“None at all. Dead silence. At least nobody has found a body, as in the other cases.”

Dino spoke up. “I don’t see how anybody could take Holly.”

“It’s not that hard,” Lance said. “Even a well-trained, aware person can be lulled into thinking he’s safe long enough to be captured or killed.”

“Thanks for bringing Daisy,” Stone said.

“It was harder getting her out of that kennel than getting an agent out of a foreign jail. Dino’s badge did the trick, finally. I had to sign a form, releasing them from all liability.”

“You said you had some other means of searching for Holly,” Stone said to Lance.

Lance glanced at his watch. “I do, but it will be another couple of hours before the materials will be in my hands.”

AT THE HOUSE, Lance went directly to Dick’s secret office and got on the computer. Stone watched as he loaded a stack of acetate sheets into the printer.

“Now we wait,” Lance said. “Is lunch ready?”

They sat down around the kitchen table, while Mabel served the food and Stone took everybody through every step of the past two days.

“Any questions?” Stone asked, finally.

Ham spoke up. “Is it true that after forty-eight hours the chances of getting a missing person back are about nil?”

“No, it’s not true,” Stone said. “Not in this situation, at least.”

“Why not this situation?”

“First, because it’s Holly, and she is much more capable of dealing with these circumstances than your average abductee. If she has even the slightest opportunity, she’ll kill her abductor and get out of wherever she is. It’s unlikely that he has any notion of how much danger he’s in.”

Ham nodded, seeming to take some comfort in that idea.

They were on coffee when Lance looked at his watch. “Excuse me, I want to see if I’ve had anything from Langley yet.” He got up and left the table.

Seth came in from outdoors. “Stone, can you come down to the dock for a minute? There’s something I want to show you.”

“We’re expecting Sergeant Young shortly, Seth. Can it wait?”

“I don’t think so,” Seth said.

Stone got up and followed, and everybody else followed Stone. Seth led them down to the dock where Dick’s yacht and the Hinckley picnic boat were docked.

“This is what caught my attention,” Seth said, pointing at a corner of the picnic boat’s stern. “Did you do that by any chance?”

The corner was damaged, as if it had been hit from above by something heavy.

“No, I didn’t,” Stone said. “This boat was pristine the last time I was aboard.”