Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 14

first.”
    â€œI’m glad he didn’t get here simultaneously.”
    â€œMe too.”
    â€œWhat did you find inside?”
    â€œTwo unoccupied houses,” she said. “Three, with Robertson’s. The Pemberton place had men’s and women’s clothes and some canned food, but the Weatherby house, though it’s furnished, seems never to have been occupied at all.”
    â€œMaybe they’re not in the country.”
    â€œMaybe,” she said doubtfully.
    â€œWell, if they were in the country, there’d be signs that they’re living there.”
    â€œMaybe,” she said again.
    â€œWhat are you thinking?”
    â€œI’m thinking that I don’t know what to think.”
    â€œGo for the simple explanation: neither Pemberton nor Weatherby is on the island.”
    â€œNor Robertson.”
    â€œCan we go back to the inn and have dinner now?”
    â€œI guess.”
    At the bottom of Black Mountain Road, Stone turned toward the inn. “Holly,” he said, “if you say Robertson is not Teddy, and neither Pemberton nor Weatherby is on the island, and if Teddy killed Croft, then neither Pemberton nor Weatherby could be Teddy. Or more likely, Teddy didn’t kill Croft, somebody else did.”
    â€œDepressing, isn’t it?” she asked.
    â€œNot really. If you think about it, the best possible outcome of this little jaunt would be that Teddy isn’t on St. Marks, that he has never been on St. Marks.”
    â€œThat’s what depresses me,” she said.
    â€œIt shouldn’t. Lance is just dying to be told that Teddy isn’t here. That would get him off the hook with the director, wouldn’t it?”
    â€œI guess.”
    â€œOh, I get it: you were hoping to cuff Teddy and deliver him to Lance with a big red bow on him.”
    â€œSomething like that.”
    â€œWell, at least if Teddy isn’t here, you won’t have to kill him.”
    â€œWhat makes you think I would kill him, if he were here? I don’t even have a gun.”
    â€œYou’re a trained killer; you don’t need a gun.”
    â€œWell, what makes you think I would slip a stiletto into him, or garrote him? I’m not an assassin.”
    â€œIf we find Teddy, that’s what Lance is going to ask you to do—or, more likely, order you to do.”
    â€œI won’t.”
    â€œSo you’ll just tell Lance to stick Teddy up his ass?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œOr resign from the Agency?”
    â€œI don’t know; I’ll think about that when I have to.”
    â€œYou’d better think about it now. My advice is, tell Lance that Pemberton and Weatherby are not here, and you think somebody besides Teddy killed Croft.”
    â€œBut what if I don’t think that?”
    â€œYou’d better start reflecting on the consequences of not thinking that,” Stone said.
    Holly didn’t speak for the rest of the way back to the inn.

50
    C aptain duBois sat at his desk the following morning and disconsolately went through a large stack of files containing all the information the police had on visitors to the island. The primary objects of his investigation had simply melted away as suspects: the Pepper couple were in custody at the time of the shooting; Pemberton and Weatherby appeared to be off the island, though he could find no record of their departure; Irene Foster’s friend’s alibi had been confirmed by Thomas Hardy; he was at the marina every day; plus Barrington’s and Heller’s backgrounds checked out in every detail, and they had been dismissed as suspects by no less an authority than the prime minister. He wished there were an underground political opposition, so he could arrest and torture them. He began casting around for some plausible theory of the assassination, and gradually an idea began to grow.
    He picked up the phone, rang the prime minister’s office and requested an immediate appointment, in connection with Croft’s assassination. After a brief wait, he was told to come immediately. He put on a freshly pressed uniform and walked out of the building to his waiting, hated Land Rover, still formulating the presentation of his idea.

    T he prime minister sat, silent, behind his large mahogany desk and seemed to be reading and signing papers, while duBois stood at attention, his hat tucked under his arm, and waited.
    Finally, the PM spoke.