Dark Harbor

Chapter 34

STONE TOOK HOLLY TO the Dark Harbor Inn that night for dinner. He wanted to wipe away all the tension surrounding the murders on the island, if only for the evening.

“So, how is the new job working out?” he asked.

She took a sip of her wine. “Without getting too specific, very well.”

“Do you like working with Lance?”

“I do. He can be autocratic at times, but that’s to be expected, given the position he’s in.”

“Which is?”

“Let’s just say that he has a lot of responsibility. But most of the time, he’s open to the ideas of others, and he’s inclined to delegate responsibility among those he trusts, and that seems to include me. I’m lucky, in that being pretty new on this job, I’m getting a lot more responsibility than I would if I had come out of training and started work at Langley.”

“From what I hear Lance is held in high regard at the Agency, and that should rub off on you.”

“That would be nice.”

They ate silently for a moment, then Holly spoke up again. “Arrington was up here for a visit, wasn’t she?”

“Well, yes.”

“Not a very long one, though. What happened?"

“She was upset about the murders: Janey Harris’s body was found while she was here.”

“Is that all?”

“Well, she and I pretty much agreed that there’s no permanent relationship in store for us.”

Holly smiled. “That’s awfully nice to hear. I’d hate to think that I’m up here only as an investigator.”

“Don’t worry, you’re not.” He poured her some more wine.

“I got a little worried when you let Seth put our luggage in different rooms.”

“I was just catering to Seth’s sensibilities; I didn’t want to shock him.”

“Can Seth hear what goes on in the house?”

“No, his place is well out of earshot.”

“That’s good,” Holly said. “I wouldn’t want him to hear your pitiful cries tonight.”

Stone laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, Seth and his wife are on the mainland tonight. They went to dinner at her sister’s house in Rockland, and the last ferry is at seven p.m., so they’re staying the night. We can lock down the house and not worry about being disturbed.”

“The best of all possible worlds,” Holly said.

THEY WERE DRIVING HOME when Stone’s cell phone vibrated. “Hello?”

“It’s Ed Rawls.”

“What’s up, Ed?”

“I thought you ought to know that Janey’s mother just told me her daughter’s diary disappeared.”

“When?”

“She can’t be sure, but since her death. She saw her in her room writing in it the afternoon before the evening she disappeared.”

“Could she have had it in a pocket or purse?”

“I asked about that: It was big, about eight by ten, so probably not. Her mother thinks someone came into the house, searched her room and stole it.”

“So whatever Janey might have told Don Brown might have been in her diary?”

“Right. Do you know if Esme had a diary?”

“As a matter of fact, I do and I’ve got it in a safe place.”

“Have you read it?”

“No, but in light of the theft of Janey’s diary I’m going to read it tonight.”

“Let me know if there’s anything relevant in it, will you?”

“I’ll call you in the morning.” Stone hung up.

“What’s happened?” Holly asked.

“Janey Harris’s diary has disappeared, but I’ve got Esme’s at home in the safe.”

“And Rawls thinks there was something in the diary that might have led to her murder?”

THEY WERE HOME in ten minutes. Stone unlocked the door and stepped into the entrance hall, ready to tap the alarm code into the keypad there. He stopped. “Didn’t I set the security system before we left?”

“Yes, I saw you put in the code.”

Stone looked at the small screen on the keypad. “Well, it’s not armed now.”

“Who could have disarmed it?”

“Only Seth and his wife would have the code, and they left before we did.”

“Could you have entered the code incorrectly?”

“Possibly. Maybe I got a digit wrong.”

“Or maybe not,” Holly said. She reached into her purse and came out with a Walther PPKS.

Stone unholstered the little.45 on his belt. “Let’s have a look around,” he said quietly. “We’ll go together, room by room, starting upstairs.”

The two crept up the stairs, listening. They did a standard police search, entering each room, checking each closet, any place that could hide a man. Stone paid particular attention to Esme’s room and the little bedroom across the hall that she had used as a study. This was where Peter had found her diary. There was no sign that anything had been disturbed.

They went back downstairs and searched the kitchen and dining room and the garage, then went into the study.

“Uh, oh,” Stone said.

“What?”

Stone nodded toward the back door. The vacuum cleaner sat just inside the door to the terrace. He went over and opened the canister. “Bag’s gone,” he said.

“Just like before.”

“Exactly like before.”

“But nothing seems disturbed.”

“Let’s look more closely,” Stone said. They worked the whole room, looking for some small sign that someone had been there.

“As far as I can tell,” Holly said, “everything is exactly as it was before.”

Stone tried the door to the terrace. “Locked.”

“Didn’t you say that Dick had some sort of special locks?”

“Yes. They use a key that you can only get from the manufacturer.”

Holly put her gun back into her handbag and came out with a small leather case. “You said the door to the terrace was locked?”

“Yes.”

She walked over to the door and tried it, then got down on her knees and opened the little case, which held a selection of lock picks. “Standard issue,” she said. “I’m supposed to be able to open just about anything.”

“You did a pretty good job on Dick’s safe, as I remember.”

“This is going to be harder,” she said, then went to work.

Stone walked around the study again and opened Dick’s secret office. It seemed undisturbed. The weapons were still in their cabinet. He went back and watched Holly work.

She stood up and put her lock picks away. “I can’t do it,” she said. “I mean, I’m not a genius at this, but the training I got at the Farm made me a lot better than all but the best burglars. These locks are made by a company called Assa, and we were told about them in our training. The U.S. Government uses them in special security situations.”

“I want to read Esme’s diary,” Stone said. He went to the cabinet that held the safe and opened it. “Holy shit,” he said.

“What?”

“It’s gone.”

“What’s gone?”

“The safe. Come and look at this.”

There were four crudely cut holes in the base of the cabinet, where the safe had been bolted down.

“He used a hammer and a chisel,” she said. “Took the whole thing right out. I guess he couldn’t open it.”

“Right,” Stone said.

“And if he couldn’t open that little safe, he certainly couldn’t have opened the terrace door,” Holly said.

“Then he must have used a key,” Stone replied.

“Does anybody else have a key?” She asked.

“Not as far as I know. Caleb Stone had one, but he returned it to me.”

“And he couldn’t have had it duplicated,” Holly said, “since only the manufacturer has the special key blanks required.”

“Right,” Stone said.