“In a manner of speaking.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Caleb dragged up a seedy, overstuffed chair and sat down. “I let her go.”
The twins both sat up. “Are you out of your fucking mind?” Enos asked.
“Certainly not, and watch your mouth.”
“Easy,” Eben said to his brother. “I’m sure Dad had his reasons.”
“I certainly did,” Caleb replied. “One more murder on this island and we’d have the National Guard in here. They searched our house, you know.”
“Dad, she’s going to tell on us,” Enos said.
“She doesn’t know anything to tell. She’s been tied to that bed, drugged, her eyes taped and her ears plugged for the past four days, ever since you left. She hasn’t had a moment of consciousness when she could see anything except that computer.” He pointed at the laptop, glowing in the dark.
“I don’t get it,” Eben said. “Where’s the percentage in letting her go?”
“For one thing, they’ll stop looking for her. For another, she paid her way out.”
“Paid?”
“Listen to me, boys. You’ve got to run; there’s no other choice.”
“But why? We haven’t done anything; nobody has anything on us.”
“You’ve killed some people. They’ve eliminated all the other suspects and now they’re focusing on you. They know you weren’t on the boat when it sailed from Nantucket.”
“So, we came back. So what?”
Caleb noted that they didn’t deny the murders, but he didn’t want the details. “How did you come back?”
“We flew the airplane to Rockport, had some dinner and got the last ferry.”
“Where’s your car?”
“At the house; we walked down here.”
“I want you to listen to me very carefully,” Caleb said, leaning forward in his chair. “I’m your father, and I love you, but I’m also speaking to you as a lawyer. You’ve committed several murders, and these days, nobody can get away with that for long.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Eben said.
“Why did you do it?”
“We had our reasons. Anyway, you taught us everything we know.”
“What?”
“You taught us how much fun it is beating up on other people. You beat us up, before we got too big to let you do it. You stood on the sidelines and egged us on when we wrestled and boxed. You always wanted us to kill the other guy.”
“And you took that to mean that murder is all right?”
“As long as you don’t get caught.”
“You’re going to get caught,” Caleb said.
“Why do you think that, Dad?”