“Of course,” Stone said. They pulled up more chairs, and everybody sat down.

“Coffee, anyone?” Stone asked.

Nobody wanted coffee.

“Mr. Barrington, I understand you represent one Charles Boggs, who owns the boat Lieutenant Tabor impounded yesterday?”

“Actually, I represent the boat’s owner, who is not Charles Boggs but one Evan Keating.”

“Hang on,” Tommy said.

Stone held up a hand. “Their respective identities are as we fi rst thought them to be,” Stone said. “I’ll explain later, or at least, I think I will.”

“All right, then,” Corelli said, “you represent this Evan Keating?”

“I do,” Stone replied.

“And where might I find Mr. Keating at this moment?”

“At this moment, he is, I believe, en route back from Connecticut, where he has been attending to his father’s death for the past two days. The father is one Warren Keating, who was murdered a couple of days ago. Evan informed me that he will be back in Key West tonight or tomorrow sometime. He is anxious to speak with you about the drugs we found on his boat.”

“There has been progress in the Warren Keating investigation,”

Dino said. “It appears that Mr. Keating was murdered by the same man who tried to murder his son, Evan, in Key West. The descriptions match, and when you get back to your office, Tommy, you should have the ballistics report for comparison with your bullet.”

“Good,” Tommy said. “I’ve sort of brought Tabor and Corelli up to date on all that.”

“Agent Corelli,” Stone said, “Evan Keating maintains that when he and his girlfriend left his boat, after hearing of the death of his father, the stern locker contained nothing but a rubber dinghy, which he took with him, and his mooring lines and fenders, and that it was not secured with a lock. He will tell you this himself after his arrival in Key West.”

“And he has no idea why the locker was full of twenty kilos of pure cocaine, with a street value of millions?”

“None whatever. I should also tell you that Evan Keating is personally wealthy, and that he is anticipating a fi fty percent share of the proceeds of the sale of his family’s business, which will make him some hundreds of millions of dollars wealthier. I can attest to this, because I have reviewed the contract for the business sale. Thus, he has no motive to make money from the sale of drugs.”

“That’s very interesting, Mr. Barrington,” Corelli said. “Does he have any other explanation for why the drugs were present on his boat?”

“No, but I can posit an answer to your question.”

“Please do so,” Corelli said.