Stuart Woods - Dark Harbor

“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.

STONE WOKE SLOWLY the following morning. Holly was lying naked next to him on her belly, and his hand rested on her ass. He found it companionable to wake up with her next to him, warm and bare.

He ran a finger up her ass, between the cheeks.

“Hmmmmm,” she muttered. “More.”

“More what?”

“Just more.”

He rolled over and lay on top of her.

“You’re nicely heavy,” she said.

He was growing in size, and in response she opened her legs wider. “More,” she said.

“Where?”

“Anywhere you like.”

She was wet, and he slipped inside her.

“Good choice,” she said.

Stone moved slowly in and out.

“That’s so good,” she breathed, pushing back against his belly.

“It’s better than that,” Stone said, close to her ear. “You’re in wonderful shape.”

Holly continued pushing rhythmically against him. “They toned us up at the Farm.”

“Thank you, Farm.”

Holly rolled over. “I want to be able to get my hands on you,” she said, taking him in her hand and reinserting him. She pulled her knees up and rested her ankles on his shoulders. “There,” she said. “Now.”

Within a minute they had come noisily and lay sweating and panting in each other’s arms.

“What a wonderful way to start the day,” Holly said.

“It makes me want to go right back to sleep,” Stone said.

“Sex renders men unconscious,” she laughed. “I’m quoting you.”

THEY WERE AT BREAKFAST, eating without much conversation. Holly spoke up. “I want to meet this burglar of yours,” she said.

“What, you want a date?”

“Thanks, but I’m all booked up,” she said, kicking him under the table. “No, I’m just surprised you aren’t paying more attention to him.”

“Dino and I eliminated him as a suspect.”

“On what grounds?”

“Since his father’s death and his own release from prison, he’s become a valued member of the community; he’s married with a child; he earns a very good living making very expensive cabinets; and he’s too smart to foul his own nest, especially such a small nest. He also has nothing in his record to indicate that he’s interested in committing crimes of a sexual nature, raping and murdering teenaged girls.”