Tiptree nearly laughed but decided silence was the better move.
“Are you acquainted with Teddy Fay?”
“I’ve heard about him, of course, but we never met.”
“My operative’s name is Holly Barker; she is using the cover of a real person named Virginia Heller, called Ginny, who operates a flying school in Florida, and she has a passport and other identification in that name.”
“Right.”
“She is traveling with two men, Stone Barrington and Dino Bacchetti, and a woman, Genevieve James. The two men are contract consultants to the Agency; the woman is just for color. They are traveling as vacationers and staying at the English Harbour Inn.”
“I understand; do they require my assistance?”
“Not at the moment, but I wanted you to be aware of their presence on the island. Barker and Barrington have already met with Bill and Annie Pepper. I had hoped to remove them all from the island tomorrow, but, as you know, travel restrictions have been imposed since the murder of Colonel Croft.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that; I was sitting on a bench next to Croft when the bullet struck him.”
“That must have been an interesting experience,” Lance said drily.
“Indeed; my clothes are at the cleaners.”
A young embassy officer knocked, entered Tiptree’s office and placed a sheet of paper on his desk. Tiptree nodded, and the man left.
“Lance,” Tiptree said, “it appears that Barker and Barrington do require my assistance. I’ve just received a telephone message from Bacchetti, saying that the two of them have been arrested by Croft’s successor, Colonel duBois, in connection with Croft’s assassination.”
“That’s preposterous,” Lance said. “They had nothing to do with it, but we suspect that Teddy Fay might have. Their only orders are to locate Teddy and verify his identity, then to report back to me.”
“Then I had better get over to police headquarters and see what I can do about shaking them loose before Colonel duBois gets too enthusiastic in their interrogation. I regard the man as worse than Croft, a loose cannon.”
“I understand,” Lance replied. “Do not, repeat, not bring State into this. Call me when you know more.” He hung up.
Tiptree hung up and buzzed his secretary. “Have my car brought around immediately,” he said, then hung up. He turned to his computer and began entering the names of Virginia Heller and Stone Barrington. In less than a minute he was printing out color copies of their U.S. passports. He put them in his briefcase, closed it and walked out of his office.
“Your car is waiting,” his secretary said.
“I’m going to police headquarters to try and obtain the release of two American citizens who have been detained, Virginia Heller and Stone Barrington. Alert the ambassador and tell him they are my good friends. If you haven’t heard from me in an hour, get him moving on it, but tell him Langley says not to involve the State Department.”
“Right.”
Tiptree set off on his second journey of the day to police headquarters. He hoped to God no more blood would be spilled. Blood only complicated his life.
44
Stone sat, still handcuffed, on a very uncomfortable chair before a desk in an otherwise bare room, more angry than frightened. It was clear that the chair he sat in had been constructed with the idea of discomfort in mind, and he was sure that he was about to be interrogated. He ran over the details of Holly’s cover in his mind, just to have everything straight. He stood up, walked to a wall and leaned against it.
A door opened and duBois entered. “Sit down,” he said.
“Thank you, no. What is the meaning of this?”
DuBois walked over and backhanded him. “Sit down and shut up, except to answer my questions.”
Stone felt a trickle of blood running down his cheek. DuBois had been wearing a ring of some sort. Stone sat down.
DuBois sat at the desk and removed a legal pad from a drawer. He took out a pen and held it poised over the pad. “What is your name?”
“Stone Barrington.” He spelled it.
“Occupation?”