“Have you got the money?” Stone asked.
“I have.”
“Don’t give it to him until he confirms the hit,” Stone said, “and make him say it out loud, for the recorder. My guess is, he’ll leave the second he gets the money, and then he’s the state police’s problem.”
“Where are they?” Evan asked.
“Already in and around the restaurant for some time, I should think,” Stone replied. “Don’t look for them in the restaurant; they’ll spot you, don’t worry. And when Manny gets up and leaves, don’t try to stop him or follow him.”
“Got it,” Evan said.
“You’ve been pretty cool through this so far,” Dino said to him.
“Now is not the time to get nervous. A little, maybe, that would be normal, but not much.”
“I’m not excessively nervous,” Evan said.
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“Then get going.”
Stone opened the car door for him. “Just stay at the restaurant until it’s all over,” he said. “We’ll come fi nd you.”
Evan got into the car and drove away.
“You think this is going to work?” Dino asked.
“Nothing we can do about it,” Stone replied. “It’s in the hands of other people now.”
AS TOM M Y F O LL O W E D Mike up the fifty yards of catwalk from the dock, he saw a man sitting on the front porch, rocking and sipping a drink.
“We got company?” Tommy asked.
“We’ve got two deputies with rifles in the house, but have a look.”
They approached the porch, and they were ten yards away before Tommy got it. “It’s a dummy,” he said.
“Made it myself,” Mike said.
It was wearing Mike’s clothes, with a fl oppy fishing hat. Tommy could see a string tied to the rocker and another that held the dummy’s left hand in place, holding a glass. When the string was pulled, the glass went to the dummy’s lips. A deputy was standing inside in the living room, pulling the strings.
“That’s sweet work, Mike,” Tommy said, looking at his watch.
“But we’d better get off the porch; it’s nearly dark.”
G IGI P U T the outboard in gear, a light suddenly came on AS behind them. Larry spun around, alarmed, then he took a deep breath and let it out. “Spotlight on the shed,” he said. “Comes on automatically when it gets dark enough.”
“That’ll help us find our way back,” Gigi said, pushing the throttle a bit forward and starting down the creek toward the waterway. 2 7 3
S t u a r t W o o d s
“Switch off your running lights,” Larry said, “and keep it at idle, so we make as little noise as possible.”
Gigi did so. “Larry, what is this thing you have about boats?”
“I don’t have a thing about boats. I like riding in them; I enjoyed the trip to Key Largo from Key West. I just don’t have any experience operating them. I don’t like the wind and tide doing things to them, either. I feel like I’m not in control.”