“They must have found it, but were dumb enough to leave it in the room, thinking they’d disabled it. They’ll be ordering new beds tomorrow, not to mention a new roof.”

—

When Stone and Dino got home, everybody was sitting up, waiting, and they were all mad.

“What the hell?” Viv demanded.

“‘What the hell,’ what?” Dino countered.

“Where have you two been?”

“Over at Ed’s eating ice cream.”

“Oh, good,” Viv said to Primmy and Carly. “They had ice cream.”

“I’m happy for them,” Primmy said. “Why did you have ice cream?”

“We were trying to beat them back to their house, but they got there first. The ice cream was an afterthought.” He reached into a coat pocket. “But here’s another pint for the three of you to share, courtesy of Ed Rawls. He wanted you to know where the credit lay.”

“You tell Ed the credit is all his,” Viv said, while Carly went for bowls and spoons.

—

Stone and Dino sat and watched the women eat their ice cream. When they had finished, Viv put down her bowl. “So, did you get the twins?”

“We think Ed nicked one of them,” Stone said. “But they were both still able to run. Next time.”

Viv sighed. “Next time. When is that going to be?”

“I don’t know,” Dino said. “But I’ve got to be in the office Monday morning, so it’s probably going to be without me here to take the credit. Stone, do I need to order a plane?”

“No, I’ll arrange for Faith to be here with the G-500 on Sunday morning. We’ll meet them at Rockland.”

“I hate leaving work undone,” Dino said.

“I expect you’ll have another shot at the twins,” Primmy said, then refused to say more.

46

Billy Hotchkiss was driving out toward the point when he came to the Stone twins’ place and stopped by the side of the road. “Just a minute,” he said to the couple in his car. “I want to find out what happened.” Billy felt a journalistic need to know everything, so he could report it to the island community.

One of the twins came down from upstairs to meet him.

“Morning, Billy,” he said.

“Good morning, Enos,” Billy replied, taking a stab.

“It’s Eben,” the twin said.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, everybody does it.”

“What happened to your house?”

“A little accident with a gas camping stove,” Eben said. “It’s new, and we were trying to light it. We were a little too successful.”

“Much damage?”

“It’ll be fixed by tonight,” Eben said. “Tell everybody not to worry.” Eben raised an arm to scratch his head, but winced and thought better of it.

“Shoulder pain?” Billy asked.

“A little; it comes and goes.”

“Get some of that CBD cream. We’ve got some down at the store. It’s good for pain like that.”