Unintended Consequences

car zoomed by, headed in the other direction.
    “What’s that guy doing up at this time of night?” Stone asked nobody in particular.
    Viv made another attempt to pull alongside, then suddenly steered into another sharp turn. “I didn’t see that coming!” she yelled. “Where’s the van?”
    Dino stuck his head out the window and looked back. “They slammed on brakes and took a right into the woods!” he shouted.
    Viv came to a short, straight stretch of road, stomped on the brakes, and whipped the car around 180 degrees. Amazingly, it did not roll over. Then they were going back the way they came, and they could see the van in the woods, upside down. Viv pulled into the side road the van had tried and failed to make and slid to a halt.
    “You stay behind us, Stone!” Dino commanded as he and Viv led the way toward the upturned van. Viv had produced a small but powerful flashlight from somewhere, illuminating the van. One of its wheels was still turning.
    Each of the Bacchettis took a side of the van, with Viv shining her light through the driver’s open door.
    “Empty,” Viv said. “They’re gone. Everybody shut up and listen.”
    Everybody did. They heard nothing.
    “They’re either running or hiding,” Viv said, switching off her light, “and we’re too good a target. Let’s go back to the house and call the state police. They have a trooper stationed in the village.”
    They tramped back to the Bentley and were shortly headed back.
    “Thanks for not bending the car,” Stone said to Viv.
    “Don’t mention it,” Viv replied.
    They got back to the house and found the phones dead. “They cut the wires. That’s why the fire alarm system didn’t go off.”
    “How far do I have to drive to get a cell phone signal?” Viv asked.
    “Go back to the main road and take a left, toward Washington Depot. Halfway down the hill there’s a church on your right. Pull over there, and your phone will work.”
    Viv ran back to the Bentley and drove away.
    Stone found everybody sitting in the library around a cold fire. “You might as well get some sleep,” he said to them.

40
    S tone awoke a little before eight to the smell of bacon wafting up the stairs from the kitchen. He showered, shaved, and dressed while Helga slept on like a gorgeous Swedish statue, then he went downstairs. Dino and Viv were at the table.
    “Morning,” they said.
    “Good morning. Helga is still out like a light. Is Marcel still asleep, too?”
    “No, Marcel is awake,” a voice said from the door behind him. Marcel came into the kitchen, sat down, and helped himself to muffins, eggs, and bacon. “I don’t know why,” he said, “but I slept like a child.”
    “It’s the country air,” Stone said.
    “I suppose so. Anything new?”
    Viv spoke up. “I got ahold of the state police last night and went with them to check out the van. It was gone.”
    “Gone?” Stone asked. “Where would they have got a wrecker in the middle of the night?”
    “We reckoned they must have just rolled the van upright and driven it away.”
    “Then there was more than one of them.”
    “Probably more than two,” Viv said. “It was a big van.”
    “Did you see anything inside it that might help us find it?” Stone asked.
    “No, we were concentrating on the people who had been inside. I expected that the state police would haul in the van and go over it properly. They put out an alert for it, but the van was probably back in New York by the time we got to the scene. Oh, I reported your phone out, so somebody should be here soon to reconnect it.”
    “Thanks.”
    “So what do we do now?” Dino asked.
    “How about just enjoy our weekend?” Stone suggested. “My house won’t have any windows in it until Monday morning, so there’s no point in going back to the city.”
    “How should we enjoy our weekend?” Dino asked.
    “I don’t know—lunch at a country inn and some antiquing?”
    “Antiquing?” Dino said. “My favorite thing!”
    “Dino,” Viv said, “we’re apartment hunting, remember? We’re going to need new things to fill up a bigger place. Antiquing sounds good to me.”
    “Then there’s golf,” Stone said.
    “Ha!” Dino said. “Viv, you antique, we’ll golf.”
    “I’ll go with Viv,” Marcel said. “I’ve never seen any of New England.”
    “Okay,” Stone said, “drinks at six, followed by dinner in Litchfield. I booked a table at the West Street Grill before we left. Viv, you and Marcel