Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 12

couldn’t hear what they were saying. He went back to the soda fountain. “What’s going on with the police?” he asked the girl behind the counter.
    â€œA little girl has disappeared,” the girl said, “and I think they’re organizing a search party.”
    Stone started to ask the little girl’s name, but it occurred to him that he wouldn’t know her or her family, in any case. He paid for his paper and Peter’s ice cream, and they got back into the car.
    â€œDo you think they’ll find the little girl?” Peter asked.
    â€œI expect so,” Stone said. “It’s not all that big an island; she probably just got lost in the woods.”
    They drove on toward the house, and as they pulled into the driveway, Stone saw Ed Rawls getting out of his Range Rover.
    â€œHey, Ed,” Stone said, “have you met my…friend, Peter?”
    â€œHow are you, Peter?” Rawls said.
    â€œHow do you do?” Peter replied, offering his hand like a gentleman.
    â€œI’ve got some news,” Rawls said to Stone, and he looked worried.
    â€œPeter, you go on inside, all right? And don’t spill ice cream on the rugs.” The boy ran inside, and Stone turned to Rawls. “What is it?”
    â€œYou know the girl you met yesterday? Janey Harris?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œShe didn’t come home from a friend’s house last night.”
    â€œI was at the Dark Harbor Shop, and the soda jerk told me a little girl was missing. There were a lot of state cops in Jimmy’s office, and she said they’re organizing a search party.”
    â€œI’m worried about her,” Rawls said. “You saw how upset she was yesterday?”
    â€œYes, I noticed that. Even more upset than her parents. You said she and Don were close.”
    â€œRight, but there was more going on, I think.”
    â€œWhat was going on?”
    â€œI don’t know, but I’ve been thinking about this since I got the call about Janey a few minutes ago, and I think her disappearance has to be connected to Don’s death.”
    â€œWhy do you think that?”
    â€œRemember where you are, boy. Things like this just don’t happen on this island. There are no perverts kidnapping seventeen-year-old girls on Islesboro.”
    â€œRight, and no hit men murdering ex–CIA officers and their families, either. Do you have any details of the girl’s disappearance?”
    â€œHer mother told me Janey went to a friend’s house for dinner last night, and when she wasn’t home by ten o’clock, Martha called the house, and they said Janey had been gone for over an hour. The houses are only a quarter of a mile apart, and Janey would have walked home along the road. She had a flashlight. The Harrises went looking for her, and they found her flashlight in the road. That was all they found.”
    â€œI don’t suppose there are bears on the island?”
    â€œNot since before World War Two, and I doubt if she was attacked by raccoons.”
    â€œWhat could possibly connect Janey’s disappearance with Don’s death?”
    â€œAll I can do is guess. Maybe they both knew something about somebody that they shouldn’t have known.”
    â€œBut what could they possibly know?”
    â€œMaybe they found out who killed Dick and his family.”
    â€œThat seems farfetched; if Don had known something about that, he’d have told you, wouldn’t he?”
    â€œHe would have, if he’d lived through the night,” Rawls said. “Remember, he wanted to meet the next day, said he had something to tell me.”
    â€œWhy didn’t he just tell you on the phone when he called?”
    â€œPeople in our line of work have a nicely developed aversion to passing important information on the phone. It’s not that he would have thought his line was tapped; it’s just that he would have been uncomfortable discussing something like that, except face-to-face.”
    â€œBut how does Janey come into it?”
    â€œI don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” Rawls said. “I’m going to talk to everybody who clapped eyes on Don and Janey the day Don died. I should have done it sooner.” He got into the Range Rover and drove away.
    Stone went back into the house. He wasn’t about to mention this to Arrington.

30
    T HEY HAD AN ESPECIALLY good dinner that evening: Seth had