Stone laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, Seth and his wife are on the mainland tonight. They went to dinner at her sister’s house in Rockland, and the last ferry is at seven p.m., so they’re staying the night. We can lock down the house and not worry about being disturbed.”
“The best of all possible worlds,” Holly said.
THEY WERE DRIVING HOME when Stone’s cell phone vibrated. “Hello?”
“It’s Ed Rawls.”
“What’s up, Ed?”
“I thought you ought to know that Janey’s mother just told me her daughter’s diary disappeared.”
“When?”
“She can’t be sure, but since her death. She saw her in her room writing in it the afternoon before the evening she disappeared.”
“Could she have had it in a pocket or purse?”
“I asked about that: It was big, about eight by ten, so probably not. Her mother thinks someone came into the house, searched her room and stole it.”
“So whatever Janey might have told Don Brown might have been in her diary?”
“Right. Do you know if Esme had a diary?”
“As a matter of fact, I do and I’ve got it in a safe place.”
“Have you read it?”
“No, but in light of the theft of Janey’s diary I’m going to read it tonight.”
“Let me know if there’s anything relevant in it, will you?”
“I’ll call you in the morning.” Stone hung up.
“What’s happened?” Holly asked.
“Janey Harris’s diary has disappeared, but I’ve got Esme’s at home in the safe.”
“And Rawls thinks there was something in the diary that might have led to her murder?”
THEY WERE HOME in ten minutes. Stone unlocked the door and stepped into the entrance hall, ready to tap the alarm code into the keypad there. He stopped. “Didn’t I set the security system before we left?”
“Yes, I saw you put in the code.”
Stone looked at the small screen on the keypad. “Well, it’s not armed now.”
“Who could have disarmed it?”
“Only Seth and his wife would have the code, and they left before we did.”
“Could you have entered the code incorrectly?”
“Possibly. Maybe I got a digit wrong.”
“Or maybe not,” Holly said. She reached into her purse and came out with a Walther PPKS.
Stone unholstered the little .45 on his belt. “Let’s have a look around,” he said quietly. “We’ll go together, room by room, starting upstairs.”
The two crept up the stairs, listening. They did a standard police search, entering each room, checking each closet, any place that could hide a man. Stone paid particular attention to Esme’s room and the little bedroom across the hall that she had used as a study. This was where Peter had found her diary. There was no sign that anything had been disturbed.