Dead in the Water

dead?”
    “Worst case.”
    She put her elbows on the table and her face in her hands. “What can we do?”
    “Put on the best defense we can, in the circumstances. I had wanted to bring in a top barrister fromLondon, but the judge has precluded that by making Leslie Hewitt the counsel and me his assistant.”
    “Isn’t there anything else we can do?”
    “There are two ways we can go: I’ve already said that we have to put on the best defense that we can, and I’ve got somebody in New York working on that now. He’s leaving for the Canaries right away to see what he can find to help us there. Did you make any friends while you were there? Someone who might testify as to your relationship with Paul?”
    “No, not really; we pretty much stayed to ourselves. What’s the other thing we can do.”
    “Well, we know that Sir Winston somehow finds it politically desirable to try you on this charge; what we might be able to do is make it politically undesirable for him to convict you, or, if he should, to make it desirable for the prime minister to uphold your appeal.”
    “How do we do that?”
    “By letting the press know about your predicament.”
    “On this island? What press?”
    “Not here; in New York, in London; wherever people read newspapers or watch TV.”
    “You want me to become famous?”
    “Yes.”
    She shook her head. “I just don’t see how that’s going to help.”
    Stone spread a hand as though he were tracking a headline. “BEAUTIFUL BLOND AMERICAN GIRL LOSES HUSBAND AT SEA! CONNIVING POLITICIAN CHARGES HER WITH MURDER IN BACK-WATER ISLAND NATION!!! It’s called marshaling public opinion; it might bring pressure to bear.”
    “How do we accomplish this?”
    “I’ll call New York and get a public relations firm involved. Can you afford that?”
    “How much?”
    “I’m no expert at this, but I should think fifty to a hundred thousand dollars would go a long way toward accomplishing what we want. Woodman and Weld would hire and instruct them, and you’d have to pay their fees, too. Will the insurance money cover it?”
    “Yes,” she said, but she looked doubtful.
    “What’s the problem?”
    She shrugged. “I just don’t know if I want to be that kind of celebrity. I’m really a very private person.”
    “Allison, let me put this to you as strongly as I can. If we don’t do something you’re going to be a very dead private person. In St. Marks, Sir Winston holds all the cards; he’s in control. But he can’t control the rest of the world. This island subsists mostly on tourism; if he wants to become prime minister he’s not going to want somebody telling the world’s tourists that if they come to St. Marks they’re liable to be arrested, tried, and hanged on spurious charges. That translates into a lot of empty hotel rooms and a catastrophic loss of revenue for the government.”
    She wrinkled her brow. “Why don’t I just get the hell off this island? There must be a way.”
    “Didn’t you listen to His Lordship this morning? If you try that and they catch you, it’s tantamount to conviction; they could hang you before the week is out. Even if you made it off the island, they could come after you, maybe extradite you; then you’d be worse off than you are right now; you’d be guilty.”
    She shrugged and said nothing, but she seemed to be imagining something terrible.
    “Will you let me get this PR campaign in gear?”
    “All right,” she sighed.
    “Good. I suggest you get a hundred thousand dollars sent to Bill Eggers at Woodman and Weld as soon as possible. Nobody’s going to want to extend credit to you in the circumstances.”
    “All right; I’ll call my bank in Greenwich; the insurance money is supposed to be deposited there soon.”
    “Allison, speaking of insurance, did you mention to the investigator that you had been charged with the murder of the insured? That might make them reluctant to pay.”
    “It never came up,” she said.
     
    “Hello, Bill, it’s Stone.”
    “What’s happening?”
    “Allison Manning is sending you a hundred thousand dollars from her Greenwich bank tomorrow.”
    “How nice! Do I have to do anything for it?”
    “I want you to get ahold of the hottest PR firm you can find and have them start a campaign in the media to get Allison Manning released.”
    “I believe I get the picture,” Eggers chuckled. “Barbaric islanders persecuting American blonde?”
    “You’re a quick study, Bill.”
    “How much