Stone Barrington 06-11

Dino.”
    “I’m telling you the truth, here.”
    “Did Mary Ann redecorate your place?”
    “No, she sold my place one day when I was at work, and I had nothing to say about it. Then we bought one she liked.”
    “Oh.”
    “Yeah.”
    “This conversation is making me tired,” Stone said.
    “I don’t blame you. Reality is always tiring.”
    Stone drained the last of the wine from his glass. “I’m going to bed.”
    “Good idea. The very least you should do about this marriage idea is to sleep on it. For about a month.”
    “I think I could sleep for a month,” Stone said, yawning. “I could do that.”
    “Then go do it, pal,” Dino said. “I’m going to finish my wine and look out at the night.” He settled himself in a big leather chair and turned on the TV.
    “Good night, then.” Stone went to his cabin, undressed and got into bed. He stared at the ceiling, thinking about Callie redecorating his beloved house, until he fell asleep.
    Then, seconds later, it seemed, Dino was shaking him.
    “What?” Stone mumbled sleepily.
    “Get up. You gotta see something.”
    “Jesus, Dino, what time is it?”
    “A little after two.”
    “Don’t you ever sleep?”
    “I was sleeping, in the chair in front of the TV. Then I woke up.”
    Stone turned over and fluffed his pillow. “Then go back to sleep.”
    “Stone, get out of the fucking bed right now and come with me.”
    Stone turned over and tried to focus on Dino, then he realized that his friend had a gun in his hand. He sat bolt upright, now fully awake. “What’s wrong?”
    “Put your pants on and come with me.”
    Stone got out of bed and put his pants on, then padded along behind Dino as he led the way to the afterdeck.
    “Look,” Dino said, waving an arm.
    “Look at what?”
    “Look at the shore.”
    “What about the shore?”
    “We aren’t tied up to it anymore.”
    “Huh?” Stone looked quickly toward where the seawall behind Thad Shames’s house should have been. It wasn’t there. “We’re adrift,” he said.
    “ That’s the word I was looking for,” Dino said. “Adrift!”
    “Why?”
    “How the hell do you think I know? What do I know about boats?”
    “This is crazy,” Stone said. “The engines aren’t running. Where’s the crew?”
    “Ashore, probably drunk,” Dino said. “What do we do?”
    Stone grappled with that problem for a minute. “We stop the yacht,” he said.
    “Great. How do we do that?”
    “Come on,” Stone said, “let’s get up to the bridge.”
    “The bridge,” Dino said, following Stone at a trot. “I like that. It sounds real nautical.”

56
    S TONE RAN UP TO THE BRIDGE, WHICH WAS COMPLETELY dark. “Find a light somewhere,” he said to Dino.
    “I’m looking, I’m looking.”
    Stone began feeling along the bulkheads for a switch. Suddenly, the lights came on, but dimly.
    “I found it, but it’s not very bright,” Dino said.
    “That’s okay, it won’t ruin our night vision.”
    “What do we do now?”
    “We’ve got to get the engines started,” Stone said. “Look for the ignition switch.”
    “Right here,” Dino said, pointing. “Trouble is, there’s no key in it.”
    “Then look for the key,” Stone said, starting to open drawers in the cabinetwork. He found no key. “We’ve got to get an anchor out.”
    “How do we do that?”
    Stone looked over the instrument panel. “On a yacht this size, there’s probably an electric windlass. Here it is!” He pressed the button, but nothing happened. “We need engine power for that, too.”
    “What about the radio?” Dino asked. “Call somebody.”
    “Good idea.” Stone found the VHF radio, switched it on and picked up the microphone. “Channel sixteen is the calling channel.” He changed the channel to 16 and pressed the switch on the microphone. “Coast Guard, Coast Guard, this is the yacht Toscana, Toscana . Do you read?”
    Instantly a voice came back. “ Toscana , this is the U.S. Coast Guard. What is your request?”
    What was his request? He thought about it for a moment. “Coast Guard, Toscana . We’re adrift in the Intracoastal Waterway, and we need a tow. We have no power.”
    “ Toscana , Coast Guard. Sorry, you’ll have to call a commercial towing service for that kind of help.”
    Stone looked at the ship’s clock on the bulkhead. “But it’s three o’clock in the morning,” he said. “Where am I going to get a tow at this time of night?”
    “Sorry, but we can’t be of any