“The twins had a few questions. I gave them the party line, in bits and pieces. By the middle of next week, everybody on the island will know everything there is to know about them.”

Stone laughed. “With a little help from you.”

“I do what I can,” Billy said.

13

Stone and Dino got back in the MG. “Let’s go see Ed Rawls,” Stone said.

“And get shot for our trouble?”

Stone pulled over, stopped, and phoned Rawls.

“Speak.”

“It’s Stone. Dino and I are on the island, headed your way, with news.”

“I’ll buy you a drink, if you know something I don’t know,” Rawls said, then hung up.

The giant log that was Rawls’s outer gate rolled away as they approached, then closed behind them. The inner gate, down by the house, opened, too. The view was of Penobscot Bay, and Rawls had a sturdy dock and boathouse, too.

Ed emerged as they pulled up to the porch. “Friend or foe?” he shouted.

“That depends on how good the booze is,” Dino shouted back.

They were escorted into the living room, where Sally, an Englishwoman of Stone’s acquaintance who had become Ed’s live-in companion, was already pouring drinks.

Ed showed them to comfortable chairs. “Tell me something I don’t know,” he said to them.

“The Stone twins arrived on the island yesterday, house hunting. Looks like they’re going to buy that old place down on the point.”

Ed smote his forehead. “Sally, double up on those drinks.” He sat down, while Sally poured. “How did you know that before I did?”

“I got to Billy Hotchkiss first.”

“And I thought he was saving those tidbits for me.”

“That’s what everybody on the island thinks,” Stone replied.

“I think they’re up to no good,” Ed said.

“Everybody knows that, too, we just don’t know what.”

“Should I just kill them now and save us all the anxiety?”

“That’s an outstanding idea,” Stone said, “but I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

“Yeah, I heard about all that boxing and Japanese sticks and all. You think they got smarter, too?”

“I think they were always smart.”

“Lance says . . .” Rawls paused. He was retired CIA. Once he had had a little band of Agency retirees up here, who called themselves “the Old Farts.’’ Ed was the last of them.

“I’d really like to know what Lance says today,” Stone said. “I know what he thought yesterday.”

“He says we’re going to have to wait for them to make the first move.”

“No hurrying things along, huh?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“How do we provoke them?” Stone asked.

“Walk around without a weapon,” Rawls said.

“You think?”

“That ought to do it. Or find some other way to look vulnerable.”

“Without actually being vulnerable, you mean?”

“Preferably.”

“How do you do that?”

“I haven’t figured it out yet.”