“I didn’t see anybody but a man with a dog,” Frank said.

“Was that him?”

“No.”

“You want to go back to the airport?”

“What’s the alternative?”

“The ferry to Lincolnsville.”

“The airport,” Frank said.

Ernie drove them to the airport. “That’ll be, let’s see, ten dollars for the drive to Dark Harbor, ten dollars for the wait, fifty dollars for the tour, and ten dollars back to the airport. That’s eighty dollars, as I make it. No checks or credit cards.”

“Do you take American dollars?” Frank asked, handing him a hundred.

“Yep, but I don’t got change for this.”

Frank sighed. “Keep it,” he said, and got out of the car, followed by Charlie. They walked back to the airplane.

“Where to?” the pilot asked.

“Back to the airport.”

“Which one?”

“The one we left from.”

“You got it,” the pilot said, then started the engine and taxied onto the runway.

“Will this airplane take off on this little bitty runway?” Charlie asked from the rear seat.

“Let’s find out,” the pilot replied, then shoved the throttle forward.

Chapter 14

Stone lay on the bed, with Caroline on top, doing very nice things with her hips, while he moved under her. His cell rang.

“Go ahead and get it,” Caroline said. “I’ll amuse myself.”

Stone grabbed the iPhone from the bedside table. “Hello?”

“You sound a little out of breath,” Dino said. “Am I disturbing you?”

“Nope.”

“Am I disturbing Caroline?”

“Not in the least.”

“I thought you’d like to know that Gino Parisi has put a couple of guys on you.”

“So what else is new?”

“No, a couple of new guys: experts, you might say.”

“Experts at what?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“How are you getting this information?”

“These guys are known to us, as are a few of their victims.”

“No, I mean how did you know Parisi had hired them?”

“The same way I knew about his earlier conversations.”

“Oh. What were Parisi’s instructions to these two guys?”

“He was a little cagey about that, but I gathered that, based on previous experience working for Gino, they knew what he meant.”

“What did he mean?”

“Let’s put that in the category of ‘undesirable.’”

“You’re being pretty cagey yourself.”

“No, I’m just being delicate.”

“I hate it when you’re delicate. You never used to do that.”

“My new job requires a lot of delicacy. I’m practicing on you.”

Caroline did something that caused Stone to make a small, animal-like noise.

“Is there a prairie dog in bed with you?” Dino asked.

“No comment.”

“Are you on that island in Maine?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because these two guys, whose names are Frank and Charlie, chartered an airplane earlier today at the Essex County Airport in New Jersey.”

“Sweetie,” Caroline said, “you stopped moving.”

“Sorry,” Stone said, and began to move again.

“Sorry for what?” Dino asked.

“Not you.”