Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 12 by Dark Harbor Page B

It’s hanging on eight hinges.” He turned the thumb bolt on the inside, and three extra-large bolts slid out of the door, one each at the top and bottom of the door and the third in the traditional spot.
    â€œThat’s very impressive,” Stone said. “What about the rest of the house? The windows, for instance?”
    â€œThey’re all steel-framed, and the glass is armored and an inch thick. Dick’s house has the same.”
    â€œNone of it seemed to work for Dick.”
    â€œHe made a mistake; everybody does it sooner or later. If he’d had the Kirov call promptly, nobody would ever have gotten into the house alive. I’m surprised you didn’t find any weapons in the house.”
    â€œI looked in all the cupboards,” Stone said. “I couldn’t find anything. I figure Dick kept the Keltec at his bedside. He heard something in the night, put on his pants and went downstairs. Somebody disarmed him, sat him down at the desk and shot him with his own gun, then went upstairs and shot his wife and daughter. He was wearing only trousers when they found him.”
    â€œSounds right,” Rawls said. “I don’t think anybody rang the doorbell; that would have woken the girls. I think what happened was, Dick didn’t lock up right and didn’t set the alarm system. By the way, the system isn’t monitored locally. If somebody set off a motion detector or something, an alarm at Langley would go off.”
    â€œAre there motion detectors?” Stone asked. “I hadn’t noticed.”
    â€œIt’s why Dick didn’t have a dog. If you have a dog, it has to be highly trained, so you can forego the motion detectors. Otherwise, they have to be set high enough so that a dog won’t set them off, and intruders can duck under them.”
    â€œDick sounds too careful to have made a mistake.”
    â€œEverybody does, eventually.”
    â€œEither that or he knew the person who killed him and let him into the house.”
    â€œThat’s a disturbing thought, given where we are,” Rawls said. “It’s a tightly contained population.”
    â€œAll it takes is one,” Stone said. He finished his coffee and went home.
    As he walked into the house, the phone was ringing. “Hello?”
    â€œIt’s Dino. Can you meet me at the airport?”
    â€œWhat airport?”
    â€œThe one on the fucking island, dummy. Half an hour.” Dino hung up.

19
    S TONE STOOD BESIDE the Islesboro airport landing strip and watched an airplane materialize in the sky to the south. It got larger fast, and a moment later a Pilatus PC12 set down just past the numbers, reversed its prop and taxied to the ramp. The lettering on the side said NEW YORK STATE POLICE . The airstair door swung down, and Dino stepped onto the tarmac carrying two bags. Somebody tossed him a briefcase, then the door closed, and the airplane taxied to the other end of the runway and took off again.
    â€œJesus, why don’t you get an airplane like that?” Dino said.
    â€œBecause it costs three million dollars,” Stone replied. “I’m thinking about having my Malibu Mirage converted to a turboprop, though, and upgrading the avionics. I can do that for half a million.”
    Dino put his bags into the rear of the station wagon and got into the passenger seat.
    Stone started the wagon. “So, why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
    â€œThis state cop was at the precinct and said he was flying up to Bar Harbor, so I asked if he could drop me here, and he did. What with the panic packing, I didn’t have time to call you. What’s happening?”
    As they drove into Dark Harbor, Stone brought Dino up to date on the threat against Dick as well as Ed Rawls and the Old Farts.
    â€œSo now it’s an investigation by committee? Swell.”
    â€œThey have sources of information I don’t,” Stone said. “By the way,