It took fifteen minutes in the swells to get a line around the body, and Stone was feeling a little queasy from the motion. He had seen enough bodies as a cop to be unruffled by the sight of Chester. The body aboard and covered, they patrolled the area for another two hours, but, except for the floating wing tip, which they brought aboard, found nothing larger than Libby’s hat. A police boat joined them.

“I reckon we go in now,” Henry said.

“How deep is the water out here?” Stone asked.

“Deep. We outside the hundred-fathom line.” He pointed to their position on his chart.

“How much of a search will there be?” Stone asked.

“You’re looking at it, I expect,” Thomas replied. “I reckon the two women must still be in the fuselage, but there’s no National Transportation Safety Board to go after the wreckage and the bodies, not down here in the islands. They’re gone.” They headed back toward the dock with their grisly cargo.

Stone thought about Libby Manning and her new-found wealth, which she would never spend.

Chapter
30

Stone poured himself some orange juice and sat down at a table. After a moment, Hilary Kramer from the New York Times came downstairs.

“Morning, Stone,” she said. “May I join you?”

“Please do,” Stone replied.

Thomas came over with menus. “What can I get you folks?” he asked quietly.

Kramer ordered bacon and eggs. “I’m hungry this morning,” she said.

“Stone, you want something?” Thomas asked.

“Just toast and coffee; I’m not very hungry.”

“You’re looking kind of grim, Stone,” Kramer said. “Something else go wrong with your case?”

Stone shook his head. “Plane crash this morning. Thomas and I saw it.”

Kramer dipped into her handbag and came up with a notebook. At that moment, Jim Forrester joined them, looking not very well.

“Morning, Stone, Hilary,” he said.

“Morning, Jim,” Stone said. “You want some breakfast?”

Forrester shook his head. “Thomas was kind enough to bring me something in my room this morning.”

“Oh, yes,” Stone said. “He said you were ill; you’re looking better.”

“Guess I got it out of my system,” the journalist said. “Hilary, take my advice; stay away from the street vendors in the capital, especially the ones selling conch. For a while there, I thought I was going to die.”

“Apparently someone did, only this morning,” Kramer said. “Stone was just about to tell me about it.”

“Yeah,” Stone said. “Chester’s plane went down; two passengers aboard; everybody died.”

“Jesus,” Forrester said. “In that plane we all came over in?”

“That’s the one.”

“It looked in pretty good shape,” Forrester said.

“Thomas and I watched them take off,” Stone replied. “Chester didn’t do a runup before he leapt off.”

“What’s a runup?” Forrester asked.