“I haven’t invited you to search my house, and you haven’t shown me a search warrant.”

“We can get one.”

“And where would you do that?” Stone asked.

“From the nearest United States attorney.”

“You’d go all the way to Boston to have the fun of searching my house?”

The two men looked at each other. “Where’s the nearest U.S. attorney?” Smithson asked.

“I don’t know,” Peters replied.

“Well, I’m not going to tell you,” Stone said. “Anyway, if you located one you’d be obliged to show him some probable cause. Have you got any of that handy? If you can show me some, I might save you a trip to the U.S. attorney.”

The two men said nothing.

“That’s what I thought,” Stone said. “Gentlemen, if you hurry, you can still catch the ferry, otherwise it’s a two-hour wait, if it’s not refueling day, and then it’s a six-hour wait. And there’s not much fun to be had on the island dressed as you are.”

Smithson looked at his watch. “Let’s get out of here,” he said to his partner. Then, to Stone: “We’ll be back.”

“Promise?”

“Believe me.”

“Don’t forget your search warrant—or your probable cause.”

He locked the door behind them.

Holly came down the stairs. “I heard some of it from above. What the hell did they want?”

“A missing piece of luggage. Sound familiar?”

“Uh-oh.”

“Do you think everybody on the planet has come to know about this?”

“A good many of them, apparently.”

“I don’t get why the FBI is interested.”

“Neither do I, but has it occurred to you that it might have been the FBI who visited Joe Adams in his garden? Or followed us around that day? Or prowled around this house the other night?”

“Well, they were wearing suits and ties, weren’t they? The FBI is just about the last holdout for that particular fashion statement.”

“You know, if I were in my office I could look into this.”

“And what scientific equipment would you have there that would allow you to look into it that you don’t have here?”

“You have a point,” Holly admitted.

“Then why aren’t you looking into it?”

“Frankly, I don’t know where to start.”

“Well, I do,” Stone said. “Where’s my cell phone?”

“Upstairs, I guess.”

Stone started up the stairs. “I’ll be right back.” Stone found his phone and called the White House operator. “I’d like to leave a message for President Will Lee,” he said.

“Who’s calling?”

“My name is Stone Barrington.”

“Would you like me to connect you?”

“No, I’d just like to leave a message for him to phone me. He has the number.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Stone hung up and went downstairs. “Now we wait,” he said to Holly.

17