“Well, it’s still on the table, though I think it’s not as strong a possibility as it once was. It looked pretty good when it was all we had.”

“Look,” Rawls said, “let’s pull out all the stops with Caleb: Look again at his alibi, check his finances, look at the old will, the works. If he doesn’t pan out, then we can turn our attentions elsewhere.”

“All right,” Stone said. “You work your end, and I’ll work mine, and Holly can work whichever end appeals to her.”

“Okay,” Rawls said. The Old Farts got up and shuffled out.

Stone went to the phone and called Caleb Stone.

“Good afternoon, Stone,” Caleb said amiably.

“Caleb, can I buy you lunch at the yacht club tomorrow?”

“Sure, but we should be there by twelve o’clock; it gets crowded.”

“Fine, twelve o’clock. And Caleb, if you have a copy of Dick’s previous will handy, will you bring it?”

“I don’t have one here, but I’ll call my office and have them FedEx it to me. It should be here by lunchtime.”

“Thanks, Caleb. See you at noon tomorrow.”

38

STONE ARRIVED AT the yacht club promptly at noon to find Caleb already there. A FedEx envelope was on the table. Caleb shook his hand.

“I’ve already placed an order for two burgers and fries. I hope that’s okay,” Caleb said. “The kids gang up on the kitchen around this time, and we could wait half an hour if we don’t get our order in early.”

“Great.”

“You want a beer?”

“Sure.” Caleb retrieved two beers from the counter and set them on the table. He tore open the FedEx package and removed a blue-bound document, scanned it quickly and handed it to Stone. “That’s the previous will, which was superceded by the one you gave me.”

“Thanks, Caleb.” Stone tucked it into his pocket.

“The substance of it was that he left all his assets to Barbara and she to him. If she predeceased him, then everything would go to Esme in trust, until she was thirty, with me as the sole trustee. If they died together, say, in a car crash—or as they did die—then everything would come to me.”

“I understand,” Stone said. Their burgers arrived, and they began to eat. “Caleb, I know you’ve already been through this with the state police, but I’d like to go through the timeline with you. Until all this is substantiated, they’ll still consider you a suspect, but I’d like to do what I can to eliminate you as such.”

“I’m a suspect?”