“We may well do that, if we can locate them.”

“I believe you can locate them about a mile down the road, at their house,” she said.

Olshan sat up even straighter. “They’re on the island?”

“Are you sure?” asked Agent Paul.

“I believe I may have put a shotgun pellet or two into one of them last night, right over there on the back porch.”

Both men got up, walked over to the window, and examined the marks left by the shotgun. “Is this armored glass?” Olshan asked.

“Ostensibly,” Stone said. “You will note that only two pellets penetrated the glass. If the pane had not been armored, it’s likely the better part of it would have shattered.”

“Mr. Barrington, may I ask why you live in a house with armored glass?”

“It came that way,” Stone replied. “I inherited it from a cousin who was a career CIA officer, and it is my understanding that it was built to the Agency’s specifications.”

“I can confirm that,” Lance said.

“Mr. Cabot, is it?”

“It is.”

“Do the specifications include a security system?”

“They do, but it did not operate as intended. Why, is being investigated as we speak.”

“I see.”

“What else do you see?” Carly asked. “I’d be grateful for your insight, if such exists.”

“I believe you have drawn all the correct conclusions,” Olshan said, “except for your untested theory about the police lineup.”

“Then test it,” she said. “I’ve told you where to find the twins.”

“It’s not the sort of thing that can be managed on the island. We would need the cooperation of the Connecticut and Maine State Police, and the use of one of their facilities. If we did it any other way, we would be liable for any failure of the test.”

“Failure by me, you mean?”

“Well, yes, for want of a better word.”

“‘Me’ is a perfectly good word, in the circumstances,” she said.

“First, we’d have to arrest them, then . . .”

“I don’t see why that’s a problem.”

“We must have a charge.”

“How about the rape and murder of an FBI agent and the rape and attempted murder of his companion?”

“There are other considerations,” Olshan said.

“Political ones?” Stone asked.

“Well, yes. The twins have already been pardoned by the governor for the murders of their parents. We understand that their father was a classmate and friend of the governor at Yale.”

“Are you afraid that, if you arrest them, the governor will pardon them again?”

“There is that to consider,” Olshan said. “My superiors are, ah, sensitive about such matters.”

“Carly,” Stone said, “I believe these gentlemen require a smoking gun.”

“No gun was used.”

“I speak metaphorically. They require better evidence than bright, blue eyes.”

“Like DNA from a rape kit?”

Olshan looked really surprised this time. “A rape kit exists?”