Double Jeopardy (Stone Barrington #57)(52)

“Hey, yourself!” Dino called back.

Ed used his remote from a quarter mile away to open both his gates, and they roared down his driveway. They got out of the car and looked toward the twins’ house. A chunk of one upstairs corner was missing, and there were little tongues of flame here and there.

“Shit, I wish I’d made it more incendiary!” Ed shouted. “Let’s get down to the dock and give them a warm welcome!”

They ran down to the dock, where Ed’s boat lay. “Hop in,” Ed said. “This is a Hinckley, too, and it held up the last time they shot at it.”

They leapt into the boat and looked at the next dock down. “Shit!” Ed yelled. “They beat us back!” He snapped off a couple of rounds at two figures running across the newly laid parking area then up the front steps. “Those bastards must have been doing sixty knots in the dark to get back here that fast.”

“I don’t think we’re going to get to kill them tonight,” Dino said.

“I guess not,” Ed said. “You guys want some ice cream? We got bourbon praline.”

“Sure,” Stone said.



* * *



—

They sat in the dark, eating ice cream and looking out the living room window at the twins running around, putting out fires.

“That’s amusing,” Dino said.

“Not as amusing as shooting them,” Ed said, “but amusing.”

The last of the flames at the house disappeared, finally. “Let’s see if they still got any fight in them,” Ed said. “If they do, they’ll be over here in a minute.”

“Interesting to speculate what it would have done to them if they’d been in their bed when that thing blew.”

“You think they didn’t find the bomb?”

“They must have found it, but were dumb enough to leave it in the room, thinking they’d disabled it. They’ll be ordering new beds tomorrow, not to mention a new roof.”



* * *



—



When Stone and Dino got home, everybody was sitting up, waiting, and they were all mad.

“What the hell?” Viv demanded.

“‘What the hell,’ what?” Dino countered.

“Where have you two been?”

“Over at Ed’s eating ice cream.”

“Oh, good,” Viv said to Primmy and Carly. “They had ice cream.”

“I’m happy for them,” Primmy said. “Why did you have ice cream?”

“We were trying to beat them back to their house, but they got there first. The ice cream was an afterthought.” He reached into a coat pocket. “But here’s another pint for the three of you to share, courtesy of Ed Rawls. He wanted you to know where the credit lay.”

“You tell Ed the credit is all his,” Viv said, while Carly went for bowls and spoons.



* * *



—

Stone and Dino sat and watched the women eat their ice cream. When they had finished, Viv put down her bowl. “So, did you get the twins?”

“We think Ed nicked one of them,” Stone said. “But they were both still able to run. Next time.”

Viv sighed. “Next time. When is that going to be?”

“I don’t know,” Dino said. “But I’ve got to be in the office Monday morning, so it’s probably going to be without me here to take the credit. Stone, do I need to order a plane?”

“No, I’ll arrange for Faith to be here with the G-500 on Sunday morning. We’ll meet them at Rockland.”

“I hate leaving work undone,” Dino said.

“I expect you’ll have another shot at the twins,” Primmy said, then refused to say more.





46

Billy Hotchkiss was driving out toward the point when he came to the Stone twins’ place and stopped by the side of the road. “Just a minute,” he said to the couple in his car. “I want to find out what happened.” Billy felt a journalistic need to know everything, so he could report it to the island community.

One of the twins came down from upstairs to meet him.

“Morning, Billy,” he said.

“Good morning, Enos,” Billy replied, taking a stab.

“It’s Eben,” the twin said.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, everybody does it.”

“What happened to your house?”

“A little accident with a gas camping stove,” Eben said. “It’s new, and we were trying to light it. We were a little too successful.”

“Much damage?”

“It’ll be fixed by tonight,” Eben said. “Tell everybody not to worry.” Eben raised an arm to scratch his head, but winced and thought better of it.

“Shoulder pain?” Billy asked.

“A little; it comes and goes.”

“Get some of that CBD cream. We’ve got some down at the store. It’s good for pain like that.”

“I’ll do that. See ya, Billy.” Eben turned and walked back into the house, Billy returned to his customers. “Fella had an accident with a camping stove, one of those gas ones,” he said to them. He drove them out to see the old house on the point. Then, on the way back, he pulled into the Jackson house, as it had come to be known on the island.