Dark Harbor (Stone Barrington 12)

“That’s what I thought,” Elaine said, then moved on to another table.

Lance and Holly arrived, they ordered drinks, then Stone got down to business. “It looks as though our theory of a work-related death for Dick and his family may have been wrong.”

“I’m not convinced of that,” Lance said.

“There’s more news. After Don Brown’s death, his niece, a seventeen-year-old named Janey Harris, was kidnapped, raped and murdered on the island. Ed Rawls thinks the two deaths are connected, that Janey told Don something that got both of them killed. Ed thinks it’s local, and I have to agree with him.”

“And how about the Stone family’s deaths. Does he think those are connected, too?”

“Dick’s daughter was eighteen, and the two girls had to have known each other. Maybe whatever Janey told Don she had told Esme Stone, too.”

“And the killer wiped out the whole family to protect himself?”

“It makes more sense than the Russian mob theory,” Stone said.

Lance seemed unconvinced. “For somebody who used to be a cop, it’s odd that you would form a theory on so little evidence,” he said. “This is an air theory, like air guitar is making music.”

Dino spoke up. “I’ve seen solutions of a lot of murder cases that were based on less, in the beginning. An investigator needs a theory, if only to have it proved wrong. You have to work with the evidence you’ve got, even if it’s thin.”

“Lance,” Stone said, “have you heard anything from your friend at Langley about who Don Brown wanted the background check on?”

“Not yet,” Lance said. “It could be days or weeks before I hear from him.”

The waiter brought menus, and they ordered.

When they were halfway through dinner, Lance spoke up again. “My people are not going to buy your local theory.”

“It’s Ed Rawls’s theory,” Stone said.

“That won’t matter to them. They’re not going to be distracted by the deaths of Don Brown and his niece. They won’t be inclined to believe that a high-ranking officer like Dick was killed by some information shared between two teenaged girls.”

“Lance, the facts surrounding what happened to Dick and his family are not going to be shaped by what Langley believes. They are what they are, and you need to explain that to them.”

“You obviously haven’t had much experience with large bureaucratic organizations,” Lance replied.

Stone laughed. “I worked for the NYPD for fourteen years.”

Lance laughed. “Touche.”

“Too many murder investigations are shaped by what the hierarchy wants to believe,” Dino said, “especially in high-profile cases. When you’re working a case, you have to ignore that, or you’ll come up with the wrong result.”

Holly spoke for the first time. “Who has motive?” she asked.

“Nobody,” Stone replied.

“How about Dick’s brother?”

“Caleb didn’t have a motive.”

“Our background check showed he was perpetually short of cash. That’ll do it in most murders.”

“Yes, but Caleb didn’t inherit from Dick, who changed his will.”

“Did the brother know Dick had changed his will? I mean, you only got the new will a couple of days before Dick’s murder.”

“You have a point,” Stone said. “It came as a surprise to Caleb when I told him. I’ll grant you he had motive, and he had a key to the house, so I’ll give you means, too, but he didn’t have opportunity. The state police put him in Boston at the time of the murders; he and his family didn’t arrive on Islesboro until the day after.”

“And how good are the state police? They didn’t do such a hot job on the first investigation of Dick’s murder, did they?”