Dead in the Water

system, but that’s too close to home. Those people are going to have to get along with Sir Winston, too, if his political dreams come true, and they are very likely to.”
    “I thought about London. I do a lot of work for a firm in New York, and I can ask them to recommend somebody in London. But I don’t know whether Allison can meet that kind of expense.”
    “Then she’s between a rock and a hard place,” Thomas said. “Right now, I think you and I had better go see Leslie Hewitt.”
    They drove along the coast road to the western endof the island and turned off toward the beach onto a rutted dirt road.
    “Where are you taking me?” Stone asked.
    “Leslie has a cottage down by the beach,” Thomas replied. “It’s been in his family since the seventeenth century.”
    “Is he black?”
    “Yes.”
    “I would have thought that in the seventeenth century, any blacks on this island would have been slaves.”
    “You’re not far off the mark there, but an ancestor of Leslie’s bought his freedom and started a stevedoring business. They were a very prosperous family indeed until we got our freedom from Britain. Then the new government confiscated nearly everything Leslie had inherited. His wife died, his children fled the country, and he was left here with nothing but this cottage.” He pulled up before a whitewashed building.
    It was larger than Stone had imagined. He got out and, with Thomas leading the way, approached the Dutch front door, which was open at the top.
    “Leslie!” Thomas called out. He beckoned to Stone and entered the cottage. They walked through a small foyer and into a comfortably if somewhat seedily furnished living room. “Leslie!” Thomas called out again, but there was no reply. “Let’s take a look out back.” They walked through a neat kitchen and through a pretty garden, then down to the beach. A tiny black man in faded shorts and a straw hat was pulling a dinghy up the beach from the water. “There he is,” Thomas said, approaching. “Leslie, how you doing?” he asked.
    “Thomas? Is that Thomas Hardy?” Leslie Hewitt asked, shielding his eyes from the light.
    “Sure is,” Thomas said. “Come to see you, and I brought a friend.” He introduced the barrister to Stone.
    “How do you do, Sir Leslie,” Stone said.
    “I’m very well, Mr. Barrington; and you?”
    “Very well, thank you.”
    “Leslie, can we go into the house?” Thomas asked. “There’s a matter we need to discuss with you.”
    “Do I owe you money?” Hewitt asked, removing his straw hat and mopping his brow with his forearm. He had short, snow white hair.
    “Certainly not, Leslie.”
    “Then this is very surprising,” he said. “It’s been a very long time since anyone needed to discuss anything with me except a bill.”
    Sitting in a small study crowded with dusty books, Thomas Hardy explained the situation to Leslie Hewitt. “What do you think, Leslie?”
    “Well, I certainly don’t like the sound of it,” Hewitt replied, crossing a bare leg over another and dusting off his foot. “All happening very quickly, isn’t it?”
    “Very quickly indeed,” Thomas said.
    “I shouldn’t be surprised if, in the circumstances, Winston will ask for an early trial date. What is it you want of me? I don’t know if I’m up to trying a murder case, not unless you enjoy a hanging.”
    Thomas and Stone laughed. “We need your help for the hearing, Leslie,” Thomas said. “To hold the fort until we can get a barrister in from London.”
    “Ah, I see,” Hewitt said. “Well, I can certainly help you to that extent.”
    “There’s the matter of bail, too, Sir Leslie,” Stone said.
    “Please call me Leslie,” the little man said. “Everyone does.”
    “Leslie, do you think there’s a chance of bail?”
    “It’s not unheard of in such a case,” Hewitt replied. “It’s not an easy island to get off of, especially if you’re a foreigner, so the judge might smile on such a request. Bail might be steep, though.”
    “How steep?”
    “A hundred thousand dollars, perhaps twice that.”
    “Cash?”
    “Does the lady have any property in St. Marks?”
    “An expensive yacht.”
    “That might do very nicely, if the judge is sure she won’t sail away.”
    “That’s good news; I’ll pass it on to Mrs. Manning.”
    “I shall want to meet her before the hearing,” Hewitt said. “May we meet at the courthouse at, say, nine in the morning? That should give us time.”
    “Of