Dead in the Water

you.”
    Wheaton and Burrows thanked her for her time and, with Jim Forrester, left the boat. As they were walking up the pontoon, Chris Wheaton stopped and spoke quietly to Stone. “That was some performance,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    “I’m glad it went well,” Stone replied. “You should be able to get an awfully good segment out of that.”
    “You bet I will,” Wheaton said, then she looked back at Allison, who was standing in the cockpit, looking out over the harbor, sipping her orange juice. “She’s really something,” she said. “You won’t have any trouble getting her off.”
    “I wish I could believe that,” Stone said, “but from what I’ve seen so far, I think the odds are heavily against her. Sir Winston Sutherland wants her neck in a noose, for whatever reason, and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to stop him.”
    Wheaton looked at him closely. “Jesus,” she said with wonder, “you really think she’s innocent, don’t you?”
    Stone looked at her in amazement. “Of course I do; after all that questioning, don’t you?”
    “Not for a minute,” Wheaton replied. “Listen, over the years I’ve interviewed a couple of hundred people who were either accused of murder or who had justbeen convicted or acquitted; I learned to tell the guilty from the innocent, and let me tell you, not more than ten of them were innocent.” She pointed her chin at Allison. “And she’s not one of them.”
    “Show me one hole in her story,” Stone said.
    “There isn’t one. But she’s guilty just the same. Call it a woman-to-woman thing, if you like, but I look in those beautiful blue eyes and I know.”
    “Is that what you’re going to say on 60 Minutes ?”
    “Are you kidding? I’d be fired out of hand. No sir, I’m going to play it straight, let her answers speak for themselves, and ninety-nine percent of the audience is going to be outraged that this beautiful, innocent young woman could be charged with murder. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
    “Certainly, that’s what I want.”
    “Well, relax, because that’s what you’re going to get.” She paused and looked across the harbor at the boats. “Unless I can dig up something new between now and Sunday.” She turned and walked up the pontoon toward the pub. Then she stopped, turned, and walked back. “One more thing,” she said. “You seem like a nice guy, Stone, so let me give you some free advice: don’t fall in love with her; don’t even fuck her, if you haven’t already. Allison Manning is a dangerous woman.”
    Stone was speechless. He watched her walk away.

Chapter
19
    S tone was having lunch with Hilary Kramer from the New York Times at the Shipwright’s Arms when Thomas Hardy waved him to the bar, pointing at the phone. Stone excused himself, got up, and went to the bar.
    “It’s somebody named Cantor,” Thomas said, handing Stone the telephone. “By the way, Chester called from the airport, too; says he’s loaded down with media folk all afternoon.”
    “Right,” Stone said, taking the phone. “I’d like to have a press conference here Friday morning at ten, if that’s okay.”
    “Sure.”
    Stone spoke into the phone. “Bob?”
    “Stone? Glad I caught you; I’m coming home tomorrow.”
    “That was fast; were you able to cover any ground in such a short time?”
    “You bet; I got into Las Palmas early, so I took a connecting flight to Puerto Rico and spent a couple of hours there, then came back to Las Palmas.”
    “What have you learned?”
    “Nothing in Puerto Rico, except they took on fuel and water and spent one night there; more in Las Palmas, though.”
    “Tell me.”
    “They were at the yacht club marina for four or five days, doing odd jobs on the boat and provisioning with fresh fruit and vegetables at the local market. Paul had a drink at the yacht club bar late every afternoon, once or twice with Allison, but apart from the shopping, she kept pretty much to the boat. Boats go in and out of that marina constantly, so I was only able to find one boat still there with people who remembered the Mannings. Apart from their boat, which was big and beautiful, they remembered only a couple of things about them: first, their rubber dinghy was stolen, and Manning apparently had trouble finding the replacement he wanted; finally he had it flown in from Barcelona. Second, the Mannings had a terrific fight late on the night before they left Las