Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 12

because I send the papers out to him every day.” He looked around him. “And don’t you other fellers get any ideas; I’m not running a paper-delivery service, except for a couple of people, like Don, who couldn’t get in the store easy.”
    â€œSo we need to know what he was doing between lunchtime and bedtime.”
    Sergeant Young had appeared in the front doorway. “Hilda says he got in his car and went out about one o’clock. He had this way of getting his scooter in and out of the trunk. We’ll ask around, see if anybody saw him around the island.”
    â€œYou need us anymore?” Stone asked.
    The sergeant shook his head. “I’ll call you if I think of anything.”
    Stone and Dino got into the MG and headed down the drive. “Dino,” Stone said, “I think it would be good if you moved into the house, into Esme’s bedroom. Arrington can bunk with me, and there’s another bedroom for Peter.”
    â€œWhy move? To cover your ass?”
    â€œThat and because there’s no alarm system in the guesthouse.”
    â€œOh.”

26
    T WO DAYS LATER, Stone stood on the tarmac and watched the Centurion Studios’ Gulfstream IV land at Rockland Airport. Peter was the first down the airplane’s stairs, at a run. He was six now and taller than when Stone had last seen him the year before. His mother followed, carrying her overnight case, and the two pilots then dealt with the luggage.
    There were hugs, then Stone loaded their luggage into his airplane. “Peter, I think we’ll let you be copilot today, and your mother can be the passenger.”
    The boy was delighted. Soon Stone had them buckled in and was running through his checklist, giving Peter a running commentary.
    â€œI hope this isn’t going to be like my last ride with you,” the boy said.
    Stone laughed. On their last ride Stone had been at the controls of a helicopter, a machine he hadn’t known how to fly, had made a very rough landing, and they were both lucky to be alive. “I think you’ll find this a smoother trip; shorter, too.”
    They lifted off and turned out over Penobscot Bay. “There’s our island,” Stone said, pointing. “Can you see it, Arrington?”
    Arrington could hear and speak from the rear through her headset. “Yes, it’s beautiful.”
    â€œThere’s our landing strip,” Stone said to Peter.
    â€œIt looks a lot shorter than the one we just landed on,” Peter said.
    â€œIt is, but my airplane is a lot smaller than the Centurion jet, so it can use shorter strips.” Stone lined up for the runway, announced his intentions over the radio and looked for traffic. A moment later they were on the runway and braking. Dino sat in the station wagon, waiting for them.
    They stopped at the Dark Harbor Shop for the papers and an ice cream cone for Peter, then continued to the house.
    â€œIt’s lovely, Stone,” Arrington said. “How did you find it?”
    â€œI’ll tell you the story later,” Stone said. He took them into the house and got them settled. Peter ran out to the dock to have a look at the boats, and Arrington relaxed in the study.
    â€œSo, tell me why you bought a house in Maine,” she said.
    Stone sat down beside her. “It belonged to my first cousin, Dick Stone, who died recently and left me the house. Well, the use of the house for my lifetime and that of my heirs.”
    â€œHow old a man was Dick?”
    â€œMy age.”
    â€œHeart attack?”
    â€œNot exactly.”
    â€œStone, I’m beginning to get the feeling that I’m not going to like the rest of this story.”
    â€œDick and his wife and daughter were murdered a couple of weeks ago.”
    â€œNot in this house, I hope.”
    â€œDick was at his desk, over there; his wife and daughter were in Dino’s room.”
    â€œWho murdered them, and why?”
    â€œDick was CIA; the murders seem to be related to his work.”
    â€œ Seem to be related to his work?”
    â€œThere’s evidence to suggest that and no evidence to suggest otherwise.”
    â€œAm I going to find his wife’s clothes in my closet?”
    â€œAll their personal effects have been removed. It’s my house now.”
    â€œWhy is Dino sleeping upstairs instead of in the guesthouse?” Arrington didn’t miss much.
    â€œThere’s no security