“Me, neither,” Seth said, “and nobody who knew Dick is going to put much stock in it. Folks start arriving tomorrow, and they’ll have seen about it in the Boston papers, so there’ll be a lot of curiosity.”

“Well, let’s not starve them for information, but don’t give anybody the impression that I think Caleb is in any way responsible. He and his family hadn’t even arrived on the island at the time, so let’s not hang it around his neck.” Then they got up and went back into the house.

THAT NIGHT, after dinner, the group enjoyed coffee and brandy before a crackling fire in the living room.

“Lance,” Stone said, “there’s a possibility we haven’t talked about.”

“What’s that?”

“Could these murders have been work related? Dick’s work, I mean.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve thought a lot about it. I’ve reviewed the threats Dick received in London over the years. There were more of them than you might think, but most from nuts or the ineffectual. Generally speaking, terrorist groups don’t tell you they’re going to kill you; they just kill you. Anyway, there was nothing in the file less than a year old. The other thing is that it just doesn’t happen that foreigners murder Agency personnel in the U.S. I can’t think of a single case when that’s happened. Add to that fact that Dick and his family were in, if not an inaccessible place, then one very difficult to access without being noticed.”

Dino spoke up. “We haven’t talked about the possibility of someone arriving in a small boat to do the job. A team, or even an individual, could have pulled a rubber dinghy out of the water less than thirty yards from this house.”

“I grant you that,” Lance said. “A commando-style raid, in the middle of the night, would have been the way to do it, if you wanted to do it, but nobody’s claimed responsibility, and these groups usually do. Nobody at the Agency has been able to detect the slightest sign that a group had or was about to conduct an operation of this sort. I’ve checked the weather that night, and there was thick fog all night and into the morning, and believe me, the fog gets really thick up here.

“Frankly, in my own mind, I’ve ruled out the possibility of an incursion from outside, and my report will so state. I’m more inclined to think that somebody local had it in for Dick.”

“Seth tells me that Dick and his family were very popular locally,” Stone said.

“And Caleb is accounted for,” Dino said. “We’re getting nowhere fast.”

“Well,” Holly said, “I’m going to turn in, I think.” She got up. “Good night all.” She headed for the stairs.