“Well,” Young said, “this is the most recent map of the island, completed less than three months ago, but you’re right, the structure in the image doesn’t appear on the map.”

“Look at this,” Dino said, pointing from one image to another. “We’ve got three days of thermal imaging here, and in every one of them we can see one hot spot—one person—in exactly the same position. It doesn’t move, day or night.”

“Maybe an old person, an invalid?” Young said.

Holly spoke up. “Or me. I’ve been tied to a bed all that time. Good God, it’s me.”

57

CALEB STONE MADE his way back to the obscured creek, past the overhanging brush and slowly up the little waterway to the boathouse. As he approached he could see a glow from a window. Someone had lit a candle.

He tied up his Whaler and went upstairs. Eben and Enos sat on an old sofa, looking tired.

“Hey, Dad,” the boys said simultaneously. They often spoke at the same time.

“Hello, boys,” Caleb replied.

“You got rid of her, huh?” Eben asked. Of the two, Eben was the more assertive.

“In a manner of speaking.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Caleb dragged up a seedy, overstuffed chair and sat down. “I let her go.”

The twins both sat up. “Are you out of your fucking mind?” Enos asked.

“Certainly not, and watch your mouth.”

“Easy,” Eben said to his brother. “I’m sure Dad had his reasons.”

“I certainly did,” Caleb replied. “One more murder on this island and we’d have the National Guard in here. They searched our house, you know.”

“Dad, she’s going to tell on us,” Enos said.

“She doesn’t know anything to tell. She’s been tied to that bed, drugged, her eyes taped and her ears plugged for the past four days, ever since you left. She hasn’t had a moment of consciousness when she could see anything except that computer.” He pointed at the laptop, glowing in the dark.

“I don’t get it,” Eben said. “Where’s the percentage in letting her go?”

“For one thing, they’ll stop looking for her. For another, she paid her way out.”

“Paid?”

“Listen to me, boys. You’ve got to run; there’s no other choice.”

“But why? We haven’t done anything; nobody has anything on us.”

“You’ve killed some people. They’ve eliminated all the other suspects and now they’re focusing on you. They know you weren’t on the boat when it sailed from Nantucket.”

“So, we came back. So what?”

Caleb noted that they didn’t deny the murders, but he didn’t want the details. “How did you come back?”

“We flew the airplane to Rockport, had some dinner and got the last ferry.”

“Where’s your car?”

“At the house; we walked down here.”