“Let me try to bring you up to date,” Bill said. “First of all, I spoke to my chief. I’m not being sacked; I’ll be with you for the duration.”
“The duration of what?” Holly asked.
“Of the hurricane, at the very least. Also, we can’t leave here until we have an operational plan to get you out of here.”
“To where?” Holly asked.
“Wherever you need to go. By the way, I spoke to the president a few minutes ago, and she’d like you to call her after dinner.” He gave her a slip of paper with a number on it and an iPhone. “This is your new phone. Much like the one you used at State, you can scramble when you speak to her.”
Holly tucked the phone and number into a jacket pocket.
“Now,” Bill said, “to address your question, Stone, about how our adversaries found us. It might not have been so hard. They could have followed us from the hotel. They could have had people at Teterboro who spotted you; same at Rockland, since you’re known to have a house up here. There’s no leak in our detail, because most of us are dead; Claire and I would have been, too, if we hadn’t been on the mainland.”
“That makes sense,” Stone said. “I suggest that, as soon as weather permits, we get Faith and your pilot, who are staying on the mainland, to move my airplane to Bar Harbor Airport, which is fifteen minutes from here. I have a hangar there. If anyone sees them leave Rockland, it won’t be obvious where they’re going. They won’t file a flight plan, and there’s no tower there.”
“Good idea. I’d rather fly out of here in your airplane than in a helicopter.” He checked his notes: “We have a detail of twelve here, and six, including Claire and me, will travel with you. We’ll be met at the other end, wherever that is, with a fresh team.”
“We can seat up to twelve,” Stone said. “That okay with you, Holly?”
“I expect so. Ask me sooner to the time.”
“Please, ma’am,” Bill said. “Please remember that—and I say this with the best intentions in the world—you’re not president yet, and I won’t take orders from you unless I agree with them.”
“Of course, Bill. I don’t mean to seem imperious.”
“Plenty of time for that later,” Bill said, smiling.
“Quite right.”
Claire came in through the rear door of the house and greeted them all.
“Now,” Bill said. “Commissioner and Mrs. Bacchetti are in the garden room, downstairs, and two agents are in the room next to theirs. Each has its own bath. Our off-duty people are in the guesthouse, and we’ve got two dogs, too; they’re out patrolling now.”
There were footsteps on the stairs and Dino and Viv came in and took seats at the table.
“We’re stuck here for a while,” Stone said.
Dino picked up a remote control and turned on the large TV next to the wet bar, then tuned in the Weather Channel and muted the sound. “Holy shit,” he said, looking at the mass on the screen.
“Exactly,” Bill said.
The cook/agent asked them to move while he set the table, and shortly, they were served the beef, roast potatoes, and green beans. Bill uncorked two bottles of wine. “We were told by the owners to help ourselves to their cellar,” he said.
They had a very good dinner, without much conversation, then Holly looked at her watch and said, “I’d better make that call.” She got up and took her phone into the living room next door.
* * *
—
Hello, Holly,” President Katharine Lee said.
“Hello, Kate.”
“I’m relieved to hear that you’re all right.”
“Thank you, so am I.”
“You’re in good hands with Bill and Claire. They’ve been on the White House detail for some time now. Listen to them, and don’t countermand them unless you’re sure you’re right.”
“I understand.”
“You’ve got good company in Stone and the Bacchettis, too, so you won’t be short on brains. Except for my husband and you, I value Stone’s judgment more than anyone else’s I can think of.”
“Thank you, Kate. Are Will and Billy all right?”
“They’re very well, thank you, and very concerned about your safety.”
“Thank them for me.”
“We’re going to withhold any announcement of what happened on Islesboro, in the hope that we can make progress in the investigation early on, so you won’t be seeing anything about it on TV. The weather and the small number of people on the island helped, too. Most of the winter residents left because of the hurricane, and by the time they get back, the yacht club will have been restored to its original condition.”
“That’s all to the good.”
“There’s no need to emerge from your seclusion for the time being. Go wherever you like, weather permitting.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll say good night, then. Continued good luck.”
“Good night, Kate.” Holly hung up and went back to the kitchen, where she found blueberry pie being served.
“Everything okay?” Stone asked.
“Fine,” Holly replied. “They’re keeping all of this from the public for as long as possible. That will make it easier for us to move around.”
“I spoke to Faith and she and her copilot will move the airplane to Bar Harbor as soon as weather permits.”
“Good.”
From somewhere outside, they could hear the barking of a dog.
“Not to worry,” Bill said, “he’s not angry, just enthusiastic.”
“How can you tell?”
“You get to know their voices after a while, like that of an old friend.”
7
Stone woke a little before seven, as was his custom, and ran a finger down Holly’s spine. She turned and came into his arms. There was no talking, just plain, hungry sex, until they were both exhausted.
“I asked for breakfast up here at seven-thirty,” Holly said.
“You know me too well.”
“Why is it so dark at this hour?”
Stone got up, found the cord, and swept open twelve feet of curtains. It didn’t get much brighter in the room. Rain was still falling, sometimes traveling horizontally, and the large trees outside were bending with the wind. At the bottom of the large rear garden, which swept down to Broad Cove, he could see a dock, where a Hinckley motor yacht was moored, at times obscured by rain. The cove was sheltered enough that the wind did not disturb it unduly, just created whitecaps.