Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 12

away from boarding school? We called you, and you gave us up.”
    â€œCome on, boys. You were kids then; you’d done something crazy.”
    Eben stood up, and Enos stood with him. “We’re not kids anymore, and you’d be facing prison. I don’t think you’d spend the rest of your life in prison for us, do you, Enos?”
    â€œNo, I don’t think so,” Enos said.
    Caleb started to rise, but Eben pushed him back in the chair.
    â€œNo,” Eben said. “If we’re going to burn our bridges, we’d better start now.”

58
    S ETH HOTCHKISS SPOKE UP. “I know what that place is,” he said, tapping his finger on the thermal image. “It’s an old boathouse. The main house burned down, I don’t know, maybe fifteen years ago, and they never rebuilt, so it was taken off your map, Sergeant. But the boathouse is still there. There’s a little creek that runs up to it, about right here.” He tapped the map again. “But it’s overgrown, and I don’t know whether it’s navigable.”
    â€œWould the picnic boat make it up that creek?” Stone asked. “It only draws a foot and a half.”
    â€œIt wouldn’t be the depth that’s the problem,” Seth replied. “You’d have to make your way through a lot of brush.”
    â€œIs there a way to the boathouse by road?” Sergeant Young asked.
    â€œThere’s an old gate about here on the main road,” Seth said, pointing to a place on the map. “There was a dirt track down to the boathouse—I delivered some sails there once—but that would be overgrown, too. You could make it through there in a four-by-four, I expect.”
    â€œMy Range Rover would do it,” Rawls said. “It’s got a lot of ground clearance.”
    Young looked at his watch. “I’m going to have to get search warrants for the two buildings, and I’ll have trouble getting people over here before tomorrow morning, when the ferry starts running again.”
    â€œCan you get a search warrant this time of night?”
    â€œI can call a judge I know and send somebody over to his house with a warrant, then he can fax it to me here. But there’s still the matter of people.”
    â€œWe’ve got enough people right here,” Stone said.
    â€œYou’re not law enforcement.”
    â€œYou’ve got one cop, two ex-cops, a couple of federal agents, and a retired army NCO,” Stone said.
    Ham flashed a badge. “It says here I’m a police lieutenant in Florida, even if I am a dollar-a-year man.”
    â€œDeputize us,” Stone said. “We’re all armed, and we know how to handle it. We ought to go in there just before dawn, by land and by sea.”
    â€œYou want to try the creek with the picnic boat?” Young asked.
    â€œYes; we can always get out and walk if the going gets too rough.”
    Young nodded.
    â€œWait a minute,” Holly said. “There’s not going to be anybody in the boathouse.”
    â€œWhy not?” Young asked.
    â€œI don’t think anybody lives there. When I was using the computer, the only other light in the room seemed to be candles, and the computer was working on battery power. The place smells disused: no cooking odors, no cleaning fluids or furniture polish recently used.”
    â€œShe’s right,” Stone said. “We ought to go into Caleb Stone’s house first. The twins have left Nantucket; they might be back home.”
    â€œI keep telling you, it’s not the twins,” Holly said. “It’s one man.”
    â€œMaybe it’s both,” Stone said.
    Young looked doubtful. “You think it’s credible for a father to conspire with his twin sons in a string of murders?”
    â€œMaybe not, but it’s credible for a father to protect his sons, even from the law.”
    â€œAll right, this is what we’ll do,” Young said. “Stone, you and Dino and Seth take the picnic boat up the creek to the boathouse. Seth, I don’t want you going in there. You stay in the boat.”
    â€œAll right,” Seth said.
    â€œHam, Lance and I will go with Ed in the Range Rover, and the four of us will take the main residence.”
    â€œWhat about me?” Holly said. “I’m going.”
    â€œHolly, are you sure you’re up to this?”
    â€œTry and stop me.”
    â€œAll right, you go in