Dark Harbor (Stone Barrington 12)

“Dino and I eliminated him as a suspect.”

“On what grounds?”

“Since his father’s death and his own release from prison, he’s become a valued member of the community; he’s married with a child; he earns a very good living making very expensive cabinets; and he’s too smart to foul his own nest, especially such a small nest. He also has nothing in his record to indicate that he’s interested in committing crimes of a sexual nature, raping and murdering teenaged girls.”

“Still, he has a lot of skills that make him a suspect.”

“I actually had him go over this house and give me his opinion on the security features. He was impressed.”

“Let me get this straight,” Holly said. “You gave a high-class burglar a tour of your home, pointing out all the security features?”

“Yes, and actually he pointed them out to me, not the other way around.”

“God, you’re naive, Stone.”

“I am not.”

“Don’t you know anything about burglars?”

“Of course I do; I worked burglary for a year on the NYPD.”

“How many did you catch?”

Stone hesitated. “Not as many as I would have liked.”

“There you go,” Holly said. “A smart burglar is notoriously hard to nail. If he doesn’t get caught or seen on the property or leave fingerprints or DNA, and if he has a fence unknown to the police, he’s damn near bulletproof. These guys know this. Even the ones who get caught learn from their mistakes and go right back to work as soon as they’re out of the joint. Very high recidivism rate among burglars. There’s also a significant sexual component to these crimes; burglars are often rapists. They get caught for that rather than for the burglaries.”

“All right,” Stone said. “I’ll introduce you to the guy.”

Mabel Hotchkiss bustled into the kitchen. “Oh, you’re already eating,” she said. “I wanted to make breakfast for you.”

“We fixed our own,” Stone said. “How was your evening on the mainland?”

“We enjoyed it very much,” Mabel said, starting to clean up the pots and pans they’d used.

“You should have stayed longer.”

“No, one night there is enough. I like to get home.”

“Mabel,” Stone said, “can you ever remember anyone getting into this house who shouldn’t have been here? Anyone outside the family?”

Mabel shook her head. “Mr. Stone said that could never happen, because of steps he’d taken.”

“Has either you or Seth ever lost a key?”

“No, we each have one; mine’s in my purse, and Seth’s is in his pocket. Why do you ask?”

“I’m still trying to figure out everything.”

They finished their breakfast, then Stone got out the MG and they drove north on the island.

“I don’t know what our excuse is going to be for this visit,” Stone said.

“Why do we need an excuse?”

“I don’t want to appear to be harassing the man,” he said.

“Leave it to me.”