45

Stone and Holly sat in the backseat of a police car, headed back toward the inn.

“What the hell happened in there?” Stone whispered.

“Not now,” Holly said.

They sat in silence until they were driven to the inn and deposited at their cottage.

“Now,” Stone said as the police car drove away, “what the hell happened in there?”

“I freed myself from the handcuffs, pissed off duBois and, when he came at me, I put him on the floor and cuffed him.”

“So while I’m playing the lawyer and demanding to see everybody in authority, you’re beating up the guy who was supposed to beat you up?”

“Pretty much.”

“Do you know, I think that’s what got us released so quickly? Sir Winston just loved it!”

“What was he doing there?”

“Tiptree, from the embassy, tried to reach him, couldn’t, and then, as he arrived at police headquarters, so did Sir Winston. He professed to be shocked, shocked that we had been arrested, and you know the rest.”

“Why were we arrested in the first place?”

“My guess is that we were at the top of the list of foreign visitors, so they came after us.”

“DuBois said you were being charged with Croft’s murder, and I was being charged as an accessory.”

“That’s nonsense; he was just bluffing, and you called him on it. I have to tell you, though, I’m not sure what duBois would have done to you once he got some help.”

“Funny,” Holly said, “I didn’t think about that; I just wanted to humiliate him.”

“Holly, it is not a good policy, when arrested in a foreign country, to humiliate your interrogator. That can lead to electroshock therapy, broken bones and a ruptured spleen. Didn’t they mention that to you during your CIA training?”

“No, we didn’t get that far; my training was interrupted by my sudden transfer to New York.”

“Oh.”

“They did say that I would have to return to complete the course, but I think Lance intervened.”

“I think it’s going to be nice to have Lance for a rabbi, now that he has the top operations job. Do you think he’ll bring you to Langley or keep you in the field?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” she replied, “but I think that my future might be somehow connected to our success or failure in nailing Teddy Fay while we’re here.”

“What, exactly, do you mean by ‘nailing’?”

“Sorry, that should read, ‘finding.’ I still don’t know what happens after that.”

“Bill Pepper thinks that either you or he is going to be asked to kill him. Are you ready for that?”

“I certainly am not ready for that; I am not an assassin.”

“Well, we’d better start looking for him.”

“I’d like to shower and change before we do that,” Holly said. “That jail made me feel dirty.”

They went into the cottage and found Dino and Genevieve watching Tiger Woods play golf on TV.

“Hey, you’re alive!” Dino said, embracing them both.

“Thanks for calling in the cavalry,” Stone replied. “They arrived in the nick of time.” He told Dino about what Holly had done to duBois.

“Woman,” Dino said, “you are lucky to be alive.”

“No,” Holly said, “duBois is lucky to be alive. Excuse me, I’m going to shower and change.”

“Me too,” Stone said.

“Oh,” Dino said, holding out the photos of Pemberton, Weatherby and Robertson, “you dropped these.”

Sir Winston Sutherland seated himself in duBois’s chair in Colonel Croft’s large office. The photos on the wall were still those of Croft with various dignitaries; nothing of his replacement’s had been added. He looked up at Colonel duBois, who stood uncomfortably before the desk. “You blithering idiot,” he said.

“Prime Minister…”

“You knew who those people were; Colonel Croft investigated them days ago, and he even sent an agent to Ms. Heller’s flying school to verify her identity.”

“Prime Minister…”

“So while you were wasting time throwing your newly found weight around, Croft’s murderer is still out there, if he hasn’t already left the island.”

“Prime Minister…”

“And on top of that you somehow managed to allow a woman who was handcuffed to free herself and handcuff you!”

“Prime Minister…”

“Well, at least I got a good laugh out of that little scene in the interrogation room,” Sutherland said, chuckling.

“Prime Minister…”

“DuBois, you are no longer a colonel. I wish you to dress in the uniform of a police captain and continue your investigation into the assassination of Colonel Croft, and you are to wear that uniform at all times when you are on duty. Is that perfectly clear?”

“Yes, Prime Minister, but…”

“Get out, and by the way, this is no longer your office.”

DuBois saluted, executed an about-face and left the room. Back in his old office he got out his uniform, which still displayed his major’s gold leaves, then changed them to his old captain’s bars, then he armed himself with a pistol and an Uzi machine pistol and left.

“Your car is waiting out front,” his secretary called after him.

DuBois walked out the front door of police headquarters to find his driver seated in an elderly, dusty and banged-up Land Rover.

“Good afternoon, Col…uh, Captain,” his driver said.

DuBois got in and tried to roll up his back-seat window, but it was stuck. “Get me out of here,” he said.

“Where, to, Captain?”

“Get me out of here!” duBois screamed. As they drove aimlessly down the roads of St. Marks, duBois entertained himself by fantasizing about what he was going to do to Ms. Virginia Heller when he found her again.

46

Teddy Fay stood on a cliff at the eastern end of St. Marks and watched the waves crash against the rocks a hundred feet below. He didn’t want to do this, but he had considered the alternatives, and there weren’t any. He couldn’t allow himself to be caught or even questioned with it in his possession.

He went back to his vehicle, opened the case and looked at the sniper’s rifle one last time. He had done all the gunsmithing on that weapon, made it into the precision tool it was, and he loved it the way some men loved an old dog.

He snapped the case shut, looked around to be sure he was entirely alone, then stood on a boulder embedded in the top of the cliff and imagined himself flinging the case as far as he could, then watching it sink in the deep water. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. Teddy trudged to his vehicle, started it and began to drive back.

As he drove up Black Mountain Road, he caught a glimpse in his rear view mirror of an old Land Rover entering the road at the bottom of the mountain. It was not a police car, but Teddy automatically paid attention to every vehicle behind him. He was beginning to sweat as he continued up the mountain; there was only the one road, and his escape plans did not include a close pursuit by anybody. But the vehicle stayed well back.

Then, to his enormous relief, the Land Rover turned into the driveway of the Pemberton house. He continued to his own drive, then garaged the vehicle, removed the rifle case and let himself into his underground bunker in the house’s old cistern.

Teddy did not believe that he would be caught or have his identity discovered by anyone, let alone the clown, duBois, whom he knew Croft had distrusted. Croft had been the kind of man who preferred his subordinates to be loyal but only marginally competent, and duBois fit that mold perfectly; he was the other viper in the nest of the St. Marks police, and Teddy wished he had eliminated him, too. Maybe he still would.

Nevertheless, he would make preparations. He got a small sledge and a chisel and began to cut into the concrete floor along a line only he would have noticed. Soon, he had freed a piece of plywood that had been concealed by an inch of concrete. He pulled it back to reveal a compartment that contained equipment, much of which he considered important and some of which he considered essential to his continued survival.