50

Late in the afternoon, Stone took Dino shopping. They went to the chandlery at Marina Del Rey and bought two sets of sailing waterproofs in dark blue, a large roll of duct tape, two heavy, rubber-encased flashlights, and a set of socket wrenches. Stone also bought a large-scale chart of the area, laminated in plastic.

“What’s all this stuff for?” Dino asked.

“It will be easier to show you than to tell you,” Stone said.

They arrived at Rick Grant’s house at eight. Rick got them a drink, then led them into the back yard, where Barbara Tierney was grilling steaks.

“She cancook?” Stone asked.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Rick said. “I’m gaining weight since she got here.”

Dino went over and introduced himself to the beautiful woman, then they all sat down at the table.

Rick handed Stone a set of keys and gave him a berth number at the Long Beach marina. “It belongs to my ex-brother-in-law,” he said. “It’s a big Boston Whaler with two one-hundred-horsepower outboard engines and a lot of gear.”

“Sounds ideal,” Stone said.

“He wants five hundred for the night.”

Fair enough. Stone peeled off the money.

“I don’t want to know the details, either before or after,” Rick said.

“We will preserve you in your ignorance,” Stone laughed. “Before and after.”

“What, exactly, have you got in mind, Stone?” Dino asked.

“Didn’t you just hear Rick say he doesn’t want to know?”

“Yeah, but…”

“I’ll tell you later.”

Barbara set plates of spinach salad on the table, and the three men began to eat.

“Let’s talk about general strategy,” Rick said. “What’s your plan?”

“Beyond tonight, I don’t have much of a plan,” Stone said. “I’m just trying to shake them up, to let them know that they’re notentirely in charge, cost them some money. If I can do that, then maybe they’ll start to make mistakes that we can capitalize on.”

“Won’t they think Calder is behind this?”

“He knows nothing, and he’s a very fine actor, remember? He’ll convince them of his ignorance.”

“What if they hurt the girl?”

“They don’t have any way to relate what I’m doing to Arrington. They’re just having a run of very bad luck, and the only thing they can assign to it is what Dino said to Sturmack on the phone.”

“What did you say, Dino?”

“I said that Stone was getting them from the grave,” Dino grinned.

Rick laughed a lot. “Well, you’re right, they’re certainly having a run of bad luck. They’ve had an expensive motorboat sunk, two of them have been arrested-what next? They must be wondering.”

“I’m not going to keep them in suspense,” Stone said.

Stone and Dino arrived at the Long Beach marina after midnight and found their rented boat. It was painted black, for which Stone was grateful, and it looked very fast indeed. They tossed their gear on board, then Stone handed Dino the duct tape. “Tape over the name of the boat wherever it’s painted on and also the Coast Guard numbers. We don’t want any trouble for Rick’s ex-brother-in-law later.”

Dino went to work while Stone got familiar with the boat and its equipment. He was delighted to find a Garmin GPS unit, which had a color screen that displayed all the land masses and buoys in the area. That would make navigating at night a lot easier. He switched on the VHF radio and tuned it to Channel 16; if the Coast Guard were patrolling the area, he wanted to hear them before they saw him.

He dug out a pair of life jackets from a locker and handed one to Dino. “Better put this on.”

“I spent a lot of time on Sheepshead Bay with my old man in his boat,” Dino said. “I’m a lot more comfortable in boats than in airplanes; I don’t need that.”

“Dino, we’re going to be traveling fast at night; if we hit something and capsize, we need the jackets. Put it on.”

Dino reluctantly got into the life jacket and adjusted it. “Happy now?”

“Not yet, but I’m planning to get a lot happier.” Stone double-checked everything, then started the engines. Dino let go their lines and, keeping the big engines at idle, Stone maneuvered out of the marina. A few minutes later they were on their way at thirty knots. “Keep a sharp lookout,” Stone said. “There are fishing boats out here this time of night towing nets and trawls. We want to give them a wide berth.”

“Right.” Dino said.

It was a lovely night, with many stars, clear of the usual smog. They were making a lot of wind with their speed, and Stone was glad to have the warmth of his weatherproof suit. Catalina loomed ahead.

Contessaturned out be easy to find. She was the biggest thing in the anchorage by far, and she was wearing a bright anchor light; her bow and stem lights were on, too. Stone throttled back while they were still three hundred yards out and made his way among the moored yachts and empty moorings. Not many people would be sleeping aboard the small boats during the week, and Stone was glad for that. As they approachedContessa, she seemed to get bigger and bigger.

“Jesus,” Dino said, “that’s some piece of work, that boat. How much you think it cost to build it?”

“I don’t know-eight, ten million dollars, I would guess. Depends on when she was built. These days, she’d cost a lot more.”

“Okay, you think you can tell me what your plan is now?”

“First I’m going to have to get the crew off.”

“How many?”

“Two, I think.”

“And what the fuck are we going to do with them?”

They were at the stern boarding ladder of the big yacht now, and Stone pointed up to the deck. “There’s a rubber dinghy up there; I saw it from the air. I’ll toss it down to you. We’ll put them in that and set them adrift; somebody will pick them up after daylight.”

“Okay, whatever you say.”

They cut the engines and tied the Whaler to a teak swimming platform on the stern. Stone stuffed the duct tape and the socket wrench kit into his jacket’s large pockets, climbed up the boarding ladder, and stuck his head above deck; there was no one in sight, but operatic music wafted from somewhere. The rubber dinghy was gone. Stone looked around for another tender, but all he saw were two large speedboats, slung in davits. Maybe somebody had gone ashore; he hoped so.

With his flashlight in one hand and his pistol in the other, Stone started forward toward the bridge. Along the way he looked into every port and window, watching for anyone stirring on the yacht, but he saw no one.

He climbed the stairs to the bridge and peeked in. There was one deckhead light on, and a radio was playing, but no one was in sight. Very slowly, he opened the door and stepped onto the bridge, the pistol out in front of him. There was no sound but the radio.

He carefully opened two doors on the bridge; one led to a stairway below, the other was, apparently, the captain’s cabin. A lamp was on, and the bed was mussed, but not unmade. He poked into the captain’s toilet, and that was empty as well. Surely the crew wouldn’t leave the big yacht entirely untended?

It seemed preposterous, but perhaps there really was no one aboard. He opened the door to the stairway and started slowly down, listening at every step.