Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 12

the medical condition that required Don to use the wheelchair?”
    â€œIt was some complication of diabetes, I think,” Rawls said. “He could get around a bit, not much more than a few steps. I mean, he could get to the bathroom at night, and he could get his scooter in and out of the trunk of his car.”
    â€œDo you know where he kept the .45 that was used to kill him?”
    â€œBedside table drawer,” Rawls said.
    â€œSo it wouldn’t have been hard to find. The murderer could have come in with another gun and found it easily.”
    â€œYeah, especially if Don tried to go for it.”
    â€œWho knew this house well, besides his housekeeper?”
    â€œHarley, Mack and me; we played poker over here one night a week. Probably a few locals: repairmen, those sorts of folks.”
    â€œSo we don’t have any more to go on than we had with Dick’s murder.”
    â€œLooks that way, don’t it.”
    â€œMaybe Lance will be able to tell us something.”
    â€œYou’re grasping at straws,” Rawls said, “but then, that’s all we’ve got to grab at.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œWe’re having a little ceremony to scatter Don’s ashes at the yacht club tomorrow morning at ten, if you’d like to join us. I think Don would like that.”
    â€œI’ll be there.”

28
    A FTER BREAKFAST the following morning Stone made a few phone calls and worked on Dick’s estate. He was clearing the desk when Peter came into the room and flopped down on the rug. He opened a book and began to laboriously write on a pad.
    Stone came over and looked over his shoulder. “What are you doing?”
    â€œI’m practicing my calligraphy,” Peter said. “I’m copying this book, see?”
    Stone glanced at the book, which seemed handwritten in a beautiful copperplate. “Do you study calligraphy at school?”
    â€œI don’t take a class in it or anything, but I was having trouble with my handwriting, and my teacher said it would help if I copied from a book, just for practice.”
    â€œThat’s a great idea,” Stone said. “I have to go out for a while; when your mother gets up, please tell her I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
    â€œOkay.” The boy went back to work.
    Stone walked over to the yacht club and found a little group of people boarding a small motor yacht at the end of the pier. Rawls, Harley Davis and Mack Morris were there, along with a couple and their teenaged daughter, who was in tears. Rawls introduced them.
    â€œThis is Ralph and Martha Harris and their daughter, Janey,” he said. “Martha is Don’s sister.”
    The boat was Ralph’s, apparently, and he got the engine started. They motored out a ways, then Rawls and Martha said a few words, and she emptied the ashes into the water. Janey seemed more upset than anybody, Stone thought.
    They returned to the yacht club, and Stone excused himself and returned home.
    Peter was still copying lines from the book, and Arrington was seated by the fireplace, drinking coffee with Dino. Stone poured himself a cup and was about to sit down when the phone rang, and he went to the desk to answer it.
    â€œIt’s Lance. I’ve got the phone information.”
    â€œGreat.”
    â€œOn the day Don Brown died, he called the Agency WATS line a little after three P . M . and was connected to an Operations officer named Jake Burns. I tried to call Jake, but he’s left on an assignment and is unreachable. An office assistant said that Jake did a criminal-records search for Don, but she doesn’t know the results or even who the subject was. That’s all I could get.”
    â€œWell, that’s very interesting, indeed, and very frustrating, too.”
    â€œI know. I left a message for Jake, but there’s no way of knowing when he’ll be able to respond to it. I wish there were something else I could do.”
    â€œThanks, Lance. I appreciate that.” Stone hung up, called Rawls and told him the results.
    â€œShit,” Rawls said.
    â€œThat’s pretty much how I feel about it, too.”
    â€œI guess we’ll just have to wait for Jake Burns to get back.”
    â€œI guess so.”
    â€œThanks for coming this morning. Martha appreciated it.”
    â€œI was glad to be there. Janey seemed particularly upset.”
    â€œYeah, Don was her favorite uncle; they were