Dark Harbor (Stone Barrington 12)

“Well, it’s not like I have anything else to go on.”

“You’ll find Ed an entertaining character, full of stories, and he’s very smart. You could do worse than to have him on your side.”

“I didn’t see any evidence of a wife.”

“She bailed out when Ed was arrested, took half of everything and bought a house in Florida. Last I heard, she’d remarried.”

“Tell me, Lance, in what sort of repute is Rawls held by his former colleagues?”

“Some are sympathetic; some hate his guts. Hugh English, whom Dick was succeeding as Deputy Director for Operations, was one of the haters, but he signed off on the pardon recommendation. Incidentally, I don’t know if Ed mentioned it to you, but there are a few other retired spooks living out their years on that island. I understand they do some drinking together and call themselves the Old Farts.”

Stone laughed. “Thanks for the information, Lance.”

“Call me when I can help.” Lance hung up.

It suddenly occurred to Stone that he had a golf date the following morning, and he didn’t have any golf clubs. He saw Seth Hotchkiss working in the back garden, and he walked outside.

“Hey, Stone,” Seth said.

“Hey, yourself. Tell me, Seth, did Dick have any golf dubs?”

Seth nodded. “There’s a big cupboard in the garage, next to the MG.”

“I noticed, but I didn’t look inside.”

“There’s a lot of sports stuff in that cupboard.” Then Seth nodded toward a sailboat resting at the end of Dick’s dock. “There’s that, too, got delivered from the yard this morning, and there’s a picnic boat, ought to be delivered from the yard this afternoon.

You’ll get a big bill for the maintenance and storage.”

“What’s the sailing boat?”

“It’s a one-off. Dick designed it himself maybe ten years ago and had it built over at Hinckley’s, in Southwest Harbor. They built the picnic boat, too, but Dick got that last year.”

“Thanks, Seth.” Stone went back into the house and then to the garage, where he opened the large cupboard. It was a veritable sporting goods store: There was a set of titanium Callaway clubs, tennis racquets, a croquet set, fishing equipment and more. Dick was nothing if not well equipped; he had spent his wife’s money well.

Stone went back into the house, opened the safe and read Dick’s will again. The bequest of the use of the house to Stone included outright ownership of all its “appurtenances.” Stone read that to include the cars and boats and whatever else he hadn’t discovered yet.

“Holy shit,” he muttered to himself.

Chapter 12

STONE WAS STANDING in front of the house with his golf clubswhen Ed Rawls pulled into the driveway in a shiny, new Range Rover. Stone put his clubs in the back and got into the passenger seat “Morning.”

“Good morning,” Rawls said. “Looks like we’ve got a good day for it.”

“Yep.”

“I had a call from Lance Cabot last night. We had a nice chat, and he offered me any support I might need in helping you with the Stone murders.”

“That’s good. Take him up on it.”

“He gave me a name at Langley as a liaison. I talked with her this morning, and she’s running down some things for me.”

“You want to tell me about the things?”

“Nah, it would take too long, and it wouldn’t help you. The information she gets might help, though, and I’ll tell you about that when I get it.”

“Okay.”