Chapter 44

STONE STOOD AT THE Islesboro airstrip and scanned the skies. Seth Hotchkiss stood beside him.

“There,” Seth said, pointing.

Stone followed Seth’s finger to a black dot low in the sky. “You have an eagle eye, Seth.”

“So did my daddy. Runs in the family. Which lot is in this airplane?” Seth had brought his pickup truck to help.

Stone squinted. “This is the Bonanza, I think. Holly’s father, Ham, and his girlfriend, Ginny, who’s the pilot, will be in that. I’d like you to take them back to the house and get them settled in a guest room, while I wait for the other bunch. I’ll put Lance and Dino in the guest house.”

“Ayup,” Seth replied.

The Bonanza was straight in for runway one now, and he saw the landing gear come down and heard Ginny reducing power. She cleared the trees and dropped the airplane on the numbers, braking hard. Stone stood on the tarmac, his hands raised, to show her where to park.

Ham was out of the airplane immediately, even though Ginny had to let the engine idle for five minutes to allow the turbocharger to cool before shutting down.

“How are you, Ham?” Stone asked, shaking his hand.

“Not good. Any news?”

Stone shook his head. “Let’s hope no news is good news. Shall we get your gear into the truck?”

The two men opened the rear doors and transferred Ham’s and Ginny’s luggage to the pickup, then Ginny shut down the engine, stepped out onto the wing and locked the door behind her. She jumped down and gave Stone the keys.

“I’m going to send you back to the house with Seth Hotchkiss, here,” Stone said, introducing them. “I have to wait for Lance Cabot and Dino Bacchetti; they’ll be here any minute. Seth and his wife, Mabel, will get you settled. We should be there in time for lunch. I’ve asked the state policeman in charge, Sergeant Young, to come over early in the afternoon.”

Ham nodded and ushered Ginny into the pickup. They had been gone perhaps ten minutes when Stone heard, before he saw, another airplane. Five minutes later a Pilatus PC12, a big, Swiss, single-engine turboprop, had taxied to parking and cut its engine. Daisy was the first out, running to Stone and making a fuss over him. Lance and Dino followed, while the pilot put their luggage into the station wagon. Stone got it started and headed for the house.

“Any developments?” Lance asked.

“None at all. Dead silence. At least nobody has found a body, as in the other cases.”

Dino spoke up. “I don’t see how anybody could take Holly.”

“It’s not that hard,” Lance said. “Even a well-trained, aware person can be lulled into thinking he’s safe long enough to be captured or killed.”

“Thanks for bringing Daisy,” Stone said.

“It was harder getting her out of that kennel than getting an agent out of a foreign jail. Dino’s badge did the trick, finally. I had to sign a form, releasing them from all liability.”

“You said you had some other means of searching for Holly,” Stone said to Lance.

Lance glanced at his watch. “I do, but it will be another couple of hours before the materials will be in my hands.”

AT THE HOUSE, Lance went directly to Dick’s secret office and got on the computer. Stone watched as he loaded a stack of acetate sheets into the printer.

“Now we wait,” Lance said. “Is lunch ready?”

They sat down around the kitchen table, while Mabel served the food and Stone took everybody through every step of the past two days.

“Any questions?” Stone asked, finally.

Ham spoke up. “Is it true that after forty-eight hours the chances of getting a missing person back are about nil?”

“No, it’s not true,” Stone said. “Not in this situation, at least.”

“Why not this situation?”

“First, because it’s Holly, and she is much more capable of dealing with these circumstances than your average abductee. If she has even the slightest opportunity, she’ll kill her abductor and get out of wherever she is. It’s unlikely that he has any notion of how much danger he’s in.”

Ham nodded, seeming to take some comfort in that idea.

They were on coffee when Lance looked at his watch. “Excuse me, I want to see if I’ve had anything from Langley yet.” He got up and left the table.

Seth came in from outdoors. “Stone, can you come down to the dock for a minute? There’s something I want to show you.”

“We’re expecting Sergeant Young shortly, Seth. Can it wait?”

“I don’t think so,” Seth said.

Stone got up and followed, and everybody else followed Stone. Seth led them down to the dock where Dick’s yacht and the Hinckley picnic boat were docked.

“This is what caught my attention,” Seth said, pointing at a corner of the picnic boat’s stern. “Did you do that by any chance?”

The corner was damaged, as if it had been hit from above by something heavy.

“No, I didn’t,” Stone said. “This boat was pristine the last time I was aboard.”

“I didn’t think so,” Seth said. He produced a bucket with a Plexiglas bottom. “Come over here and take a look.” He put the bottom of the bucket in the water astern of the boat and held it while Stone looked into it. The six-foot-deep water, which was clear but dark, became even clearer. A cubical object about eighteen inches on each side came dimly into view, half sunk into the muddy bottom.

“It’s got to be the safe,” Stone said.

“What safe?” Dino asked.

“Dick’s safe from the study. Somebody got into the house and sawed it out of where it was bolted to a shelf in a cupboard.”

Seth said, “I reckon the feller muscled it down here to the dock to load it on a boat, and he slipped up and dropped it, hitting the boat’s transom. The safe went into the water, and nobody could get it out of there alone without some equipment.”

“Seth,” Stone said, “is there a wet suit among Dick’s stuff?”

“Yes, in the garage,” Seth said, “but it’s Dick’s size, and he was smaller than you or me.”

“Would it fit Dino?”

“Hey, wait a minute,” Dino said.

“I reckon it would,” Seth replied.

“Will you take Dino inside and get him into the wet suit? Hit him over the head, if you have to. Then find some rope and a shovel.”

DINO STOOD ON THE dock wearing the wet suit, a mask and a snorkel. “Now what?” he asked.

“It’s going to be just like that time you told me about in the Bahamas,” Stone said. “Remember how much you enjoyed the snorkeling?”

“This is Maine, not the Bahamas,” Dino said. “That water is fucking cold.”

“That’s why you’re wearing the wet suit,” Stone said. “See? We’ve thought of your every need.”

“But…”

Stone pushed him into the water.

Dino sputtered to the surface. “You’re going to pay for that, goddammit!”

“Now, here’s what you do,” Stone said, handing him a shovel and a length of rope.