Distant Thunder

17

The following morning, Stone called Ed Rawls at his home on Islesboro.

“Yes?”

“It’s Stone, Ed. How are you?”

“I’m all right. I take it you’re not, or you wouldn’t be calling me.”

“I’m trying to get to the bottom of this Collins thing,” Stone said, “and I keep running up against Lance Cabot.”

“And that surprises you?”

“It does. Have you seen the Maine ME’s report?”

“No.”

Stone told him what it contained and why he thought the things he did.

“That’s all logical, I guess. What doesn’t Lance like about logical?”

“That’s what I can’t figure out. He sat down with Dino and me at Clarke’s last evening and harangued us for half an hour.”

“On what subject?”

“That we should keep our noses out of the Collins affair. What I can’t figure out is why Lance doesn’t want to know what happened to the man.”

“Well, obviously, Lance has a proprietary interest in Collins.”

“As you say, obviously, but why doesn’t he want to know more?”

“Maybe he already knows more, but he doesn’t want you and Dino to.”

“I can’t figure out why.”

“Look, Lance has a lot more stuff crossing his desk than just Collins, and maybe some of it relates. For instance, why did he place an officer in the Penobscot Bay area? That’s a bit far afield, even for Lance.”

“I know. And what are Russians doing up there? Have you seen anything that says ‘Russians’ to you?”

“You can bet your ass that if there are Russians up here, they’ve taken great pains to appear not to be.”

“Okay, I’ll buy that.”

“And maybe, by sitting at P. J. Clarke’s and shouting at Lance about it, you’re causing an atmospheric disturbance.”

“How do you know that Lance and I were shouting at each other at Clarke’s?”

“Everybody who’s anybody knows it by now. I’m not psychic, you know, but I know how you and Lance interact when you’re not in agreement.”

“ ‘Everybody who’s anybody’? Are you speaking of the Russians?”

“No, but you were, and it is a public place. Suppose they were tailing you? Now they know what you know and what you told Lance.”

“There was nobody in the dining room who looked in the least Russian.”

“That’s kind of the point, isn’t it, when your surveilling somebody? Should they wear name tags in Cyrillic?”

“Well...”

“It’s a pity you didn’t take the whole course at the Farm, or you’d know better how to conduct yourself in a place like Clarke’s.”

“Enlighten me.”

“Whisper and don’t move your lips, at the very least. Reschedule to a comfortable park bench somewhere, for another. You’re a blunderer, Stone. Acquire some subtlety.”

Stone sighed. “That makes more sense than I’m comfortable admitting.”

“My advice to you is to stop obsessing about Collins for a while, at least until the wrong people stop noticing.”

“That’s decent advice.”

“It’s better than that. How long since you had your house and phones swept?”

“Too long.”

“That’s what I thought. Are you representing the widow Collins?”

“How’d you know that?”

“That’s a stupid question. Maybe she’s working for the Russians. Maybe she is Russian.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You wouldn’t. Lance would. And he has the wherewithal to find out for sure, so let him do the hard work.”

“I know now why I called you,” Stone said. “I’m not getting enough abuse.”

“I’m happy to oblige,” Ed said. “Anything else?”

“Let me know if you spot any Russians on the island.”

“Who, me? I’m not that smart.” Ed hung up, and Stone’s ears were burning.