“I’ve pretty much eliminated the twins as suspects here because of their absence from the island.”

“I’d very much like to know if their presence in Newport can be confirmed.”

“So would I. I’ll call Mr. Stone and find out how to reach them.”

“Thank you, Sergeant.”

Young hung up.

“What do you think?” Lance asked.

“I think this theory is too thin to mention to Ham; he’d want to hunt down the boys. Still, we don’t have anything else to go on, so this lead, however slim, needs to be run down, and Young is on it.”

“Oh,” Lance said, picking up some acetates, “we’ve got the thermal images for last night.”

“Let’s take them into the study; everybody needs to be involved, especially Ham. He’s worrying me.”

They left the little office.

“We’ve got last night’s satellite thermal images of the island,” Lance said.

Everybody gathered around the coffee table, and Lance spread them out and pointed as he talked. “As you can see, at three-twenty-six A.M., when these images were captured, the public parts of town are empty of warm bodies: The yacht club, the Dark Harbor Store, the dining room at the inn are all empty. Everybody is in bed, pretty much.”

Ham pointed at a warm spot. “Is that a car?” he asked.

“Yes, probably a police car on patrol,” Lance replied.

“What is all this telling us?” Ham asked.

“That people are where they’re supposed to be. Nobody’s out prowling the island, kidnapping people. They’re all at home in bed.”

“A lot of empty houses,” Stone said.

“That’s because so many people have left the island,” Lance pointed out.

Mabel Hotchkiss came into the room and announced dinner.

They had finished dinner and were on coffee when the phone rang. Stone took it in the study.

“It’s Tom Young,” the sergeant said.

“What did you find out?”

“I called Caleb Stone and got a cell phone number for the twins, then I called the number and got voice mail instead of an answer.”

“So we know nothing more about their whereabouts?”

“Not exactly. Eben called me back a few minutes later and reported that they were off Martha’s Vineyard in a race around the Vineyard, Nantucket and Block Island, then back to Newport. They started this morning.”

“Did you believe him?”

“I had no reason not to,” Young said.

“If the race didn’t start until this morning, then where have they been for the past four days?”

“According to Eben, in Newport, getting the boat ready for the race and partying. I called the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, who are running the race, and the twins are listed as crew on the yacht Hotshot, which is owned by a friend of theirs. They have a crew of six aboard.”

“Did anybody remember seeing them in Newport before this morning?”