“I’ve got to sit down with Thomas and talk with him about this,” Stone said. “There doesn’t seem to be anything he doesn’t know about what’s going on here, and he’s a member of the local parliament, so he must be knowledgeable about the politics.”
“And he’s doing very well out of it, too,” Holly pointed out.
“Speaking of doing well,” Stone said, “how did we do at dinner tonight? What did we learn?”
“A lot about the island,” Holly said, “but not much about Irene and Teddy.”
“To tell the truth,” Stone said, “I’m not sure there’s all that much to learn about Irene. If there were, Lance would already have told us about it. There’s just the Teddy connection, if it exists.”
“Well, we learned how she’s able to afford that house,” Holly said. “I mean, buying it on the cheap before property values went up. She sets a very nice table, too, and that was an expensive wine.”
“My guess is, Harry would have supplied the wine; probably the groceries, too.”
“Is Harry rich?”
“He said he had a large home remodeling business, and that he sold it. He seems to have enough money to retire comfortably and buy a very nice yacht.”
“How much would the boat cost?” Holly asked.
“I don’t know, anywhere from two hundred thousand to half a million, depending on how old it is and how well equipped. Certainly, it’s extremely well equipped now, but my guess is that Harry added most of the equipment. He has the kind of stuff that you would more likely find on a yacht costing twice as much-electric winches, big GPS plotter, watermaker, central heating-everything you could cram into a boat of that size. I think she’s an inch or two down on her marks from the extra weight.”
“So he’s a tech junkie,” Dino said. “Nothing wrong with that, if he can afford it.”
“Teddy’s a tech junkie, too,” Holly pointed out. “They have that in common.”
“Why don’t you ask Lance to check out Harry’s net worth?” Stone said. “It would be interesting to know where the money is coming from.”
“I’ll ask him tomorrow,” Holly said.
They arrived back at the cottage, let themselves in, and switched on the lights.
“Nobody move,” Holly said.
Everybody stood still.
“What?” Stone asked.
“Something’s different; things have been moved. That little sculpture was on the other end of the coffee table; the TV was a little more to the left.”
“We do have a staff, Holly,” Genevieve pointed out. “Maybe they’ve been cleaning.”
“I gave them the rest of the day off late this afternoon,” Holly said. “They wouldn’t be spending their evening cleaning the house; anyway, it was already clean. Check the bedrooms.”
Dino and Genevieve went into their bedroom, while Holly and Stone went into theirs. She began opening drawers, and so did Stone.
“You’re right, Holly,” he said. “The place has been turned over.”
“But not by an expert,” she replied. “I mean, it’s neat, but it’s not the way it was. What could they be looking for?”
“I’ll check the safe.” Stone went into his dressing room, opened the little safe with his credit card and looked inside. “My cash is still here, and my spare watch,” he called, “but my clothes are pushed over on the rack.” He went back into the bedroom.
Holly came out of her dressing room. “Same with my stuff; nothing missing.”
“A burglar would have taken the TV and stereo and the booze,” Stone said.
“Where’s your passport?” Holly asked.
“In my jacket pocket,” Stone said, feeling for it. “I always carry it when I’m in a foreign place. Yours?”
“In my handbag.”
“Was there anything here…” He stopped himself, walked over to Holly and whispered in her ear. “Let’s check for bugs.”
She nodded, and they both went to work. Dino knocked and came into the room. “We’re not missing anything,” he said, “but you’re right; somebody’s been through the place.” He got no response, but Stone tapped his ear. “Oh,” he said, and went back to his own room.
Holly unscrewed the mouthpiece on the phone, then waved to get Stone’s attention. He walked over, looked at the small device inside and nodded. Holly left it there and screwed the thing back together. They went into the living room and found the same device on the phone there; there was one in Dino’s room, too.
“Why don’t we have a nightcap on the terrace?” Stone said. He grabbed a bottle of premade gimlets and some glasses and led them outside. The wind was up a little, and the waves on the shore were making more noise than usual.
They sat down and Stone poured the drinks. “Okay,” he said, “who?”
“The way I see it,” Holly said, “we’ve got two choices: Sir Winston’s cops or Teddy Fay.”
“Any particular thoughts on which?” Stone asked.
She thought for a minute. “Nope, but Lance is going to just love this.”
17
Stone walked up to the inn and found Thomas Hardy in his office, working at his computer. He looked up.
“Stone,” he said, sounding pleased, “come in and sit down. Would you like some coffee?”
“Thank you, yes, Thomas.”
Thomas spoke briefly into the phone, and a moment later, a waiter appeared with a coffeepot and a plate of cookies.
“How is your visit going?” Thomas asked as he poured their coffee.
“Very well, thanks,” Stone said, stirring in a sweetener and sipping. “Until last night.”
Thomas’s eyebrows went up. “Something wrong?”
“We had dinner at Irene Foster’s house last night, and when we returned to the cottage we found that it had been ransacked-neatly, but nevertheless, ransacked.”
“I’m very sorry,” Thomas said, looking concerned. “Was anything missing?”
“Nothing, but some things had been left behind.”
“What?”
“All three phone extensions had been bugged.”
“Bugged?”
“That’s right.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing happening in St. Marks. You’re sure about this?”
“Go down to the cottage, unscrew the mouthpiece on any phone, and you’ll see the device.”
“But who would do such a thing?”
“I was hoping you might have a suggestion.”
“Surely you don’t think that I…”
“No, of course not, Thomas; I apologize if I gave that impression. Our best guesses are Teddy Fay or Sir Winston Sutherland.”
“Well, I don’t know about Mr. Fay, but certainly Sir Winston would do such a thing, if he thought it in his interest.”
“But what could he possibly hope to learn by bugging our quarters?”
Thomas shrugged. “Perhaps you could better tell me. Is there something about your visit to St. Marks that you haven’t told me?”
Stone shook his head. “No, there isn’t; I’ve told you everything.”
“Let’s start with Teddy Fay, then. Is there some reason, assuming he’s on the island, that he would bug the premises?”
“I suppose he might want to learn if our presence here has anything to do with looking for him.”
“You say the choices of culprit are Fay and Sir Winston; has it occurred to you that they might be combining their efforts?”
“Combining? How?”
“Well, if I were a fugitive living on the island, I might look for some sort of official protection. Mightn’t you do the same, if you were Fay?”
“But what would be in it for Sir Winston to hide a fugitive from the United States?”
“Money, of course; does Fay have money?”
“We believe so, but we don’t know how much. Anyway, that sort of bribe would be very small compared to the money I understand he’s getting from the offshore gambling interests.”
Thomas smiled. “It is not my experience of Sir Winston that any sum of money would be too small to escape his attention. But he might have other reasons to assist Mr. Fay; Sir Winston has a supple mind, and it is always attuned to whatever person or information might be useful to him.”