“Yeah, she’s gotten so she likes to talk about it, if she has a good audience. Funny, your cousin being employed there.”
“Yes; as I said, I didn’t even know that until he was dead. Our respective sides of the family didn’t talk much, but the summer I was eighteen, his folks invited me up to Dark Harbor, in Maine, to spend a few weeks. Dick and I got fairly close at that time, but I didn’t see him again until eight or nine years ago, when he took me out to dinner in New York. I thought he was working for the State Department. Then, all of a sudden, he sent me a retainer and his will and appointed me his executor. A few days later, he was dead, murdered.”
“And you never talked in all those years apart?”
“Just that one dinner.”
“What does your girlfriend do?”
“Ginny? She has a little flying school in Florida. We met when I bought an airplane in Vero Beach from Piper some years ago, and we’ve seen each other once in a while since then.”
“And Dino?”
“Dino’s a cop, a detective; we used to be partners when I was on the force. His girl, Genevieve, is an emergency room nurse at a hospital in New York.”
“You’re a mixed group.”
“I guess we are at that. Tell me, how is it you have enough power for those electric winches?”
“I put in larger batteries and a second alternator; I never did like grinding winches.”
“I’m with you there. Did you enjoy your solo time on the way down here?”
“I did, though I have to admit, I got a little horny.” He grinned. “I was glad to see Irene when I got here.”
“So you were close back in Virginia?”
“I wouldn’t say close; she seemed to work constantly and didn’t have a lot of free time, but we got together now and then.”
“Did she talk about her work in those days?”
“Not a peep. I didn’t even know what she did, until one of my other customers, her neighbor, told me.”
“How’d she end up here?”
“Well, when she retired she went to St. Barts, but she didn’t like it much. She likes it better here; less highfalutin and they speak English. Real estate prices are lower, too.”
“Did you do any of the renovation on her place?”
“No, I just got here a couple of days ago; she hired a local firm, and they did a pretty good job. I’m cleaning up their work here and there and doing a couple of little things for her.”
“I’m sure she’s glad to have you here. How long are you staying?”
“Oh, a few weeks, I guess; until the wanderlust bites again, or until Irene and I can’t stand each other anymore.”
“Were you ever married, Harry?”
“Nope; lifelong bachelor.”
“Me, too,” Stone said. “Not a bad life.”
“Not bad at all.”
They seemed to have run out of things to talk about. Stone glanced at his watch. “Well, I’d better get back to the cottage; the others are napping, but there was talk of an afternoon swim.”
“I hear that’s a nudie beach down there.”
“I can confirm that.”