Double Jeopardy

45

A round tore across Stone’s left shoulder, and he hit the deck. They only got flesh, he thought, but a few inches lower and he would no longer have had a working heart.

“It’s the twins!” Stone shouted. “Positive ID.” He didn’t actually have a positive ID, but whoever was out there was hostile enough to warrant shooting at.

Ed Rawls obliged. They were fifty yards out now, and he got a piece of somebody, who yelled, “OW!”

Dino’s barrel was resting on the boat’s gunwale, and he was firing short bursts, making his ammo last.

“You want some of this, Stone?” Rawls yelled.

“Yes!”

“Then get off your ass and return fire!”

Stone obliged, opting for short bursts like Dino. “Ed, are you finding anybody in that nightscope of yours?”

“They pop up like ducks in a shooting gallery,” Ed said, “but they’ve been too quick for me. Hang on, I’ve got an idea.”

“I’m glad somebody has an idea!” Dino shouted.

“Where’s my canvas bag?” Ed demanded.

“I don’t see your canvas bag,” Stone said. “What’s in it?”

“A surprise, if we’re lucky.”

“I hate surprises,” Dino said.

“You’ll like this one.” Ed emptied his bag onto the deck and rummaged through the contents. They still had regular incoming rounds. “Got it!”

“What is it?” Stone asked.

“This will only work if they’ve got that explosive of mine on their boat.” Ed held up a small radio and pulled out the antenna. “I rebuilt this, and I remembered the frequency.”

“What are you waiting for?” Stone asked.

Ed held up the unit and pressed the button. The plastique exploded. Unfortunately, it didn’t explode on the boat. The boom came from the southwest, across the island. Everybody turned and looked in that direction.

A fireball lit up the sky. During those few seconds, the Hinckley in the cove revved its three engines and tore out of there, toward the open bay.

Ed jumped out of the boat onto the dock. “Let’s get over there and greet them when they get home!”

Everybody took their weapons and ran toward the house. Primmy saw them coming and opened the door. “What was that noise?” she asked.

“Something exploding on the other side of the island!” Stone shouted. “We’re going over there and find out what. You stay here.”

“Why do you get to have all the fun?” she yelled at his back as they ran through the living room and out the front door.

They took Ed’s Range Rover, and he did the driving. They tore through the sleeping village and saw Billy Hotchkiss on the front porch of his store in an ankle-length nightshirt. “Hey!” he yelled as they drove past.

“Hey, yourself!” Dino called back.

Ed used his remote from a quarter mile away to open both his gates, and they roared down his driveway. They got out of the car and looked toward the twins’ house. A chunk of one upstairs corner was missing, and there were little tongues of flame here and there.

“Shit, I wish I’d made it more incendiary!” Ed shouted. “Let’s get down to the dock and give them a warm welcome!”

They ran down to the dock, where Ed’s boat lay. “Hop in,” Ed said. “This is a Hinckley, too, and it held up the last time they shot at it.”

They leapt into the boat and looked at the next dock down. “Shit!” Ed yelled. “They beat us back!” He snapped off a couple of rounds at two figures running across the newly laid parking area then up the front steps. “Those bastards must have been doing sixty knots in the dark to get back here that fast.”

“I don’t think we’re going to get to kill them tonight,” Dino said.

“I guess not,” Ed said. “You guys want some ice cream? We got bourbon praline.”

“Sure,” Stone said.

They sat in the dark, eating ice cream and looking out the living room window at the twins running around, putting out fires.

“That’s amusing,” Dino said.

“Not as amusing as shooting them,” Ed said, “but amusing.”

The last of the flames at the house disappeared, finally. “Let’s see if they still got any fight in them,” Ed said. “If they do, they’ll be over here in a minute.”

“Interesting to speculate what it would have done to them if they’d been in their bed when that thing blew.”

“You think they didn’t find the bomb?”

“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.