Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 14

Holly.”
    â€œStone, if you’re going up to Irene’s, let me come with you. If the police show up, I can help.”
    â€œThanks, Thomas, good idea. We’ll see you in five minutes.” Stone hung up and turned to Holly. “Thomas has pointed out that if Harold is Teddy and Teddy is the shooter, we don’t want to be around him when the police arrive. Thomas is going with us; he can help if the police turn up.”
    â€œOkay with me,” Holly said, jamming the 9 mm into her jeans. “Dino, if we don’t come back immediately, will you take our bags to the airport, and we’ll meet you there?”
    â€œSure,” Dino said.

    T eddy had moved everything he needed out of his workshop, and now he turned on a fan he had rigged up that blew dust around the room. His cell phone buzzed on his belt.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œIt’s Thomas. Stone and Holly are determined to go up to Black Mountain, looking for you. I’m coming with them.”
    â€œHow much time do I have?”
    â€œFifteen, maybe twenty minutes.”
    â€œSlow them down if you can.”
    â€œI’ll try.”
    Teddy hung up and took his things outside.

56
    T homas hung up and called Sir Leslie Hewitt.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œLeslie, it’s Thomas. Have you heard?
    â€œYes, it’s all over the TV. I was astonished that he got Winston Sutherland. How did that happen?”
    â€œI haven’t spoken with him about it yet, but my guess is he had the opportunity and took it.”
    â€œWell, that advances things rather more than we had planned, doesn’t it?”
    â€œIt certainly does, and I think we’d better get the group together tonight to discuss our options. We can’t make any moves until after Winston’s funeral, but we’d better be talking to a lot of people before they bury him.”
    â€œDo you have any idea where Teddy is now?”
    â€œI just spoke to him; I assume he’s either at Irene’s or in his workshop. Stone Barrington and Holly Barker are going up there now looking for him, and I’m going with them.”
    â€œWill they be armed?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œThomas, we can’t let Teddy be caught.”
    â€œI’ll do what I can to get him off the island.”
    Leslie paused for a moment. “Thomas, I’m not sure you’re taking my meaning.”
    â€œI’m sorry, Leslie, what am I missing?”
    â€œCertainly, it would be good if Teddy immediately got off the island, but if that seems in any way in doubt, then you can’t allow him to be taken by the police. I don’t know what the ramifications are of having him taken by this CIA woman, but I can’t think that that would be to our benefit, either.”
    â€œFor all practical purposes, Teddy is off the island now; his yacht sailed, and I’ve asked the fellow we put aboard to be sure to be seen at the western end of St. Martin, so the police can confirm that Harold left yesterday.”
    â€œI think, in view of Winston’s rather sudden demise, we may have to replan a bit.”
    â€œWhat do you suggest?”
    â€œFirst, as I said before, we cannot allow Teddy to be caught. We can’t even allow his body to be found.”
    â€œHis body?”
    â€œThomas, please focus; if he’s in danger of being caught, you’re going to have to kill him and get the body into the sea.”
    Thomas sat quietly for a moment and thought.
    â€œThink of the ramifications of his being caught: they’ll beat everything out of him. If they only have the body, they’ll start to confirm every detail of his identity, and even though he told us he did a masterful job of becoming Harold Pitts, that identity will eventually unravel.”
    â€œYou have a point,” Thomas said.
    â€œThere’s more of my point: when they find out he isn’t Pitts, they’ll have an unidentifiable corpse on their hands, so they’ll start digging into his island connections, and that means you and me. They’ll think that we hired an assassin.”
    â€œTeddy came to us, remember?”
    â€œThat won’t matter. Teddy and his corpse have to disappear completely and forever.”
    â€œWhat about the boat? It will eventually get to Ft. Lauderdale, and there’ll be someone there to meet it.”
    â€œYour man has a satellite telephone doesn’t he?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThen