Dino went to the bar and got her some Knob Creek on the rocks, her favorite.
“Are you ready to talk now?” Lance asked.
“Ready? All I want to do is talk; I’ve had my mouth taped shut for… how long has it been?”
“You’ve been gone a little over four days,” Stone said. “Was it the twins who took you? Did they put you in the boat?”
“Twins? The Stone twins? No, not them. It was one man, and he was very clever. The only time he spoke to me was through some sort of voice-altering device. I never saw him. I have no idea what he looks like. But the Snickers bars makes me think it’s Caleb.”
“Why did he let you go?” Stone asked. “Do you know?”
Holly nodded. “Oh, God. I need a computer.” She got up and ran toward Dick’s little office. The computer was already on. She went onto the Internet and started typing.
“What are you doing?” Lance asked.
“I bought my way out,” she said. “I transferred a million two to his Singapore account”
“What are you doing now?” he asked.
“I’m wiring the money back to my account,” she said. “I memorized the account number, and he gave me a password of PE65000, like the old Glenn Miller recording, Pennsylvania 6-5000, but I entered EE65000, so he won’t be able to access the account until he figures that out. I’m going to send the money back to my account.”
Ham stood in the door. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Where did you get a million two hundred thousand dollars?”
“Jackson left it to me,” she lied. Jackson was her dead fiance.
“Oh,” Ham said.
She typed a few more keystrokes. “There,” she said. Then she started typing again. “I think I’ll change the password back to PE65000,” she said. “That way, when he accesses it, he’ll find it empty. I wish I could be there to see his face.”
Responding to calls from Stone, Sergeant Young arrived simultaneously with Ed Rawls, and they were brought up to date. “Do you have any idea who this man is, Holly?” Young asked.
“No idea at all,” she said.
“Lance, Sergeant,” Dino said, “can you come take a look at the thermal images for a minute? I’ve found something interesting.”
Everybody gathered around the coffee table, where the images were spread out, along with Young’s map of the island.
“Here’s my question,” Dino said, pointing to a structure on one of the thermal images. “What is this? I can’t find it on your map.”
“Well,” Young said, “this is the most recent map of the island, completed less than three months ago, but you’re right, the structure in the image doesn’t appear on the map.”
“Look at this,” Dino said, pointing from one image to another. “We’ve got three days of thermal imaging here, and in every one of them we can see one hot spot—one person—in exactly the same position. It doesn’t move, day or night.”
/> “Maybe an old person, an invalid?” Young said.
Holly spoke up. “Or me. I’ve been tied to a bed all that time. Good God, it’s me.”
Chapter 57
CALEB STONE MADE his way back to the obscured creek, past the overhanging brush and slowly up the little waterway to the boathouse. As he approached he could see a glow from a window. Someone had lit a candle.
He tied up his Whaler and went upstairs. Eben and Enos sat on an old sofa, looking tired.
“Hey, Dad,” the boys said simultaneously. They often spoke at the same time.
“Hello, boys,” Caleb replied.
“You got rid of her, huh?” Eben asked. Of the two, Eben was the more assertive.