“It’s Ed Rawls’s theory,” Stone said.

“That won’t matter to them. They’re not going to be distracted by the deaths of Don Brown and his niece. They won’t be inclined to believe that a high-ranking officer like Dick was killed by some information shared between two teenaged girls.”

“Lance, the facts surrounding what happened to Dick and his family are not going to be shaped by what Langley believes. They are what they are, and you need to explain that to them.”

“You obviously haven’t had much experience with large bureaucratic organizations,” Lance replied.

Stone laughed. “I worked for the NYPD for fourteen years.”

Lance laughed. “Touché.”

“Too many murder investigations are shaped by what the hierarchy wants to believe,” Dino said, “especially in high-profile cases. When you’re working a case, you have to ignore that, or you’ll come up with the wrong result.”

Holly spoke for the first time. “Who has motive?” she asked.

“Nobody,” Stone replied.

“How about Dick’s brother?”

“Caleb didn’t have a motive.”

“Our background check showed he was perpetually short of cash. That’ll do it in most murders.”

“Yes, but Caleb didn’t inherit from Dick, who changed his will.”

“Did the brother know Dick had changed his will? I mean, you only got the new will a couple of days before Dick’s murder.”

“You have a point,” Stone said. “It came as a surprise to Caleb when I told him. I’ll grant you he had motive, and he had a key to the house, so I’ll give you means, too, but he didn’t have opportunity. The state police put him in Boston at the time of the murders; he and his family didn’t arrive on Islesboro until the day after.”

“And how good are the state police? They didn’t do such a hot job on the first investigation of Dick’s murder, did they?”

“Again, you have a point,” Stone said.

Holly turned to Lance. “You know, we have an ex–Boston cop, Bob O’Neal, in our group. Why don’t I ask him to use his contacts at the Boston PD to reinvestigate the brother’s alibi? Maybe Caleb is smarter than we’re giving him credit for.”

“Good idea,” Stone said.

“All right,” Lance said, “but tell Bob not to make a career of it.”

“Are you going back up to Maine, Stone?” Holly asked.

“Not until I get more to go on,” Stone replied. “I’ve got to make a living, after all.”

“If you go back, maybe Lance will give me some time to go with you. I’d really like to get my teeth into this one.”

“Maybe,” Lance said. “You want to use vacation time?”

“Remember, the Agency has a stake in this.”

“Oh, all right. Get your desk cleared.”