“I suppose he was declining.” He saw something on TV and turned it up. They were talking about a state funeral for Joe Adams at the National Cathedral, with burial to follow at Arlington.

“That’s fitting,” Ed said.

“Do you think Sue will come to Maine this summer?”

“I expect so. They have friends on Mount Desert, neighbors they know. They had a boy killed in Vietnam but no other kids.”

“It’s going to be lonely for her,” Holly said.

Mary called them to dinner.

—

AFTER DINNER, as they were moving back into the living room, they heard a siren from a passing vehicle.

“That’s the volunteer fire department,” Ed said. He went to the front door and looked outside. “Oh, shit,” he said.

Stone and Holly joined him at the door. “What is it?”

“It’s my house,” Ed said, pointing at the flames in the distance.

“It’s a good thing you’re here, Ed.”

“Yeah, I guess they expected me to take another pill and be in bed by now.”

“We’d better call the police,” Stone said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Ed replied.

“Why not?”

“Until the place cools down and the volunteers have a chance to poke through the ashes, they’re going to think I died there, and that’s okay with me.”

“I see your point,” Stone said. “I think that early tomorrow morning we should get the Cessna over here to fly us to Rockland, then go to New York.”

“Why New York?” Ed asked.

“Safety in numbers, real cops, real FBI, should we need them. I have a large house. We’ll install you in a suite, and you can watch all the CNN you like while we figure out what to do.”

“I hate to leave,” Ed said.

“You don’t want to stay here now, Ed,” Holly said, “not until this is over.”

“It won’t be over until after the election,” Ed said. “If then.”

“Ed,” Stone asked, “are the firemen going to find your archive?”

“Unlikely,” Ed replied, “unless they’re looking for it. There are two fire doors between the house and the archive, so it wouldn’t have burned.”

Stone called Rockland airport and arranged for their pickup, then let Seth know their departure time.

—

THEY WERE AT the airport at six AM, before the island began stirring, so no one would see Ed’s departure. An hour later they were taxiing to the runway in Rockland for takeoff. Stone didn’t file a flight plan, and they flew back to Oxford, Connecticut. From there he filed, and they made a normal trip to Teterboro, where Fred was waiting with the car. An hour after that, they were pulling into Stone’s garage.

Stone locked the strong case in his safe, then took Ed upstairs to his rooms, then he returned to his office and began catching up on work with Joan.