”
“Nobody at the yacht club. The boat was docked at a marina in town, and I’ve asked the Newport police to go down there and see if any of the staff remember seeing a pair of large identical twins there the past few days. They’ll get back to me.”
“Thanks, Sergeant. I’d like to know what you hear.”
“I’ll call you when I know something.” Young hung up.
The others straggled into the study from dinner, Lance first.
“That was Young,” Stone said. “He talked to one of the twins; they’re aboard a yacht off Martha’s Vineyard. He’s asked the Newport police for help in placing them in the town over the past four days, and he’ll get back to us when he hears something.”
Dino played bartender for after-dinner drinks.
Stone didn’t know whether to hope his two young cousins were involved in all this, but he wanted
something
to happen.
Chapter 49
HOLLY FOUGHT TO stay awake. She had a plan now, and she had to have her wits about her when the guy came back to feed and empty her. She tried remembering things; that kind of mental activity might keep her awake. She tried remembering the names of everybody in her high school graduation class. There were only sixty of them at the small military high school in Germany, when Ham was still in the army.
She went through the girls first; they were the most difficult. The boys’ names came quicker, starting with Burt Bonner, the athlete on whom she had bestowed her virtue when she was eighteen— bestowed it on him a number of times, in fact. She tried remembering the details of each bestowal; that kept her awake.
Then she heard, or rather felt, the footsteps on the stairs. The house must be fairly rickety, she thought, if she could feel footsteps. He went through his routine, but when he ripped off the tape over her mouth, she was ready for him.
“I have over a million dollars in an offshore bank account,” she said quickly.
He crammed the chocolate bar into her mouth anyway.
Holly spat it out. “It’s yours. I can wire-transfer it to any bank account in the world in seconds. You can open an account offshore on the Internet. It’s a million two hundred thousand dollars. You can go anywhere in the world on that. This is untraceable money. An offshore bank will give you a credit card that draws on your balance; you can use it anywhere in the world.”
He poured water into her mouth, crammed the candy bar in again, and retaped. Then he went back downstairs.
Did the guy live downstairs and she couldn’t hear him because of the plugs in her ears? Or did he live somewhere else and just visit her here?
At least she had given him something to think about. Maybe greed was more powerful than sex or killing or whatever reason he had taken her. She dozed off again. Even the memory of Burt Bonner couldn’t keep her awake.
STONE WAS STARTING to get cabin fever hanging around the house, waiting for something to happen. “I’m going to go and get the papers,” he said to the group in the study. “Anybody need anything?”
Nobody said a word.
Stone left the house and drove the station wagon into Dark Harbor. He went into the Dark Harbor Shop, bought the
Times
and the Boston papers, then sat down at the counter and ordered some ice cream. He was absorbed in the front page of the
Times
when he heard a deep voice behind him.
“Let me have a box of Snickers bars,” the familiar voice said.
Stone turned around to find Caleb Stone standing there.
“A whole box?” the girl behind the counter asked. “That’s twenty-four bars.”
“My wife likes them,” Caleb said. “Good morning, Stone.”
Caleb didn’t look well. He was pale, and he seemed to have lost some weight.
“Good morning, Caleb. How are you?”
“So-so, I guess. You?”
“All right.”
“Bad business about all these murders.”
“Yes, it is.”
“We’re staying home with the doors locked,” Caleb said.
“The boys, too?”
“No, they’re on a yacht race somewhere off Newport. They left before it got really bad here."
“How are they doing in the race? Have you heard from them?”
“Got a call this morning,” Caleb replied. “They were well up in the fleet, they said.”
“When will they be back?”
“The race won’t finish for another couple of days; they get into Nantucket tonight, where they’ll have a lay day, then they’ll start the return leg the day after tomorrow.” Caleb signed a charge ticket, picked up his box of candy bars and gave a little wave. “See you later, Stone.”
“Right, Caleb.” Stone finished his ice cream, then headed back to the house.
He found Lance working in Dick’s little office. He picked tip the phone and dialed Sergeant Young’s cell phone.
“This is Young.”
“Sergeant, it’s Stone Barrington.”
“Good morning.”
“Good morning. I just saw Caleb Stone in the Dark Harbor Shop and he tells me the twins’ yacht gets into Nantucket tonight, and they have a lay day there tomorrow. Can you get the local police to check quietly if they’re actually aboard the boat?”
“I’ll make a call,” Young said.
“Will you let me know the result?”
“Be glad to.” Young said goodbye and hung up.
Lance looked up from the computer. “You’re still pursuing the twins angle?”
“What else have I got to pursue?” Stone said.
“Good point. I’m just reading through the notes of the various agents who checked into the Russian mob threat against Dick.”
“You’re still pursuing that lead?”
“What else have I got to pursue?” Lance asked. “It’s not as implausible as you might think.”
“Well, if it’s true, it means we have two killers: one of Dick and his family and possibly Don Blown, and one of the women.”
“Unlikely, isn’t it?”
“But not impossible,” Stone said.
Chapter 50
SERGEANT YOUNG’S CALL was forwarded to the cell phone of Lieutenant Jake Potter in Nantucket, who was sitting in a squad car in the middle of the village, watching tourists turn their ankles on the cobblestones. “Lieutenant Potter,” he drawled into the phone.
“Lieutenant, this is Sergeant Tom Young of the Maine State Police.”
“Morning, Sergeant, how’s the weather in Maine today?”
“A little foggy.”
“What can I do for you?”
“I don’t know if you’ve heard about it, but we’ve had a series of murders on the island of Islesboro.”
“I read the Boston papers.”
“In connection with that investigation, I’m concerned about the whereabouts of two young men, twin brothers, named Eben and Enos Stone. They may be aboard a yacht in Nantucket. They sailed from Newport yesterday.”
“As part of the race?”
“That’s right.”
“If you want me to arrest them we’re going to need a fugitive warrant; you can fax it to us.”
“It won’t be necessary to arrest them,” Young said. “Right now, I just need to determine whether they’re actually aboard that boat.”
“Description?”
“Identical twins, blond hair, tall—maybe six-three or six-four— over two hundred pounds, muscular.”
“Well, I’m glad I don’t have to arrest them.”
Young chuckled. “It may come to that yet.”
“Name of the boat?”
“Hotshot.”
“Spell.”
“Hotel, oscar, tango, sierra, hotel, oscar, tango.”
“Length?”
“I’m afraid I don’t have that information.”
“Skipper’s name?”
“Don’t know.”
“Home port?”
“Maybe Newport, but I’m not at all sure.”
“That was Eldon and Elmer who?”
“No, that’s Eben and Enos Stone. And Lieutenant, if you can find out if they’re aboard without letting them know you’re checking, I’d appreciate it. I don’t want them to run.”
“What do you want me to do if they try to run?”
“If they do, please try to find out where they’re going and call me as soon as possible.” Young gave the man his cell phone number.
“I could detain them on some charge or other, maybe dumping their holding tank in the marina.”
“I don’t think that would help. Anyway, it’s not their boat.”
“I could think of something else.”
“Lieutenant, their father is a big-time Boston lawyer; I don’t think that would be helpful. I just need to know if they’re actually present on Nantucket.”