“I do not. He checked out of this hotel three days ago.”
“So he had time to visit Connecticut?”
“I guess he did at that.”
Dino broke in and told Tommy about Dan Hotchkiss, and gave him his phone number. “Maybe you should consult with Dan,” Dino said.
“Consult I will,” Tommy said.
191
42
STON E A N D D IN O were about to leave the hotel when a call came in.
“Hello?” Stone said.
“Stone, it’s Chuck Chandler, at the tennis club.”
“Hey, Chuck.”
“I ran across something yesterday that might interest you.”
“What’s that?”
“My old boat, which now has no name.”
“Where did you see it?”
“Out at Fort Jefferson.”
“Where’s Fort Jefferson?”
“It’s at the very end of the Keys.”
“I thought Key West was the very end of the Keys.”
“No, they run out to the west from Key West for about sixty miles—small, uninhabited islands with no fresh water at all. There was a fort built out on the last one during the nineteenth century—
that’s Fort Jefferson. It was used as a prison during and after the Civil War, and Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was imprisoned for sheltering John 19 2
L o i t e r i n g w i t h I n t e n t
Wilkes Booth and setting his broken leg, was sent there, where he performed heroically during a yellow fever epidemic.”
“What’s out there now?”
“Just the old fort, nicely preserved. There’s no landing for a boat there, but you can swim ashore or take a dinghy in. The funny thing is that my old boat still had her dinghy aboard, and there was no one on her. We swam ashore and had a picnic in the fort, and there was no one else there.”
“Well, if one took one’s boat out there and abandoned it, how would one get back?” Stone asked.
“One would take another boat or a seaplane; those are the only choices. But why would anyone leave a very nice boat out there, where it might be broken into and plundered?”
“Good question,” Stone asked. “And where would one get hold of a seaplane?”
“There are a couple for charter at the airport.”
“Any idea how long the boat has been there?”