Dark Harbor (Stone Barrington 12)

Ham unclipped her leash and pointed at the dense underbrush beside the road. “There, Daisy,” he said, pointing, “go find Holly.”

Daisy plunged into the brush, and they could hear her crashing around in the thicket, going this way and that, until she came back to Ham and sat down, looking at him.

“It happened here,” Stone said. “She got into a car.”

“I don’t think a dog can track a car,” Ham said.

Dino pulled alongside them in the old Ford wagon. “That’s it, huh?”

“That’s it,” Stone said. “At least we’re sure of which way she went.” He looked down the road. “South.”

They got into the car and drove back to the house.

“Any luck?” Sergeant Young asked as they came into the study.

“Holly ran south, then on a straight stretch. She got put into a car, so we’re at a dead end. But at least we know she ran south. Should we concentrate the search there?”

“In a car, she could have been taken anywhere,” Young pointed out.

“She could have been taken off the island in a boat, too,” Dino said.

“None of the others was taken off the island,” Stone reminded him. “I think this guy will stick to his pattern.”

“I need a drink,” Dino said, heading for the wet bar. “Anybody else?”

Stone looked at the group. “Everybody else.”

“I still don’t have the after-midnight thermal scan,” Lance said.

Dino came back with drinks on a tray. “How’s Ginny doing with the diary?”

“She’ll let us know when she gets somewhere,” Ham said.

They sipped their drinks quietly.

“At least we know the guy’s got a boat,” Stone said. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dropped the safe in the water trying to get it out of here.”

Sergeant Young, who was staring into his drink but not drinking it, spoke up. “Just about everybody on the island has a boat.”

“Yeah,” Stone said, racking his brain for some other thought that might help.

Ginny came down the stairs with the diary and some sheets of paper. Everybody stood up as she walked toward the desk.

“What have you got, Hon?” Ham asked.

“Are you people drinking?” she asked. “Why am I not drinking?”

“Dino, get the girl some bourbon,” Ham said, looking over her shoulder as she spread out her papers.

“What I’m doing here is working backward through the thing, drying pages one at a time, then trying to read the handwriting. It’s gorgeous handwriting, but the ink has run from being wet, and that makes it slow going, but I’m copying out everything I can get and numbering the pages to correspond with the diary.”

“What is she saying?” Stone asked.

“Well, it’s mostly high school girl stuff,” she said. “The last entry is the day before the family got to Islesboro. She mentions that they have to make the five o’clock ferry the next day.”

“Is there any other mention of Islesboro or Dark Harbor in the days before they arrived?”

“She’s looking forward to going, she says, and right here, she mentions that and says ”“… especially with X and Y neutralized.”“