“He’s not in. I stopped by his room to ask him something, but he didn’t respond to my knock.”

“Thank you.” He hung up, and he had an awful feeling that Ed might have found the pressure too much and done something to himself. He got onto the elevator and went up to the guest floor, then knocked sharply on Ed’s door. “Ed? It’s Stone. You there?” No response, so with misgivings, he opened the door.

The room was in perfect order, and there was a stack of empty Brooks Brothers boxes neatly piled at the foot of the bed. The small duffel he had loaned Ed was sitting on the bed. He checked the bathroom: in perfect order.

Stone went back to his office, a knot in the pit of his stomach, and tapped in the combination to his safe. He spun the wheel and swung open the big door, checking the contents. The strong case was gone.

He sat down heavily, got out his iPhone, and called Ed.

“Good day,” his voice said. “The person you have called no longer exists, and this phone is in a dumpster somewhere. Kindly go fuck yourself.”

Stone hung up the phone. The bottom seemed to have dropped out of his stomach. He went into his contacts list, found Lance’s cell number, and called it.

No one answered; there was just a beep. “Lance, it’s Stone Barrington. Please call me at once.”

He put the phone down and tried to think where Ed would go. His only home was a heap of ashes and rubble, so it was unlikely he would go there. Then where? He realized that he had never known Ed anywhere else but Islesboro. His phone rang.

“Hello?”

“What is it, Stone? I’m in a hurry.”

“Ed Rawls has flown the coop.”

“Which coop?”

“My coop. And the strong case is no longer in my safe. Tell me, is Ed one of those dozen people you know who could open it in ten minutes?”

“Jesus H. Christ,” Lance said. “I thought we had this all sorted out.”

“So did I, but apparently Ed disagrees.”

“Do you have any idea where he could have gone?”

“His only home is Islesboro, and that’s burned to a crisp, and I’ve no idea who or where his ex-wife is.”

“I’ll call you back.” Lance hung up.

Holly rapped on his office door and came in. “Did you find Ed?”

Stone redialed Ed’s number and handed Holly the phone. She listened and handed it back to him. “What does this mean?”

“He’s gone.”

“That’s perfectly obvious. What does it mean?”

“I had a long conversation with Lance over lunch, and he convinced me that this whole business with Ed is much worse than I had contemplated.”

“In what way?”

“Ed is, apparently, now a danger to himself and others—in fact, a danger to pretty much everything we hold dear.”