Shoot Him If He Runs (Stone Barrington 14)

“First, as I said before, we cannot allow Teddy to be caught. We can’t even allow his body to be found.”

“His body?”

“Thomas, please focus; if he’s in danger of being caught, you’re going to have to kill him and get the body into the sea.”

Thomas sat quietly for a moment and thought.

“Think of the ramifications of his being caught: they’ll beat everything out of him. If they only have the body, they’ll start to confirm every detail of his identity, and even though he told us he did a masterful job of becoming Harold Pitts, that identity will eventually unravel.”

“You have a point,” Thomas said.

“There’s more of my point: when they find out he isn’t Pitts, they’ll have an unidentifiable corpse on their hands, so they’ll start digging into his island connections, and that means you and me. They’ll think that we hired an assassin.”

“Teddy came to us, remember?”

“That won’t matter. Teddy and his corpse have to disappear completely and forever.”

“What about the boat? It will eventually get to Ft. Lauderdale, and there’ll be someone there to meet it.”

“Your man has a satellite telephone doesn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Then call him and give him new instructions; we need for the authorities to know exactly what happened to the yacht and to Pitts.”

Thomas was still quiet.

“Am I making sense, Thomas?”

“Yes, I’m afraid you are.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to call Teddy and tell him to hide himself while Stone and Holly are looking for him, and that I’ll get him off the island in a few days, when things have cooled off a bit.”

“I hope that works. And if it doesn’t?”

“Then I’ll do what has to be done and take care of the disposal.”

“I’m sorry it’s come to this, Thomas. I know you didn’t expect to have to kill anyone yourself.”

“I’m sorry, too, but don’t worry-I’ll take care of it.”

“All right. I’ll call the others, and we’ll meet here tonight. You bring some food from the inn, and we’ll call it a dinner party, if the police should show up.”

“I’ll be there around seven,” Thomas said.

“Good luck, Thomas, and thank you.”

“Good-bye, Leslie.” Thomas hung up. He went to his safe, opened it and took out the snub-nosed.38 that he had carried as a backup piece when he was a New York City cop. He strapped the holster to his ankle, checked to be sure the gun was loaded, then shoved it into the holster and secured it.

He called Teddy.

“Yes?”

“Stone and Holly are going to be there shortly. It’s important that you secrete yourself while they’re looking for you and, probably, for a few days after that. Do you have food in that bunker of yours, or do you want me to bring you some?”

“I’m quite self-sufficient, Thomas, and don’t worry, they will not find me. I know you’re worried about my being apprehended, but you may put that out of your mind; it won’t happen.”