Shoot Him If He Runs

39

They were eating dessert when a muffled ringing came from Holly’s handbag.

“That will be Lance,” Pepper said.

“It’s not our regular time,” Holly said, grabbing her handbag and coming up with the ringing satphone. She walked over to the window for better reception and punched on. “Hello?”

“Scramble,” Lance said.

Holly punched the button. “Scrambled.”

“Holly, first of all, I have news, then I have instructions.”

“I’m listening.”

“Less than an hour ago the director appointed me DDO, to succeed Hugh English, and with immediate effect.”

“I congratulate you, Lance.”

“Thank you. Where are you at the moment?”

“At Bill and Annie Pepper’s house.”

“Have you been discussing Agency business?”

“Yes, but Bill swept the house; it’s clean.”

“Can they hear you now?”

“Yes.”

“Go to another room.”

Holly looked at the table. “Is that a bedroom?” she asked, pointing at a door.

“Yes,” Annie replied.

“May I use it for a few minutes?”

“Of course.”

Holly went into the bedroom, closed the door and stood by a window. “All right,” she said.

“It has become imperative that we identify and locate Teddy Fay immediately.”

“Bill has the photos downloaded from government computers on his laptop; it’s being delivered here sometime soon.”

“I want them e-mailed to me instantly as soon as you have them,” Lance said.

“I understand. Do you want me to tell Bill and Annie your news?”

“I’ll tell them myself, when we’re done. Have you heard anything about when the travel embargo might be lifted?”

“No, nothing.”

“I’m going to get you off that island if I have to send a submarine for you,” Lance said.

“You’re kidding.”

“Yes, I’m kidding, but getting you and the Peppers out is a top priority, right after identifying Teddy.”

“If we do identify him, what are my instructions then?”

“Your instructions are to wait for further instructions, and only directly from me.”

“What instructions are Bill and Annie likely to get from Hugh English?”

“None whatever; the director has effectively built a wall around Hugh, and he understands that there will be consequences if he breaches that wall. I want to know immediately if you hear that he has so much as spoken to anyone on the island.”

Holly was silent.

“Do you understand? This is critical.”

“I understand.”

“All right; now let me speak to Bill Pepper.”

Holly walked back into the living room and handed the phone to Pepper. “Lance wants to speak with you.”

Pepper took the phone and walked to the window. “Yes, Lance?” His expression changed as he listened. “Congratulations,” he said, then resumed listening. “Of course; I hope it will be here soon. Tiptree is having it delivered here. No, I won’t be going back to the office; I’ve already told them that a family emergency requires me to resign and return to the States. Well, I’ll look forward to that. Of course. And again, my congratulations.” Pepper punched off and returned to the table.

“We have a new boss,” he said to Annie.

“Lance?”

“Himself.”

“What are our instructions?”

“To get the photos to him ASAP and to render Holly and Stone any assistance we can in identifying Teddy Fay.”

“So it’s true?” she asked. “Teddy is still alive?”

“It seems Lance thinks so,” Pepper said.

“Did you ever meet Teddy?” Holly asked Annie.

“Once, in passing.”

“Do you think you could recognize him?”

“I doubt it, but anyway, I hear he uses a lot of disguises.”

“I hear that, too,” Holly said. She turned to Pepper. “Bill, do you have any opinion on who might replace Croft?”

Pepper shrugged. “Who knows? He has a Haitian assistant, but I don’t know if he has the weight to succeed his boss. His name is duBois.”

“What do you know about him?”

“He came from Haiti with Croft, so my assumption is that he is of the same stripe.”

“Do you think duBois is conducting the investigation into Croft’s murder?”

“Possibly; that will be up to Sir Winston Sutherland, of course, and I expect he’s pretty heavily involved in the investigation himself.”

“If you were running the investigation, who would be your initial suspects?”

“Well, there are people in Parliament and in the government who are opposed to Sir Winston, but they keep quiet about it. Certainly, there’s no violence-prone clandestine resistance that we know of, and I would doubt that any native of the island would be likely to lay his hands on the kind of weapon that must have been used-that is, high-powered and silenced. Nobody heard a gunshot.”

“So they’ll look at foreigners?”

“I expect so; visitors before residents, I should think.”

“So Robertson, Pemberton and Weatherby would not be among the first suspects?”

“I’m only guessing, of course, but probably not. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I want us to get to them before duBois or some cop does.”

“You want to just go and knock on their doors?”

“Not yet, but if we get some sort of ID of one of the photos from Langley, yes.”

There was a crunch of tires on gravel from the driveway, and they heard a car door slam.

“Who would that be?” Holly asked.

“Either somebody from the embassy with my laptop or the police, take your pick.” Pepper got up, went to the front door and opened it.

Holly could see a young man hand Pepper something. Pepper closed the door, walked back to the dining table and set a very small laptop computer on it. “Let’s take a look at those photos,” he said, switching it on.