Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 12

every day since they left the island?”
    â€œAnd this is important why?”
    â€œWe’ve learned that the boys have a juvenile record for torturing animals.”
    â€œThat’s not good.”
    â€œWe’ve also learned that the City of New Haven has four unsolved murders of local women over the past two years. The boys are students at Yale.”
    â€œYes, I know. Can they connect any of the murdered women to the twins?”
    â€œThey have no suspects.”
    â€œI’ve pretty much eliminated the twins as suspects here because of their absence from the island.”
    â€œI’d very much like to know if their presence in Newport can be confirmed.”
    â€œSo would I. I’ll call Mr. Stone and find out how to reach them.”
    â€œThank you, Sergeant.”
    Young hung up.
    â€œWhat do you think?” Lance asked.
    â€œI think this theory is too thin to mention to Ham; he’d want to hunt down the boys. Still, we don’t have anything else to go on, so this lead, however slim, needs to be run down, and Young is on it.”
    â€œOh,” Lance said, picking up some acetates, “we’ve got the thermal images for last night.”
    â€œLet’s take them into the study; everybody needs to be involved, especially Ham. He’s worrying me.”
    They left the little office.
    â€œWe’ve got last night’s satellite thermal images of the island,” Lance said.
    Everybody gathered around the coffee table, and Lance spread them out and pointed as he talked. “As you can see, at three-twenty-six A . M ., when these images were captured, the public parts of town are empty of warm bodies: The yacht club, the Dark Harbor Store, the dining room at the inn are all empty. Everybody is in bed, pretty much.”
    Ham pointed at a warm spot. “Is that a car?” he asked.
    â€œYes, probably a police car on patrol,” Lance replied.
    â€œWhat is all this telling us?” Ham asked.
    â€œThat people are where they’re supposed to be. Nobody’s out prowling the island, kidnapping people. They’re all at home in bed.”
    â€œA lot of empty houses,” Stone said.
    â€œThat’s because so many people have left the island,” Lance pointed out.
    Mabel Hotchkiss came into the room and announced dinner.
    They had finished dinner and were on coffee when the phone rang. Stone took it in the study.
    â€œIt’s Tom Young,” the sergeant said.
    â€œWhat did you find out?”
    â€œI called Caleb Stone and got a cell phone number for the twins, then I called the number and got voice mail instead of an answer.”
    â€œSo we know nothing more about their whereabouts?”
    â€œNot exactly. Eben called me back a few minutes later and reported that they were off Martha’s Vineyard in a race around the Vineyard, Nantucket and Block Island, then back to Newport. They started this morning.”
    â€œDid you believe him?”
    â€œI had no reason not to,” Young said.
    â€œIf the race didn’t start until this morning, then where have they been for the past four days?”
    â€œAccording to Eben, in Newport, getting the boat ready for the race and partying. I called the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, who are running the race, and the twins are listed as crew on the yacht Hotshot, which is owned by a friend of theirs. They have a crew of six aboard.”
    â€œDid anybody remember seeing them in Newport before this morning?”
    â€œNobody at the yacht club. The boat was docked at a marina in town, and I’ve asked the Newport police to go down there and see if any of the staff remember seeing a pair of large identical twins there the past few days. They’ll get back to me.”
    â€œThanks, Sergeant. I’d like to know what you hear.”
    â€œI’ll call you when I know something.” Young hung up.
    The others straggled into the study from dinner, Lance first.
    â€œThat was Young,” Stone said. “He talked to one of the twins; they’re aboard a yacht off Martha’s Vineyard. He’s asked the Newport police for help in placing them in the town over the past four days, and he’ll get back to us when he hears something.”
    Dino played bartender for after-dinner drinks.
    Stone didn’t know whether to hope his two young cousins were involved in all this, but he wanted something to happen.

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    H OLLY FOUGHT TO stay awake. She had a