Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 14

telephone in the living room, picked it up and started unscrewing the mouthpiece.
    â€œThis is my friend Stone; we’re traveling together.”
    â€œHi, Stone.”
    â€œHi, Bill.”
    Pepper took a small disk from the phone and held it up, then he put it on the stone floor and stomped on it. “There,” he said, consulting the meter on the device in his hand, “that’s the lot. Now we can talk.”
    â€œGood,” Holly said.
    â€œI hear we’re flying out of here tomorrow with you.”
    â€œI’m afraid not. Sutherland has locked down the island; nobody leaves until Croft’s assassin is found.”
    Annie Pepper came into the room. “Hello,” she said.
    â€œAnnie, this is Holly Barker and her friend Stone Barrington. You saw them at the inn earlier in the week.”
    â€œOf course,” Annie replied.
    â€œAnnie and I had already left the police station when the Croft hit happened,” Pepper said. “I think we were in a cab by then. I didn’t hear about it until I called Lance.”
    â€œThomas Hardy told us,” Holly said.
    â€œThomas knows just about everything about everybody on this island,” Pepper said.
    â€œWould you like to stay for lunch?” Annie asked. “I’m heating up last night’s dinner; I was arrested while I was cooking it, but it seems to be okay.”
    â€œSure, if it’s no trouble,” Holly said. “Bill, business first; did you get the housing applications for Robertson, Pemberton and Weatherby downloaded before the cops came?”
    â€œYes, but they’re on my laptop, and they confiscated it. I forgot to demand its return when we got out of jail, so I was going to call Jim Tiptree and ask him to retrieve it.”
    â€œHas he been released?”
    â€œThe ambassador is working on that now, I think. There’s no way they can make him complicit in Croft’s murder. The sergeant on duty heard Croft suggest to Jim that they go outside. I think maybe Croft’s office is bugged, too, like everywhere else.”
    â€œOur cottage at the inn is bugged,” Holly said. “We were thinking of ripping them out, as you’re doing.”
    â€œWhat the hell? Croft’s not around to listen anymore.”
    The phone rang, and Pepper picked it up. “Hello? Hi, Jim; are you out? Good; I didn’t think they would have any reason to hold you. Listen, in our haste to get out of there, I didn’t get my laptop back from them; do you think you could handle that? There’s something on it that I need. Don’t worry, it’s encrypted; they’ll never be able to get into it. They caught me downloading the stuff from the government computer from their end. Great, Jim, and thanks; give me a call when you’ve got it, and I’ll come get it. Well, all right. Thanks again.” He hung up. “Jim’s going to send somebody over there for the computer and have it delivered here.”
    â€œGreat; do you know when?”
    â€œLet’s have lunch, and maybe it will be here by the time we finish.”
    They went into the kitchen, where Annie was setting the table, and Pepper opened a bottle of wine. They sat down to eat.
    â€œAre we all family here?” Pepper asked as we sat down.
    â€œYes; Stone is a consultant to the Agency, and he’s aware of everything that’s going on.”
    â€œHave you talked to Lance recently?”
    â€œNot since earlier this morning.”
    â€œYou need to talk to him again; things are heating up.”
    â€œHow so?”
    â€œI take it you think Teddy Fay might have killed Croft?”
    â€œYes, it’s like him, especially if he had some motive. My guess is he may have been paying off Croft, so that he could stay on the island.”
    â€œPossibly,” Pepper said. “I only knew Teddy slightly. He outfitted me for a mission earlier in my career.”
    â€œDid you get a look at the photos on the applications of Robertson, Pemberton and Weatherby?”
    â€œYes, and one of them could be Teddy, if he’s as good at disguise as they say.”
    â€œDo you think Sir Winston Sutherland might have any reason to suspect either of them?”
    â€œI don’t know; it depends on how much Croft told Sutherland, but from what I know about the PM, he’s a hands-on guy, a control freak, so I can’t imagine there’s much Croft knew that Sutherland