STONE AND DINO ARRIVED back at the dock, tired and cold, a little after seven o’clock. They put out bumpers and made the picnic boat fast, then went into the house. Everybody was sitting around looking disconsolate.

Lance got up and went into the little office, silently waving Stone to follow him.

“What’s up?” Stone asked.

“I’ve heard from our ex–Boston cop,” he said. “He found nothing new in Caleb Stone’s background, but something cropped up on his two sons, Eben and Enos. You remember, they had a sealed juvenile record.”

“Yes. Was he able to crack it?”

“He was. The twins were arrested when they were thirteen for torturing and killing small animals, neighborhood pets.”

“That’s a marker for later criminal behavior,” Stone said.

“Yes, but there hasn’t been any further criminal behavior. The boys got a year’s probation, the family moved to another neighborhood and it was over.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes. You asked me to check with the Yale campus police and the New Haven force.”

“Right. Anything turn up?”

“Same as before with the Yale cops: They’ve had no problems with the twins. Neither has New Haven.”

“But?”

“But, you were on the money about something else: There are four unsolved cases of kidnapping, rape and murder of women in New Haven over the past two years, none of them students. Three were townies, girls who hung out in local bars, and one was a young housewife.”

“Is there anything to connect them to the twins?”

“No, there’s nothing to connect them to anybody, so calling the twins suspects is a real stretch. You can’t accuse them of four murders because they harmed some animals when they were kids.”

Stone picked up the phone and called Sergeant Young’s cell phone.

“This is Young.”

“It’s Stone Barrington. You have a list, don’t you, of everybody who’s present on the island and those who have left?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Will you look up Caleb Stone’s family? I’d like to know where they all are.”

“Just a minute.”

Stone could hear papers being shuffled.

Young came back on the line. “Caleb Stone and his wife are at home on the island; his twin sons left five days ago to participate in a yacht race in Newport, Rhode Island.”

“Has the location of the twins been confirmed?”

“We confirmed that they took the ferry, but nothing after that.”

“Will you see if you can confirm their location for every day since they left the island?”

“And this is important why?”

“We’ve learned that the boys have a juvenile record for torturing animals.”

“That’s not good.”

“We’ve also learned that the City of New Haven has four unsolved murders of local women over the past two years. The boys are students at Yale.”

“Yes, I know. Can they connect any of the murdered women to the twins?”

“They have no suspects.”