“If you will be patient, I will try to find another means of securing it. In the meantime, do not, repeat, not give it to your neighbor. Is that clear?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“I know this is inconvenient, and I apologize for that. Goodbye.” Will hung up.

Holly looked at him with curiosity. “I’m surprised you didn’t tell him that Ed Rawls has cached all the source materials of what’s in the strong case.”

“At the moment, if what Ed has told us is true, you and I are the only people besides him who are aware of that.”

“And you’re afraid Will might tell somebody else?”

“We don’t know who else Will has talked to about this. Kate? Members of his staff? He may be taking advice from some source we’re not aware of, and anyway, I don’t see how it’s in anybody’s legitimate interest to know what Ed has in that former swimming pool.”

“Well, it sure doesn’t seem that it’s in our interest to know about it. I wish Ed had never told us.”

“I’d rather know it than not know it. That way, if I come to lose the strong case, at least I know there’s a backup.”

—

AN HOUR LATER, as Stone was reading the Times, his phone rang again. “Hello?”

“I’ve done some checking,” Will said, “and I am reliably informed that yesterday and today there is a regional meeting of some northeastern FBI personnel taking place in Boston and that, at this moment, there is not a single FBI agent present in the state of Maine. That’s all I can tell you at the moment.”

“Thank you.”

“Goodbye.” They both hung up.

“What was that?” Holly said.

“The voice of doom.” He told her what Will had said.

“Oh, shit,” she replied. “Maybe we should get out of here.”

“I’m not opposed to that, I just don’t know where to go.”

“New York?”

“An obvious place to look for me.”

“Your place in England or Paris?”

“Do you have your passport?” Stone asked.

“No.”

“Neither do I, and I don’t particularly want to wait for it to be sent.”

She thought for a moment. “I can think of one place we can go—it’s comfortable and, I expect, secure.”

Stone brightened. “Christian St. Clair’s yacht?”

“Exactly.”

Stone found the card that St. Clair had given him and called the number.

“Stone? What a nice surprise to hear from you.”

“Thank you, Christian. Holly and I wanted to thank you for your wonderful hospitality last evening. We had a fine time.”

“We were all delighted to see you. Have you looked into the possibility of joining our cruise?”

“We have, and we’d be delighted to.”

“Are you still in Islesboro?”

“We are.”

“We’re anchored in North Haven. I’ll send a launch for you.”