Lucid Intervals (2010)

here because he feared for his life.”
    “Did he tell you whom he feared?”
    “He didn’t have time,” Stone lied. His cell phone rang. “Excuse me. Yes?”
    “It’s Dan Phelan. We’re rolling with two passengers.”
    “Thanks, Dan.” He hung up. “I have a couple of guests arriving here by airplane in an hour or so; I’ll need to meet them at the airfield.”
    Captain Smith nodded. “Might these people have anything to do with Hackett?”
    “One of them, Mike Freeman, works with him, but I don’t think he knows anything about this. I talked with him before he got here.”
    “Be sure you come back here; I’m not finished with you yet.”
    “All right. We’ll go to my house, next door.”
    “I’ll come over there when I’m finished here.” He looked Stone up and down. “You might want to change those clothes.”
    “I’ll do that now,” Stone said, and then went upstairs. After he showered and changed, he called his caretaker and informed him of guests to come. He put his bloody clothes in the liner of the room’s wastebasket and then took it downstairs. “You want these clothes?” he asked Captain Smith.
    “Thanks,” Smith said, taking the bag and handing it to a subordinate. “Log this,” he said. “Mark it ‘clothing of the witness.’ ”
    “Have you had any luck finding the boat?” Stone asked.
    “No, and no luck with an airplane out of place at any local airfield. If I were the killer, I’d have dumped the rifle in the bay, motored to a cove nearby and anchored for the night, maybe longer. We’re not going to find him, unless we get very, very lucky.”
    Stone packed his bag and put it into Hackett’s car, then drove to the airfield. He preferred waiting there to waiting at the house, where he was only in the way. He sat in the car, numb, wondering how this had happened and if the fault somehow lay with him. He didn’t see his airplane until it whooshed in over the trees and settled onto the runway. Phelan taxied over to where he was parked and shut down the engine.
    Stone opened the airplane’s door and helped Felicity down the air stair. Mike Freeman was right behind her, and he shook Stone’s hand. Stone went to the luggage compartment and began removing their bags, and Freeman followed him.
    “Where’s Jim’s body?” he asked.
    “The police removed it from the house more than an hour ago. It will be on the mainland and on the way to the morgue in Augusta by now.”
    “Any sign of the perpetrator?”
    “I think he was in a boat moored in the harbor, maybe two fifty, three hundred yards away. Not a difficult shot in no wind and with the right weapon, scope and ammo.”
    Freeman nodded. “Where are we going now?”
    “To my house, next door to where Jim was staying.”
    “I’ve got a hundred phone calls to make to clients before they hear about this on the news,” Freeman said.
    “You can use my phone,” Stone said.
    He shook Phelan’s hand and thanked him. Phelan got back into the airplane and started the engine. Driving down the road toward his house, he saw his airplane take off and turn to the southwest.
    Stone drove to the house, which Seth, the caretaker, had already opened and where he had made rooms ready. Stone showed Freeman where he was sleeping, then led Felicity to the master suite, her second visit there.
    “I gather this Mike Freeman worked for Hackett,” she said.
    “His number two.”
    “He hardly said a word from the time we met.”
    “He has a lot on his mind. I expect he’s already phoning clients around the world to tell them what’s happened. He has to protect the business now.”
    She nodded and sat down on the bed. “Tell me what you and Hackett talked about.”
    Stone laid it all out for her. When he had finished, he asked, “Did you know about the two kids?”
    “Yes,” she replied. “I remember when it happened, but I didn’t know the full story until recently. That’s when I threatened Palmer with exposure.”
    “Hackett predicted that, if they killed him, they’d go after you, too,” Stone said, “because they’d be afraid you’d talk.”
    “I’m about to do that now,” she said. “Can I use this phone?” One line was already lit up.
    “Yes, use the next line. You’re sure you want to do this?”
    “The only way I’ll know I’m safe is if everybody else knows what I know.”
    “You may have a hard time proving it,” Stone said.
    “I don’t have to prove it,” she replied. “They’ll