“Please bring me up to date on that.”

Stone recounted his entire conversation with Lance. “I came home prepared to turn over the strong case, but that is as gone as Ed. He got into my safe.”

“Oh, shit,” Holly said, flopping into a chair. “I’d better call Kate.”

“Given your present status at the White House, I don’t think you could get through.” He called the White House and left a message for Will, adding “urgent” to it.

“Where would he go?” she asked. “Islesboro doesn’t exist for him anymore.”

“I was about to ask you the same question,” Stone said. “I have no fucking idea.”

“The ex-wife,” she said.

“I thought of that, but I don’t know who or where she is, or even if she’s still alive. I mentioned it to Lance, and I expect he’s looking into it.”

“Does he have any money?”

“I’ve no idea.”

The phone rang, and Stone answered it.

“It’s Lance. Ed’s ex-wife died five months ago, and apparently they hadn’t spoken in years. I’ve got people going through his personnel file, listing people that he might contact.”

“Great.”

“I’ll call you when I know more.” He hung up.

Stone’s phone rang almost immediately. “Yes?”

“Stone Barrington?”

“Yes, who’s this?”

“This is Marvin at the Steele Insurance Group’s claims department.”

“Yes?”

“I tried to reach Mr. Rawls but got a rather strange message on his phone.”

“Yes?”

“I thought perhaps you’d like to know that his claim has been approved, and I’ve wire-transferred half a million dollars to his bank account. That is the amount his home was insured for. If you could ask Mr. Rawls to send us a list of his furnishings with their replacement costs, we will process that claim separately. We thought he might like to have some cash now.”

“Yes, I expect he would,” Stone said. “Did you wire it to his Islesboro, Maine, account?”

“Let me see.”

Stone could hear computer keys being tapped.

“No, not to the Maine account—one in Georgetown . . . let’s see where that is . . . Ah, it’s in someplace called the Cayman Islands.”

“Thank you, Marvin. I’ll give Mr. Rawls your message when I speak to him.” He hung up and turned to Holly. “To answer your last question, his insurance claim for his house was approved and the funds wired. He now has half a million dollars in an offshore account.”

31

STONE’S PHONE RANG AGAIN. “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Will Lee said.

“Bad news, I’m afraid,” Stone said.

“Our friend from Virginia has already called and brought me up to date.”

“I’m sorry about the package. It was locked in my safe.”

“You weren’t expected to have him in handcuffs. Do you have any idea where he may have gone?”