“Ed, Holly still isn’t back, but something occurred to me.”
“Tell me.”
“Sergeant Young believes that whoever took the two women yesterday was known to them. It occurs to me that, since Holly was armed, she may have know her kil… her abductor. She’s not the sort of person to be taken easily.”
“Makes sense to me,” Rawls said. “Who’ve you got in mind?”
“I don’t know; that’s the problem. She hardly knows anybody on the island.”
“Who, exactly, does she know?”
“She knows Seth and Mabel Hotchkiss, but they’re not candidates for this. She knows Sergeant Young, and he’s not a candidate, either. And she knows…” Stone stopped.
“Who, Stone?”
“Hal Rhinehart.”
“Who?”
“The cabinetmaker north of the village.”
“Oh, yeah. I knew his old man. You think he’s a candidate?”
“He has a criminal background,” Stone said. “Dino and I busted him for a string of burglaries years ago, and he did four years or so.”
“Have you told this to Young?”
“No, he hasn’t returned my call. I can’t get hold of Lance, either.”
“Why don’t you and I pay Rhinehart a visit? I’ll pick you up in ten minutes.”
“Okay, and bring your shotgun.” He hung up.
Stone armed himself, put on a jacket and waited at the end of the driveway for Rawls, who turned up quickly in his Range Rover. He got into the car.
“Tell me about this guy,” Rawls said.
“Master burglar, very sharp mind.”
“How’d he meet Holly?”
“I took her to his workshop; she wanted to meet him for herself. We both eliminated him as a suspect after that visit. The guy has a successful business, which he inherited from his father, and he has a wife and a baby. He seemed stable and happy with his circumstances.”
“Is he strong enough to overpower Holly?”
“Yes, if he could neutralize her before she could get hold of her weapon.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Rawls said.
They had passed through the village and were headed north. “There’s the sign up ahead,” Stone said. “Drive on past, and
we’ll work our way back.”
Rawls drove past the house without slowing and, when he saw a narrow road to the right, cut his lights and turned in, using his gears to slow the big vehicle so as not to use his brakes, thus turning on the brake lights. Through the trees on their right they could see both the workshop and the house. The workshop was dark, but lights burned in the house windows.
“How do you want to do this?” Rawls asked, grabbing his shotgun from the rear seat.
“First, let’s check the workshop and any outbuildings,” Stone said. “Then we’ll see what we can see through the house windows.”