Stone and Holly got into the car and drove out of the inn’s grounds. He handed her his jotter. “You have any idea where that is?”
“No; what is it?”
“It’s Bill Pepper’s house. Lance hasn’t been able to reach either Pepper or his wife, and he wants us to look around the place.”
“Shit, what the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know, but take a look at the rent-a-car map in the glove compartment, and see if you can figure out the address.”
Holly opened the glove compartment and switched on the map light. “Okay, the address is 601 Victoria Road; that starts in Markstown and seems to run out into the country. Take your next right, then the first right after that.”
Stone followed her instructions. “Okay, now we’re on Victoria Road; see any house numbers?”
“We just passed 720,” Holly said. She dug a small flashlight out of her handbag. “Slow down, so I can see the mailboxes.”
Stone slowed.
“680,” she said. “It’ll be on the other side of the road.” She continued to read off the numbers. “Next house on the left,” she said.
Stone slowed, but didn’t stop. “I don’t want to just pull into the driveway,” he said. “Let’s see if anybody else is out here tonight.”
The road was very dark, and Stone continued to drive slowly. “Look for parked cars on both sides,” he said.
“I don’t see any cars, except ones that look like they belong to the houses,” Holly said.
Stone pulled into a driveway, turned around and started back toward 601. “Is that one of those lithium-battery flashlights?”
“Yes,” she said, “a SureFire.”
“I’m going to turn off the headlights now. Keep the flashlight pointed down the road.” It was enough to keep out of the ditches, and Stone finally turned into Bill Pepper’s driveway. There was a Toyota Avalon parked in front of the garage, and the house had lights burning.
“Looks like someone is home,” Holly said.
“Right,” Stone said. “Let’s find out.” They got out of the car, walked to the front door and rang the bell. No answer. They rang it again and knocked, and still no one came to the door.
“I can see into the living room,” Holly said, leaning over the porch rail and peering through a window. “Nobody there.”
“Give me the flashlight and wait here,” Stone said. “Lance told me where the key is.” He walked back up the driveway to the mailbox, looked underneath and extracted the key, leaving the tape in place, then walked back to the house. He opened the door and stepped inside, followed closely by Holly. The burglar alarm began to beep, once a second.
“Oh, shit,” Holly said. “I hope that thing doesn’t call the police.”
Stone tapped in the code, and it stopped beeping.
“How did you know how to do that?” she asked.
“Lance gave me the code; we have to reset it when we leave.”
“Bill!” Holly called out. They walked from room to room, as she continued to call his name. The bed in the master bedroom was undisturbed. They walked into the kitchen. “I smell food,” Holly said. She opened the oven door. “Pot roast, I think, and there are string beans and potatoes on the stove. Everything has been turned off, though.”
Stone placed his hand on the stove. “Cold,” he said. “They’ve been gone awhile, and I can’t see that anything has been disturbed.”
“They planned to come back,” Holly said. “Otherwise, Mrs. Pepper would have put the food in the fridge.”
“Nothing seems to have been disturbed,” Stone said. Suddenly, he had a thought. He leaned close to Holly’s ear. “Let’s get out of here,” he whispered. He grabbed her hand and towed her out of the house, then went back, set the alarm and returned the key to its home under the mailbox. He backed the car out of the driveway, avoiding using the brakes, then headed back toward the inn.
“Turn on the lights,” she said. “You’ll kill us.”
“Not yet. Use your flashlight.”
“Why did you want to leave the house all of a sudden?”
“What if Pepper’s house is bugged, too?”
“Oh, I didn’t think of that.”
Stone looked into the rearview mirror. “Turn off the flashlight,” he said. “There’s a police car coming up the road from the direction of Markstown.”
Holly switched off the light. “We didn’t set off the alarm,” she said, “so the house must be bugged. Are the cops after us?”
Stone checked the mirror again. “They’re turning into Pepper’s driveway.” He switched on the headlights and floored the engine. “We’re getting out of here.”
Ten minutes later they were back at the inn. They parked in front of the cottage and went inside. He held a finger to his lips as he entered. Dino and Genevieve were watching TV. “Anybody like a drink?” Stone asked, as if he had been there all along.
“Sure, I’ll have a Scotch,” Dino said.
“Me too,” echoed Genevieve.
“I’ll have one of your bourbons,” Holly said. She went into the bedroom and came back with the satphone, then took her drink and went out back.
Yes?” Lance said. He didn’t sound sleepy.
“It’s Holly.”
“What have you learned?”
“The house is empty, lights on, dinner had been cooking on the stove, but the stove had been turned off. We think the house may have been bugged, because as soon as we left, we saw a police car coming from Markstown with its flashers on, and it turned into Pepper’s driveway. We had our lights off, so they didn’t spot us.”
“Anything amiss in the house? Had it been searched?”
“Not that we could see. Mrs. Pepper keeps a neat house, and if it was searched, it was done by experts.”
Lance was quiet for a moment. “All right, there’s nothing more you can do tonight; get some sleep.”
“Lance, if the place is bugged and that’s why the police came, then the police must have them.”
“And that would mean Colonel Croft,” Lance said. “Not a pretty situation.”
“What are you going to do?”
“There’s not much I can do tonight. I have to contrive some plausible story so that I can get the embassy on it.”
“How about Bill’s sister asked me to look in on him, and when I did, I found what I found. I could call the embassy and talk to the duty officer.”
“You do that, and I’ll call our man in the embassy, too. Tell the duty officer you want him to call the local police and report them missing, and he should ask them if they have any knowledge of the Peppers’ whereabouts. Call from your room, so the listeners will know what you’re doing. Let’s see what kind of reaction you get. Call me back in the morning, as usual.”
“Right,” Holly said. She punched off the phone, went inside and picked up the phone. “I think something’s wrong,” she said loudly. “I’m calling the embassy.” She started dialing.