Dead in the Water

just a naked grab of someone else’s property, but he can probably bring it off.”
    Thomas grinned. “I hear you are a boat owner now.”
    “Well, for a few hours, anyway,” Stone said. “Leslie, how much time have I got?”
    Leslie looked at his watch. “It’s just past ten. Lord, I don’t know; Winston could be here with an order any minute.”
    “Thomas, can you put together a week’s provisions for me in a hurry?”
    “I’ll see to it,” Thomas said. He jumped down fromthe deck and sprinted back toward the Shipwright’s Arms.
    Stone looked at Leslie Hewitt. “Well, Leslie, I hear that my co-counsel hasn’t been absolutely frank with me about the way Allison’s case was conducted.”
    “What? What do you mean? I surely…”
    Stone held up a hand. “Don’t bother; Allison came to see me last night.”
    Leslie looked embarrassed, but he managed a grin. “Well, perhaps I wasn’t entirely candid with you, Stone, but all’s well…”
    “That ends well,” Stone said. “It did end well, I suppose; you’re just lucky I didn’t die of a heart attack last night.”
    “Myself as well,” Leslie said. “I was frantic when I couldn’t get anyone on the phone at the prime minister’s residence or in his office. I was nearly as much in the dark as you, right up until you asked about the disposition of the body, and the policeman gave you that malarkey about cremation. There’s no crematorium on St. Marks, so I figured I must have brought it off after all.”
    “You certainly did, but you aged me ten years in the process.”
    “Well, I’m glad it came out all right. I got a lovely fee, the prime minister got his, ah, pension fund, and you got a very fine yacht.”
    “If I can hang on to it,” Stone said, laughing. “I’d better get the engine started.” He went aft to the cockpit, switched on the ignition, and prayed that the thing would start. The starter ground on for a good ten seconds before the engine caught and ran smoothly. Helooked up and saw Thomas running across the lawn again, carrying a cardboard box and followed by an employee carrying a second one.
    Stone checked the fuel gauges. Full. He hoped to God the water tanks were full, too.
    Thomas and his man ran down the dock and set their boxes aboard, then Thomas ran back down the dock, untied a dinghy with an outboard, pulled it to Expansive , and tied it to the stern. “Come on, I’ll give you a hand getting out of the harbor,” he called.
    Stone embraced Leslie again, then lifted him over the lifelines and set him on the dock. “Good-bye, old fellow!” he called out. “Let go our lines, will you?”
    Leslie and Thomas’s employee untied the lines and tossed them on board, then gave the big yacht a shove away from the dock. Stone put the engine in reverse and began backing out.
    “Look up there,” Thomas said, pointing with his chin, “but pretend you don’t see.”
    Sir Winston’s elderly Jaguar had pulled into the inn’s parking lot, and the minister of justice was striding toward them, a piece of paper in his hand. They could hear a faint shout over the engine.
    Stone shoved the gear lever to forward and spun the wheel to port; Expansive accelerated quickly through the smooth water of the harbor. They were about to turn past a point of land when Stone looked back and saw Sir Winston on the dock waving his piece of paper and shouting. He made a show of cupping his hand to his ear and shrugging, indicating an inability to hear, then they were around the point, and the harbor entrance lay ahead. “Thomas, you take the helm, and I’ll get some sail up,” he called.
    Thomas tossed the mooring lines into the cockpit and took the wheel. Stone unreefed the headsail first, and when it was full and drawing, he unwound the big main from the mast. He went aft and switched off the engine, and everything grew quiet, except the fresh breeze in the rigging and the burble of water slipping past the blue hull. He stowed the mooring lines and went below, wrote Thomas a check, then came back on deck.
    “I guess that’s it,” he said, handing Thomas the check.
    “You are too generous, Stone,” Thomas said, looking at it.
    “You’ve gone to an awful lot of trouble, Thomas, and I’ll never forget it. When you come to New York, stay at my house, and we’ll do some serious dining and wining.”
    “That’s an offer I can’t refuse.”
    “Are you going to have any problems with Sir Winston?”
    Thomas shook his head.