“So, tell me why you bought a house in Maine,” she said.

Stone sat down beside her. “It belonged to my first cousin, Dick Stone, who died recently and left me the house. Well, the use of the house for my lifetime and that of my heirs.”

“How old a man was Dick?”

“My age.”

“Heart attack?”

“Not exactly.”

“Stone, I’m beginning to get the feeling that I’m not going to like the rest of this story.”

“Dick and his wife and daughter were murdered a couple of weeks ago.”

“Not in this house, I hope.”

“Dick was at his desk, over there; his wife and daughter were in Dino’s room.”

“Who murdered them, and why?”

“Dick was CIA; the murders seem to be related to his work.”

“Seem to be related to his work?”

“There’s evidence to suggest that and no evidence to suggest otherwise.”

“Am I going to find his wife’s clothes in my closet?”

“All their personal effects have been removed. It’s my house now.”

“Why is Dino sleeping upstairs instead of in the guesthouse?” Arrington didn’t miss much.

“There’s no security system in the guesthouse.”

“And why do we need a security system on this tiny island?”

“It’s only a precaution. Another man, this one a retired CIA officer, was killed in a fashion similar to the way Dick was killed a couple of days ago.”

“Has anyone tried to kill you yet?”

“No, and there isn’t the slightest reason to suppose that anyone might.”

“Stone, every time I see you somebody is trying to kill you or trying to kill me.”

“Those incidents were not my fault.”

“No, it’s never your fault; it just seems to happen to you.”

“I have that history, but I believe we’re all quite safe here.”

“How good is the security system?”

“It was designed and installed by the CIA. By the way, don’t go downstairs at night before I disable the system. There are motion detectors downstairs.”

“I’m relieved to hear it.”

Peter came running back into the house.

“Peter, don’t run indoors,” his mother said.

“I’m sorry. The boats are neat, Stone. Can we go out in one of them?”

“Sure, we can. Which one would you like to go out in?”

“The sailboat.”

“All right, we’ll go out after lunch.” Stone glanced at Arrington. “I think there’s a life jacket just your size on board, Peter.”

Arrington nodded approvingly.