STONE, DINO, HOLLY AND SETH went out to the dock and got the picnic boat ready for departure. The skies had clouded up, and darkness was complete. Seth got the engine started, and the lights from the dashboard instruments and the GPS plotter offered a little light in the cockpit.

“Look,” Seth said, pointing to the plotter screen. “The creek is on the electronic chart; that will make it a piece of cake to find, even in the dark. All we have to worry about is moored boats and rocks, and I pretty much know where those are.”

“Let’s go,” Stone said. “It’s going to start to get light soon, and I want to at least be in position off the creek before that happens.”

Seth moved the boat away from the dock, and at idle speed they began moving up the inlet, away from the harbor. They could hear nothing, except the rumble of the engine. Seth increased power a little. “We could go faster, if we use the spotlight,” he said.

“As long as we can navigate safely in the dark, I’d rather not announce our presence,” Stone said.

Then, without warning, they heard the whine of a big outboard engine, and a Boston Whaler flashed past them, rocking their boat with its wake.

“Shit,” Seth said. “I didn’t hear that coming; he must have been doing twenty knots.”

“Was that Caleb’s boat?” Stone asked.

“Hard to tell with no light,” Seth replied. “Lots of Whalers hereabouts.” They continued their way up the inlet, passing moored boats along the way, making seven knots, according to the speedometer. “Creek up ahead,” Seth said. “One o’clock and a hundred yards.” He throttled back to idle.

HAM BARKER WATCHED from the rear seat as Ed Rawls’s Range Rover turned onto Caleb Stone’s driveway.

“Lights off,” said Sergeant Young from the front passenger seat. “I don’t want ’em to know we’re here until they open the door.”

“BMW convertible dead ahead,” Rawls said.

“That’s the twins’ car,” Young replied. “They’re back from Nantucket.”

The car stopped, and Ham and Lance got out of the backseat.

“Lance,” Young said, “you and Ham go around to the back door and make sure your cell phone is on. What’s the number?”

Lance gave it to him, and he tapped it into his own phone and pressed the send button. Lance opened the phone. “I’m on the line,” he said.

“Good,” Young replied. “If you hear any kind of commotion or yelling, kick in the back door and come in with your weapons drawn. You’ve got a flashlight; use it if you have to.”

“Right,” Lance said, and he and Ham began to walk to the rear of the house.