by Stuart Woods
“What about your grandfather? Can he still run it?”
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“My grandfather has Alzheimer’s; he’s in a home.”
“Do you have any interest in running the company?” Stone asked.
“Not in the least.”
“Then why don’t you just take the money?”
“I told you, my father is a liar and a thief. He made a drunk of my mother, and he probably murdered my Uncle Harry.”
“Do you have any evidence of that?”
“No, but I understand the police are looking into it.”
“When did your Uncle Harry die?”
“Three months ago. I saw his obituary in the New York Times. ”
“So you’re not going to sign the papers okaying the sale?”
“No, I’m not. That will royally screw my father, and I’ll enjoy that.”
Shit, Stone thought. “Then I’m wasting my time?”
“Yes, you are. By the way, I owe you an apology. I’m sorry you got socked in the neck the last time we met.”
“Why did that happen?”
“My girlfriend is sometimes a little overprotective. Apparently, she thought you meant me ill.”
“Where is she now?” Stone said, looking behind him.
“Relax, she’s in the ladies’ room.”
“Good. By the way, did you know that Charley Boggs is dead?”
Keating’s face fell. “What are you talking about?”
“I saw them fish his body out of Garrison Bight this morning. You’ll read about it in tomorrow’s paper.”
“Oh, shit,” Keating said.
“Well, yeah. The police want to talk to you about it.”
“Me? I would never hurt Charley. We’ve been friends since prep school.”
“Prep school? I thought Boggs was just some Key West drug dealer.”
“He may be that, but it wasn’t a part of our relationship. When I came to Key West, he was the only person I knew here.”
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“The police found a bag of cocaine in his motorcycle storage locker and a hiding place on his houseboat where more drugs were probably stashed.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” Keating said. “How did Charley die?”
“Bullet to the back of the head. Do you own a nine-millimeter pistol?”
“No.”
“Why was your boat out at the reef in the middle of the night a couple of days ago?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Keating said.
“It was spotted there.” Stone didn’t tell him how. “The police are going to want to talk to you about that, too.”
“I’ve only driven the boat once, the day I bought it. It’s been at anchor ever since.”
“Could Charley Boggs have used it without your knowledge?”
“Well, yes. He knew where the keys were stashed.”
“Could Charley have used your cell phone?”
“I lost my cell phone the day I bought the boat; it must have gone overboard.”
“You may need a lawyer soon,” Stone said. “You’ve got my number.” He got up and left by the exit directly from the bar deck to the street and saw Tommy Sculley and Daryl getting out of their car.
“He’s out back,” Stone said, jerking a thumb in that direction. Stone drove back to Annika’s house and found her setting the table.
“Smells good,” he said. “What are we having?”
“Swedish meatballs,” she replied. “What else?”
“Sounds great.”
“Did you conclude your business?”
“Not really,” Stone replied. He had the feeling there was more business to do, but he wasn’t sure what it was. 7 2
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STON E W O K E U P the following morning in Annika’s bed, exhausted. They had made love until they fell asleep after midnight, and she had wakened him in the middle of the night for more. He didn’t have another round in him, so he got out of bed, slipped into his clothes and tiptoed out of the house. He was halfway back to the Marquesa when his cell phone vibrated. “Hello?”
“Where did you go?” Annika said.
“I have a breakfast meeting,” he lied.
“I want you. Let’s have dinner tonight?”
“I’m not sure what’s going on yet. Let me call you this afternoon.”
“All right, but you better.”
“I will.” He snapped the phone shut and returned it to its holster. Dino wasn’t up yet. Stone showered, shaved and dressed and walked out to their porch. Dino was sipping coffee from the pot in his room.
“I ordered breakfast for you,” Dino said.
“Good.”
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“You look a little peaked.”
“You could say that,” Stone agreed.
“Is the Swede turning out to be too much for you?”
“Don’t ask.” Stone looked at his watch. Eggers would be at his desk momentarily.
“Any news on any front?” Dino asked.
“Yes, and I’m going to call Eggers in a minute. You can listen in, so I won’t have to repeat myself.”
“I’ll try and contain myself,” Dino said drily. Stone pressed the speed-dial button on his phone, and it began to ring. He pressed the speaker button so Dino could hear the conversation.
“Eggers,” the phone said.
“It’s Stone.”
“God, you’re up early; I hope it’s good news.”
“Is there such a person as Harry Keating?”
“Yes, or rather, there was.”
“Was he Warren Keating’s brother?”
“Yes, he was the man I dealt with until his death.”
“What do you know about Warren Keating?”
“That he was Harry’s brother. He wasn’t in the business until Harry died; doesn’t know anything about it, really. He’s a chemist, or at least he has a chemistry degree. I don’t think he had much of a career; he just took a monthly check from Harry.”
“I finally pinned Evan Keating down last night, and he won’t sign the papers.”
“What?”
“He says his father is a liar and a thief.”
“We’re talking twenty-one million dollars! Is the kid nuts?”
“Do you know more about the family than the kid does?”
“Well, no.”
“Who negotiated the deal for the sale of the business?”
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“I initiated the talks, but the buyer had to retain another lawyer, since I represent him, too.”
“How was Evan’s share of the proceeds determined?”
“As the managing partner, Warren has the authority in the will to allocate the funds, and he has his father’s agreement.”
“Do you know the father?”
“Yes, he was still running the company when they became our clients. He retired a good ten years ago, and Harry ran the company since then. Grew it a lot.”
“Do you know the old man?”
“Sure.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“At Harry’s funeral, about three months ago.”
“Did you have an opportunity to talk with him then?”
“For a few minutes. He was crushed about Harry’s death.”
“Did he seem all right to you at the time?”
“No, I told you, he was crushed.”
“I mean mentally all right.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess.”
“Evan says his grandfather has Alzheimer’s and that he’s in a home.”
Eggers was silent.
“Are the pieces falling into place, Bill?”
“What are you suggesting?”
“How did Harry Keating die?”
“I don’t know, exactly. He fell ill and died a couple of days
later. What are you getting at, Stone?”
“Me? Nothing. But Evan says his father killed Harry.”
Eggers was silent again.
“Bill, are you weighing what our ethical obligations are in this matter?”
“I’m weighing everything,” Eggers replied.
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“I can’t force Evan Keating to sign the documents. You’d better tell Warren that.”
“He’s going to be livid,” Eggers said.
“Then he’ll just have to be livid. By the way, Evan says the police are looking into Harry’s death. You did say that Warren is a chemist, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it, Stone. But you and I don’t have any grounds for calling the police in. Warren and his son have been estranged for years; we can’t just accept the boy’s theory of Harry’s death. If Evan has suspicions, then he should share them with the local police.”
“I’ll mention that to him, if I see him again.”
“What do you mean, if you see him again?”
“Well, I don’t have any further plans to contact him. He may be contacting me, because a friend of his here got himself murdered, and the local cops want to have a chat with Evan. I don’t think he had anything to do with it.”
“God, what a nest of snakes this is turning into.”
“Bill, why don’t you make a few phone calls and check into Warren Keating’s background. It may be that if he’s trying to screw his son on this deal, you’ll want to resign the account.”
“I’m not in the habit of resigning accounts,” Eggers said.
“If Evan should decide to sue his father over this, the law fi rm could get dragged into it as a defendant. And frankly, I don’t think Evan is going to be bought off easily. Maybe you’d better broach the subject with Warren and get him to divide the sales proceeds equally.”
“This is all very distasteful,” Eggers said.
“You want me to talk to Warren? If he goes nuts, you can always blame it all on me.”
“I’ll talk to the man,” Eggers said.
“And you’ll get back to me?”
“Give me a day or two.”
“You want me to hang here until then?”
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“Yes. I want somebody near Evan Keating, if we need to negotiate with him. You won’t mind working on your tan for a little longer, will you?”
“I’ll tough it out,” Stone said, then hung up.
“I’ll tough it out, too,” Dino said.
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THE Y FINIS HE D B R E A K F AS T , and Stone called Tommy Sculley. “Hey, Tommy.”
“Hey, Stone.”
“What happened with Evan Keating?”
“We brought him in for a chat. He said he didn’t know Charley Boggs was dead until you told him. He seemed upset about it.”
“Yeah, he said he and Charley had known each other since they were in prep school.”
“It’s hard to think of Charley in prep school, but we’re checking with the school now to confirm all this.”
“What’s your take on Keating’s possible involvement?”
“I’m inclined to think he’s not involved, but I’ve been burned before, so I’m not going to form an opinion until I’ve checked everything out.”
“Did he tell you about Charley using his boat?”
“I didn’t ask him about his boat.”
“Evan denies having spent a night on his boat out at the reef, and he says he lost his cell phone the day he bought the boat. For what it’s worth, Charley helped him move the boat the day he bought it, 7 8
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so he could have filched Evan’s cell phone and taken the boat out to the reef without Evan’s knowledge.”
“Yeah, I guess. That would support the contention that Evan wasn’t involved in the drug trade with Charley.”
“Something else makes me think Evan is clean of all this,” Stone said.
“What’s that?”
“This is between you and me, Tommy; it involves client confi dentiality.”
“Okay, it goes no further.”
“Last night I offered Even Keating twenty-one million for his share of the family business, and he turned me down.”
“He turned down twenty-one mil? Holy shit! Why?”
“Because he thinks his father owes him a lot more and is trying to cheat him. Doesn’t sound like he’d be a candidate for a quick buck dealing drugs, does it? I mean, he’s already living on one trust fund that seems to be supporting him in comfort.”
“You got a point,” Tommy said.
“One other thing, and this doesn’t sound so good: when Evan bought Chuck Chandler’s boat, he paid for it with a hundred thirty thousand in hundred-dollar bills.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”
“I mean, a guy who’s got that kind of money would run it through a bank, wouldn’t he?”
“Could be some sort of tax dodge.”
“Yeah, that could make sense.”
“Did you release him?”
“Yeah, we talked for about two hours, then I cut him loose.”
“Did you get an address?”
“Yeah, he’s staying at the Gardens, which is a block or two from the Marquesa. It’s just as nice, but more expensive.”
“Be interesting to know if he’s paying cash,” Stone said. 7 9
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“I’ll fi nd out.”
“Will you let me hear from you about that and the check with the prep school?”
“Sure. See you later.”
Stone hung up. “Evan is staying at the Gardens, just up the street from here.”
“I saw the sign,” Dino said.
“Oh, it was Evan’s girlfriend, Gigi Jones, who slugged me outside the restaurant. He says she’s sometimes overprotective.”
“Well, at least that resulted in your meeting the Swede. Was the blow to the neck worth the roll in the hay?”
“I think it’s going to take me longer to recover from the roll in the hay,” Stone said. “I’m supposed to call her about dinner tonight, but I’m not sure I’m up to it.”
“Take a nap; you’ll be fi ne.”
Stone’s cell phone vibrated. “Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Evan Keating.”
“Good morning.”
“I didn’t call you last night, because I got the feeling I didn’t need a lawyer.”
“Evan, let me explain something to you: cops do everything they can to make you feel like you don’t need a lawyer, then they can nail you for something you said. If they call you in again, take along a lawyer.”
“Well, okay, but I didn’t kill Charley, and I don’t think I’m a suspect.”
“You’ll be a suspect until they can hang it on somebody else, or until they can prove to themselves that you didn’t do it.”
“How did my father react to my turning his offer down?”
“I haven’t spoken to him, just to my law firm’s managing partner. He’ll break the news to your father.”
“Expect an explosion,” Evan said. “Old Dad has always exploded easily.”
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“Do you think he’ll want to renegotiate?”
“He won’t have a choice; he can’t sell the business without my agreement, and it’s my guess that he’s already figured out that he’s not equipped to run the place.”
“Is there anyone in your family who is qualifi ed?”
“No, so selling is the right thing to do. Do you know what he was offered for it?”
“No, and if I knew I couldn’t tell you. There’s nothing stopping you from demanding to see the contract, though.”
“Good point. Tell your office that I want to see the contract, and that I won’t discuss it further u
ntil I see it.”
“I’ll do that. Where can I reach you?”
“I’m at the Gardens.”
“How about a cell phone number?”
“I’ve got to buy a new one; I’ll call you when I get it. In the meantime, you can leave a message at the Gardens.”
“Okay, Evan, I’ll request the contract.”
“Bye.” Keating hung up.
Stone redialed Bill Eggers.
“Eggers.”
“Evan Keating just called me. He wants to see the sales contract for the business.”
“Warren doesn’t have to show it to him,” Eggers said.
“He does if he wants Evan’s assent to sell. He says he’ll have nothing else to say until he sees the contract.”
“You haven’t been giving him legal advice, have you, Stone?”
“Me? I’m not his lawyer.”
“Exactly, so be careful what you say to him.”
“I won’t be speaking to him again, unless he sees the contract.”
“I’ll talk to Warren, and if he’s agreeable, I’ll FedEx it to you.”
Stone gave him the Marquesa address and hung up.
“Now negotiations get interesting,” he said to Dino.
“Take your time,” Dino said.
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STON E T U R N ED TO Dino. “How about some tennis?”
“Okay,” Dino replied, “but is this tennis business or business business?”
“A little of both,” Stone said.
They changed clothes and drove to the Olde Island Tennis Club. Chuck Chandler was working with a student, a very pretty girl in a tiny tennis dress. He stood behind her, holding her arm as she swung.
“I like the teaching position,” Dino said.
Stone went into the pro shop, found the reservation book and led Dino to a vacant court. They hit balls for a few minutes, then Chuck finished with his student and joined them.
“You need more backswing in your serve,” he said to Stone. “You could pick up another ten miles an hour of ball speed.”
“I’ll work on that,” Stone said.
“And Dino, you need to turn your body more when you hit the ball; you’re using too much arm and not enough full body.”
“Okay,” Dino replied.
“You guys want to play a three-handed set?”
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“Sure,” Stone said. He and Dino played Chuck, and Chuck beat them six-four. They sat down for a break.