“Indeed he does,” Irene said. “There are rumors that he’s pulling in over a hundred million dollars a year for himself, and he’s established an offshore banking system much like that of the Cayman Islands. He owns his own bank, and his friends own all the others.”
“So he’s St. Marks’s Papa Doc, then?” Dino asked.
“Sir Winston is, practically speaking, almost as much a dictator as Papa Doc Duvalier was in Haiti, but he’s smarter and more benign; he spreads the wealth around. The per capita income on the island is said to have doubled within the past few years, and it’s expected to double again. Of course, it was pretty low to begin with, but now there are businesses like car dealerships where there were none before. A few years ago, if you wanted a car, you had to go to a dealer in St. Martin or Guadeloupe or Antigua. Now you can buy a Toyota or a Volkswagen off the lot, and there are rumors that Mercedes and BMW dealerships are on the way.”
“I can guess who’s going to own those,” Stone said.
“Sir Winston and his friends, of course,” Irene replied.
“So who’s getting hurt?” Holly said.
“The suckers,” Harry replied, “the losers at gambling. The casinos have a slightly lower profit margin than the Las Vegas establishments, so they’re attractive to gamblers, but they still lose, just like in Vegas. The casinos operate without infrastructure-they don’t have to invest in building hotels or producing entertainment. There are rumors that those things are in the offing, though, and that will goose tourist income enormously.”
A uniformed black woman came into the living room. “Dinner is served, Miss Foster,” she said.
Irene rose, led them into the dining room and seated them at a beautifully arranged table, while Harry poured a French wine.
Stone nodded toward the view from the dining room window. “I can see a couple of roofs,” he said.
“The big one is Sir Winston’s,” Irene replied. “The two smaller ones are the former guesthouse, now owned by the Weatherbys, and another small house, owned by the Pembertons; I haven’t met them, either.”
16
It was nearly midnight when they left Irene’s house, after a good dinner and a lot of talk.
“That must be the driveway to the old guesthouse,” Holly said, as their headlights flashed over a gate. “And then the Pembertons, and this one coming up must be Sir Winston’s place. I wonder why there’s no guard.”
“Look,” Stone said, pointing, “there’s a guard shack up the driveway, about thirty yards after the gate.”
“So the big man is not unprotected.”
“I guess not. This jungle is so thick, there could be a company of infantry hidden in there.”
“St. Marks doesn’t have an army,” Genevieve said. “I read it on the Internet. The island has a police force, but that’s all.”
“Well, it’s not a banana republic, is it?” Dino said. “And I haven’t heard anything about a drug problem. If anything, Sir Winston must be guarding against that, if his police are shooting drug smugglers on the beach.”
“If he allowed the drug lords in,” Stone said, “they’d own him in no time, or they’d kill him and install somebody more cooperative.”
“I’m beginning to think this guy is very smart,” Dino said. “How’d you manage to beat him in court?”
“Beat him? My client was hanged, or at least, I thought she was. I didn’t beat him. She paid a million-dollar bribe to the old prime minister, without my knowledge, and was allowed to leave the country.”
“I wonder how the old prime minister met his demise,” Holly said.
“Maybe he didn’t,” Dino said. “Maybe he’s rotting in prison.”
“I’ve got to sit down with Thomas and talk with him about this,” Stone said. “There doesn’t seem to be anything he doesn’t know about what’s going on here, and he’s a member of the local parliament, so he must be knowledgeable about the politics.”
“And he’s doing very well out of it, too,” Holly pointed out.
“Speaking of doing well,” Stone said, “how did we do at dinner tonight? What did we learn?”
“A lot about the island,” Holly said, “but not much about Irene and Teddy.”
“To tell the truth,” Stone said, “I’m not sure there’s all that much to learn about Irene. If there were, Lance would already have told us about it. There’s just the Teddy connection, if it exists.”
“Well, we learned how she’s able to afford that house,” Holly said. “I mean, buying it on the cheap before property values went up. She sets a very nice table, too, and that was an expensive wine.”
“My guess is, Harry would have supplied the wine; probably the groceries, too.”
“Is Harry rich?”
“He said he had a large home remodeling business, and that he sold it. He seems to have enough money to retire comfortably and buy a very nice yacht.”
“How much would the boat cost?” Holly asked.
“I don’t know, anywhere from two hundred thousand to half a million, depending on how old it is and how well equipped. Certainly, it’s extremely well equipped now, but my guess is that Harry added most of the equipment. He has the kind of stuff that you would more likely find on a yacht costing twice as much-electric winches, big GPS plotter, watermaker, central heating-everything you could cram into a boat of that size. I think she’s an inch or two down on her marks from the extra weight.”
“So he’s a tech junkie,” Dino said. “Nothing wrong with that, if he can afford it.”
“Teddy’s a tech junkie, too,” Holly pointed out. “They have that in common.”
“Why don’t you ask Lance to check out Harry’s net worth?” Stone said. “It would be interesting to know where the money is coming from.”
“I’ll ask him tomorrow,” Holly said.
They arrived back at the cottage, let themselves in, and switched on the lights.
“Nobody move,” Holly said.
Everybody stood still.
“What?” Stone asked.
“Something’s different; things have been moved. That little sculpture was on the other end of the coffee table; the TV was a little more to the left.”
“We do have a staff, Holly,” Genevieve pointed out. “Maybe they’ve been cleaning.”
“I gave them the rest of the day off late this afternoon,” Holly said. “They wouldn’t be spending their evening cleaning the house; anyway, it was already clean. Check the bedrooms.”
Dino and Genevieve went into their bedroom, while Holly and Stone went into theirs. She began opening drawers, and so did Stone.
“You’re right, Holly,” he said. “The place has been turned over.”
“But not by an expert,” she replied. “I mean, it’s neat, but it’s not the way it was. What could they be looking for?”
“I’ll check the safe.” Stone went into his dressing room, opened the little safe with his credit card and looked inside. “My cash is still here, and my spare watch,” he called, “but my clothes are pushed over on the rack.” He went back into the bedroom.
Holly came out of her dressing room. “Same with my stuff; nothing missing.”
“A burglar would have taken the TV and stereo and the booze,” Stone said.
“Where’s your passport?” Holly asked.
“In my jacket pocket,” Stone said, feeling for it. “I always carry it when I’m in a foreign place. Yours?”
“In my handbag.”
“Was there anything here…” He stopped himself, walked over to Holly and whispered in her ear. “Let’s check for bugs.”
She nodded, and they both went to work. Dino knocked and came into the room. “We’re not missing anything,” he said, “but you’re right; somebody’s been through the place.” He got no response, but Stone tapped his ear. “Oh,” he said, and went back to his own room.
Holly unscrewed the mouthpiece on the phone, then waved to get Stone’s attention. He walked over, looked at
