“So what have they taught you at the Farm?”
“Oh, lock picking, safecracking, the foiling of alarm systems, silent killing – all sorts of good stuff. Oh, and I can kill you with my thumb.”
“Please don’t. Have you killed anybody?”
“Not yet, but you don’t want to cross me.”
Stone kissed her. “What can I do to keep you sweet?”
“You know what,” she breathed in his ear.
He knew, and he did it.
After a long lunch at the Mayflower Inn, they called Barton and went back to his house. He took them into the study.
“We want to get into Abner Kramer’s house,” Holly said.
“Correction,” Stone said. “She wants to get into Kramer’s house.”
“I think that’s a terrible idea,” Barton said.
“How else are we going to know if he has your secretary?” Holly asked.
“I don’t think Ab has it,” Barton replied.
“Have you got a better candidate?” Stone asked. “You’ve said he’s the only person you told about it. You’ve also said that, when he wants something, he gets it, and the implication was that he doesn’t care how.”
“He wouldn’t steal from me,” Barton said. “After all, I gave him the basis of the fortune he’s made.”
“And you cut him and the others out of the deal on the Saint-Gaudens double eagle,” Stone pointed out. “Ab could be nursing a grudge, and how better to get back at you than to take your most prized possession?”
“We just want to look around,” Holly said.
Stone pointed at Holly. “She just wants to look around.”
“Oh, yeah?” Holly said. “What do you want to do, hold my coat?”
“I’d be happy to hold your coat,” Stone said.
“Holly,” Barton said in a fatherly tone, “why do you think you can even get inside the place? Ab, no doubt, has state-of-the-art security in place.”
“I’ve been trained by the best to breach state-of-the-art security,” Holly said. “All I need is a few tools that I can buy at the local hardware store.”
“Come on, Barton,” Stone said, “let her at least case the joint.”
“Is there some vantage point from which we could take a look at the estate from a distance?” Holly asked.
“As a matter of fact, there is,” Barton replied.
They followed Barton’s directions, turning off the highway and onto a dirt track that wound for miles through the woods. Twice they had to get out of the car and move fallen tree limbs aside in order to pass. Finally they got out of the car, and Barton, carrying a binocular case, led them a few yards into the trees.
The hillside fell away, and they found themselves looking across a small lake at the back of a large house, perhaps half a mile away. A barn and some outbuildings stood to one side, enclosed by a stone wall.
Barton took his binoculars from the case and handed them to Holly. “Here you go. They’re fifteen power at full zoom, so you’ll need to brace against a tree to hold them steady.”
Holly braced herself and synchronized the two eyepieces. “Wow,” she said softly. “These things are great.”
“Let me take a look,” Stone said. He received the binoculars and braced against a tree. “ ‘Wow’ is right,” he said. “I can see a picture on a wall, right through a window.”