“Hey, Jake Potter, in Nantucket.”

“Yes, Jake. What did you find out?”

“I went down to the boat; your boys are here,” Potter replied. “I got their cell phone number for you.” He read it out.

“Yeah, I’ve already got that.”

“You can reach them on that number,” Jake said. “Good luck on your case, and don’t forget who helped you.”

“Thanks, Jake.” Young hung up.

Jake strolled back to his car, got in and began driving slowly up the street, looking for a pair of identical giants carrying beer. He was going to keep an eye on these two, and if they did anything funny, he was going to be all over them.

Sergeant Tom Young put his cell phone back into his shirt pocket. “That was the cop from Nantucket,” he said to Stone.

“They checked out the yacht?”

“Yes. The twins were aboard.”

“So much for that theory,” Stone said.

52

STONE WENT INTO Dick’s little office, where Lance was working on the computer. “The Nantucket police have verified that the Stone twins are there, on the yacht.”

Lance sighed. “I had hopes for that theory,” he said. He spun around in his chair. “Stone, I don’t want to talk about this in front of Ham, but I think you know that the chances of finding Holly alive are down to slim and none.”

“I can’t think about that, Lance; I just have to keep trying to figure this thing out.”

“I know you feel responsible, but you’re not,” Lance said. “You told her to go armed.”

“She did; her gun is not upstairs, and neither is the holster.”

“Then she was incapacitated at the outset, but that’s not your fault, either.”

“I wish I could feel that way about it.”

Dino called out from the study, “Hey, Stone, you and Lance come in here a minute, will you?”

Stone and Lance walked into the study to find Dino and Sergeant Young hunched over the coffee table, looking at Lance’s thermal images and the sergeant’s map of the island. “What’s up?” Stone asked.

Dino tapped the thermal image with his forefinger. “I’m just looking at this house,” he said.

“What about it?”

“This is the image from last night. It shows four people, presumably asleep, in the house, at around three-thirty A.M., two people in each of two bedrooms.”

“So?”

“So, according to Tom’s map, it’s Caleb Stone’s house.”

“And there were four people present last night?”

“Look for yourself. My question is, if the twins are in Nantucket, who are the other two people besides Caleb and his wife?”

“I don’t know. Guests maybe?”

“The twins can’t be in two places at once, Dino,” Lance said, “and we have a sighting of them by a police officer on the yacht less than an hour ago.”

“Tom,” Dino said, “do you personally know this Nantucket cop?”