Stuart Woods - Shoot Him If He Runs

“Good thing we didn’t have to explain that to St. Marks customs.”

“I don’t mind explaining to customs,” Dino said. He went away and came back with a small 9 mm semiautomatic and a spare magazine. “Here you go,” he said, handing it to Holly. “I’d rather you didn’t shoot anybody with it, unless you really have to; it’s registered to the NYPD.”

“You don’t have any instructions to shoot anybody,” Stone said to Holly.

“I want it for defense,” she replied. “We could need it, as you pointed out.”

“ We ? What’s this we stuff?”

“Aren’t you going with me?”

“Where?”

“Up to Irene’s?”

“Before I answer that, I want to know your plan,” Stone said.

“Well, I’m just going to go up there and confront Irene.”

“And she’s going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, Teddy’s in the bedroom closet’?”

“Well…”

“In the unlikely event that he’s there, she’s going to protect him.”

“I guess so.”

“I think you’d better call Lance again.”

“You’re right,” Holly said, grabbing the satphone. She went outside and called Lance’s office.

“Yes?”

“Lance, among the photographs you e-mailed me is one that looks an awful lot like Harold Pitts, Irene Foster’s friend from Virginia, the one you checked out.”

“And he checked out just fine,” Lance said.

“Also, Pitts left St. Marks yesterday in his sailboat, bound for Ft. Lauderdale. We saw him leave; we’re checking out other marinas and anchorages on the island now, to see if he didn’t really go.”

“When will you know?”

“Soon.”

“Call me the minute you hear. In the meantime, I’m going to run another check on Pitts.” He hung up.

Holly went back inside. “Lance is running another check on Harold; he wants to know when we’ve heard whether the boat is still here.”

The phone rang, and Stone picked it up. “Hello?”

“It’s Thomas. Harold’s boat is not on the island. Not anywhere.”

Stone turned to Holly. “Thomas says the boat is not anywhere on St. Marks.”

“Well, I’m going up to Irene’s anyway,” Holly said.

Stone turned back to the phone. “Thanks, Thomas. We’re going to run up to Irene’s and have a word with her.”

“I don’t think I’d do that, Stone.”

“Why not?”

“Because if Harold is the shooter and he’s still there, you don’t want to be anywhere near him when the police come to talk to him, and they will talk to him. If you’re there, they’ll figure you’re in cahoots with him.”

“Good point. I’ll explain it to Holly.”

“Stone, if you’re going up to Irene’s, let me come with you. If the police show up, I can help.”

“Thanks, Thomas, good idea. We’ll see you in five minutes.” Stone hung up and turned to Holly. “Thomas has pointed out that if Harold is Teddy and Teddy is the shooter, we don’t want to be around him when the police arrive. Thomas is going with us; he can help if the police turn up.”

“Okay with me,” Holly said, jamming the 9 mm into her jeans. “Dino, if we don’t come back immediately, will you take our bags to the airport, and we’ll meet you there?”

“Sure,” Dino said.

Teddy had moved everything he needed out of his workshop, and now he turned on a fan he had rigged up that blew dust around the room. His cell phone buzzed on his belt.

“Yes?”

“It’s Thomas. Stone and Holly are determined to go up to Black Mountain, looking for you. I’m coming with them.”

“How much time do I have?”

“Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes.”

“Slow them down if you can.”

“I’ll try.”

Teddy hung up and took his things outside.

Thomas hung up and called Sir Leslie Hewitt.

“Hello?”

“Leslie, it’s Thomas. Have you heard?

“Yes, it’s all over the TV. I was astonished that he got Winston Sutherland. How did that happen?”

“I haven’t spoken with him about it yet, but my guess is he had the opportunity and took it.”

“Well, that advances things rather more than we had planned, doesn’t it?”

“It certainly does, and I think we’d better get the group together tonight to discuss our options. We can’t make any moves until after Winston’s funeral, but we’d better be talking to a lot of people before they bury him.”

“Do you have any idea where Teddy is now?”

“I just spoke to him; I assume he’s either at Irene’s or in his workshop. Stone Barrington and Holly Barker are going up there now looking for him, and I’m going with them.”

“Will they be armed?”

“I don’t know.”

“Thomas, we can’t let Teddy be caught.”

“I’ll do what I can to get him off the island.”

Leslie paused for a moment. “Thomas, I’m not sure you’re taking my meaning.”

“I’m sorry, Leslie, what am I missing?”

“Certainly, it would be good if Teddy immediately got off the island, but if that seems in any way in doubt, then you can’t allow him to be taken by the police. I don’t know what the ramifications are of having him taken by this CIA woman, but I can’t think that that would be to our benefit, either.”

“For all practical purposes, Teddy is off the island now; his yacht sailed, and I’ve asked the fellow we put aboard to be sure to be seen at the western end of St. Martin, so the police can confirm that Harold left yesterday.”

“I think, in view of Winston’s rather sudden demise, we may have to replan a bit.”

“What do you suggest?”

“First, as I said before, we cannot allow Teddy to be caught. We can’t even allow his body to be found.”

“His body?”

“Thomas, please focus; if he’s in danger of being caught, you’re going to have to kill him and get the body into the sea.”

Thomas sat quietly for a moment and thought.

“Think of the ramifications of his being caught: they’ll beat everything out of him. If they only have the body, they’ll start to confirm every detail of his identity, and even though he told us he did a masterful job of becoming Harold Pitts, that identity will eventually unravel.”

“You have a point,” Thomas said.

“There’s more of my point: when they find out he isn’t Pitts, they’ll have an unidentifiable corpse on their hands, so they’ll start digging into his island connections, and that means you and me. They’ll think that we hired an assassin.”

“Teddy came to us, remember?”

“That won’t matter. Teddy and his corpse have to disappear completely and forever.”

“What about the boat? It will eventually get to Ft. Lauderdale, and there’ll be someone there to meet it.”

“Your man has a satellite telephone doesn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Then call him and give him new instructions; we need for the authorities to know exactly what happened to the yacht and to Pitts.”

Thomas was still quiet.

“Am I making sense, Thomas?”

“Yes, I’m afraid you are.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to call Teddy and tell him to hide himself while Stone and Holly are looking for him, and that I’ll get him off the island in a few days, when things have cooled off a bit.”

“I hope that works. And if it doesn’t?”

“Then I’ll do what has to be done and take care of the disposal.”

“I’m sorry it’s come to this, Thomas. I know you didn’t expect to have to kill anyone yourself.”

“I’m sorry, too, but don’t worry-I’ll take care of it.”

“All right. I’ll call the others, and we’ll meet here tonight. You bring some food from the inn, and we’ll call it a dinner party, if the police should show up.”