Dark Harbor (Stone Barrington 12)

They went back downstairs and searched the kitchen and dining room and the garage, then went into the study.

“Uh, oh,” Stone said.

“What?”

Stone nodded toward the back door. The vacuum cleaner sat just inside the door to the terrace. He went over and opened the canister. “Bag’s gone,” he said.

“Just like before.”

“Exactly like before.”

“But nothing seems disturbed.”

“Let’s look more closely,” Stone said. They worked the whole room, looking for some small sign that someone had been there.

“As far as I can tell,” Holly said, “everything is exactly as it was before.”

Stone tried the door to the terrace. “Locked.”

“Didn’t you say that Dick had some sort of special locks?”

“Yes. They use a key that you can only get from the manufacturer.”

Holly put her gun back into her handbag and came out with a small leather case. “You said the door to the terrace was locked?”

“Yes.”

She walked over to the door and tried it, then got down on her knees and opened the little case, which held a selection of lock picks. “Standard issue,” she said. “I’m supposed to be able to open just about anything.”

“You did a pretty good job on Dick’s safe, as I remember.”

“This is going to be harder,” she said, then went to work.

Stone walked around the study again and opened Dick’s secret office. It seemed undisturbed. The weapons were still in their cabinet. He went back and watched Holly work.

She stood up and put her lock picks away. “I can’t do it,” she said. “I mean, I’m not a genius at this, but the training I got at the Farm made me a lot better than all but the best burglars. These locks are made by a company called Assa, and we were told about them in our training. The U.S. Government uses them in special security situations.”

“I want to read Esme’s diary,” Stone said. He went to the cabinet that held the safe and opened it. “Holy shit,” he said.

“What?”

“It’s gone.”

“What’s gone?”

“The safe. Come an

d look at this.”

There were four crudely cut holes in the base of the cabinet, where the safe had been bolted down.

“He used a hammer and a chisel,” she said. “Took the whole thing right out. I guess he couldn’t open it.”

“Right,” Stone said.

“And if he couldn’t open that little safe, he certainly couldn’t have opened the terrace door,” Holly said.

“Then he must have used a key,” Stone replied.