Shoot Him If He Runs (Stone Barrington 14)

“Of course,” Thomas said. “Irene bought an old house up on Black Mountain and renovated it. She lived in the inn for a couple of months in the off-season, while the work was being done. Do you think she might have something to do with Fay?”

“They knew each other when they both worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, and Ms. Foster retired about the time Teddy disappeared for

the second time. It’s thought she might have been helping him, though there’s no hard proof of that.”

“So Irene was CIA? And she told me she was a retired college professor,” Thomas said.

“Has she been spending a lot of time with any particular man?” Stone asked.

“Just the opposite,” Thomas replied. “Irene has a propensity for picking up single men, tourists, of a certain age, and doing what comes naturally. I’ve never seen her with the same man for more than two or three evenings.”

Stone produced the drawing of Teddy Fay. “Seen anyone who looks like this?”

Thomas looked at the picture. “Larry David? I always TiVo his show.”

“We’re hearing that a lot, but this is as close as we’ve been able to come to what he looks like. He destroyed every photograph of him ever taken.”

“No, no one like that. Who are you working for on this little search? The FBI?”

“We’d better not go into that,” Holly said.

“If you want my help, I want to know it all,” Thomas replied.

“All right, I work for the CIA now, and Stone and Dino are helping out. Genevieve is just along for the ride.”

“How long are you planning to be here?” Thomas asked.

“A week or so,” Holly replied. “Longer, if necessary.”

“Well, stick around here and you’ll see Irene in a day or two; she comes in a lot. You’ll probably get to see her in action.”

“Thomas,” Stone said, “we heard gunfire near the cottage earlier this evening. What was that about?”

“A man came ashore in a rubber dinghy from a larger boat offshore. The police shot him no more than a hundred yards farther down the beach from your cottage.”

“Drugs?”

“Probably. Certainly, they thought so; I don’t know what they found in the dinghy.”

“I get the impression that the police here might shoot first and ask questions later.”

“That is not a false impression,” Thomas said. He nodded toward Sir Winston, who was leaving the restaurant. “That’s the way he likes it.”

8

Stone woke up with his head in “Ginny’s” lap, and he took a moment to investigate how thorough the Agency’s makeover of Holly had been. He was impressed to find that she was a redhead all over. Lance was not taking any chances.

“What are you doing down there?” she asked.

“Easy, Ginny; just checking out your disguise.”

She laughed. “Check it out all you like,” she said, pushing his head down.

They had breakfast on the cottage’s patio, overlooking the beach. Stone and Dino were particularly interested to see that there was, apparently, no prohibition of nudity on the strands of St. Marks.

“Try looking at your eggs,” Genevieve said to Dino.

“As an investigator, I’m expected to be aware of my surroundings at all times,” Dino replied.