Ham pointed at a warm spot. “Is that a car?” he asked.
“Yes, probably a police car on patrol,” Lance replied.
“What is all this telling us?” Ham asked.
“That people are where they’re supposed to be. Nobody’s out prowling the island, kidnapping people. They’re all at home in bed.”
“A lot of empty houses,” Stone said.
“That’s because so many people have left the island,” Lance pointed out.
Mabel Hotchkiss came into the room and announced dinner.
They had finished dinner and were on coffee when the phone rang. Stone took it in the study.
“It’s Tom Young,” the sergeant said.
“What did you find out?”
“I called Caleb Stone and got a cell phone number for the twins, then I called the number and got voice mail instead of an answer.”
“So we know nothing more about their whereabouts?”
“Not exactly. Eben called me back a few minutes later and reported that they were off Martha’s Vineyard in a race around the Vineyard, Nantucket and Block Island, then back to Newport. They started this morning.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I had no reason not to,” Young said.
“If the race didn’t start until this morning, then where have they been for the past four days?”
“According to Eben, in Newport, getting the boat ready for the race and partying. I called the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, who are running the race, and the twins are listed as crew on the yacht Hotshot, which is owned by a friend of theirs. They have a crew of six aboard.”
“Did anybody remember seeing them in Newport before this morning?”
“Nobody at the yacht club. The boat was docked at a marina in town, and I’ve asked the Newport police to go down there and see if any of the staff remember seeing a pair of large identical twins there the past few days. They’ll get back to me.”
“Thanks, Sergeant. I’d like to know what you hear.”
“I’ll call you when I know something.” Young hung up.
The others straggled into the study from dinner, Lance first.
“That was Young,” Stone said. “He talked to one of the twins; they’re aboard a yacht off Martha’s Vineyard. He’s asked the Newport police for help in placing them in the town over the past four days, and he’ll get back to us when he hears something.”
Dino played bartender for after-dinner drinks.
Stone didn’t know whether to hope his two young cousins were involved in all this, but he wanted something to happen.
Chapter 49
HOLLY FOUGHT TO stay awake. She had a plan now, and she had to have her wits about her when the guy came back to feed and empty her. She tried remembering things; that kind of mental activity might keep her awake. She tried remembering the names of everybody in her high school graduation class. There were only sixty of them at the small military high school in Germany, when Ham was still in the army.
She went through the girls first; they were the most difficult. The boys’ names came quicker, starting with Burt Bonner, the athlete on whom she had bestowed her virtue when she was eighteen— bestowed it on him a number of times, in fact. She tried remembering the details of each bestowal; that kept her awake.
Then she heard, or rather felt, the footsteps on the stairs. The house must be fairly rickety, she thought, if she could feel footsteps. He went through his routine, but when he ripped off the tape over her mouth, she was ready for him.
“I have over a million dollars in an offshore bank account,” she said quickly.