by Stuart Woods
“I guess I dodged that bullet,” Stone said.
“Not yet, pal,” Dino replied. “But at least you’re not bound to them by a Catholic marriage and family obligations.”
“I still feel obligated to Dolce.”
“Eduardo doesn’t feel you have any obligation to her, so why do you?”
“He has been very apologetic about this,” Stone said.
“You’re lucky he’s Italian,” Dino said. “If you’d been through the same experience with the daughter of some high Episcopalian, the old man would be out there ruining your reputation, even as we speak. He wouldn’t have you shot, but you’d never get invited to dinner again by anybody with an Anglo-Saxon name, and you’d be kicked out of your clubs—if you belonged to any clubs.”
“Yeah, keep telling me how lucky I am,” Stone said. He turned into Tiffany & Company. “Come on, I’ve got to find a wedding present for Thad and Liz.”
“Listen, those people ought to be giving you a wedding present,” Dino said.
“Nevertheless.” Stone looked, first at crystal, then moved up to sterling. “What do you think of this?” he asked, holding up a handsome silver bowl.
“What would they keep in that, their money?”
“Fruit.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll take this,” Stone said to a saleslady. “Could you gift wrap it?”
“Of course,” the woman said. “I’ll just be a moment.” She vanished into a back room.
Dino went rigid. “Don’t turn around,” he said. “Dolce’s looking in the window.”
Involuntarily, Stone turned around and looked. He saw a disappearing flash of color.
“You stay right here,” Dino said. “Don’t move.” He walked quickly to the front door and outside, looking up and down the street.
Stone waited impatiently until the saleswoman returned, then waited even more impatiently while she rang up the sale and had his credit card authorized. Finally, blue shopping bag in hand, he hurried to the front door. He looked up and down the street as far he could see, then stepped outside. Dino was nowhere in sight, and neither was the red Cadillac.
Stone stood in the bright sunlight, feeling helpless, not knowing which way to turn. He waited for five long minutes, then made a decision: He turned right and walked rapidly along the street, checking shopwindows for Dolce and looking up and down the street for the red Cadillac.
Suddenly, Dino stepped out of a doorway and ran head-on into Stone. “Didn’t I tell you to stay where you were?” he demanded.
“I did, for a very long time,” Stone said. “Did you lose her?”
“Yeah, and I don’t understand it.”
Then, from not too great a distance, they heard three rapid reports.
“Gun!” Dino said, and started running toward the noise.
Stone followed, and the two of them turned a corner and ran toward a parking lot behind Worth Avenue. Stone could see the trunk of the red Cadillac protruding into the street.
Dino got there first. Women were screaming, and people in cars were trying desperately to get out of the parking lot. The Cadillac sat, blocking the entrance, three of its four doors open, with three bullet holes in the windshield. It was empty.
Dino flashed his badge at a parking attendant, who was crouching in a booth at the entrance. “What happened?” he asked the trembling man.
“I don’t know, exactly,” he said. “I was about to give the man in the Cadillac his parking check when the windshield seemed to explode.”
“Anybody hit?”
“I don’t know. I dove in here in about half a second.”
“Call nine-one-one,” Dino said, then he turned to Stone. “Let’s get out of here.”
As they walked quickly away, Stone looked around the lot and the street for a familiar face, but Dolce was gone, and so were Guido and his two goombahs.
54
THEY GOT BACK TO THE YACHT WITHOUT SIGHTING Dolce, and Stone was in his cabin, putting away his wedding gift, when Juanito knocked on the door.
“Yes?” Stone called.
“Mr. Barrington, there’s somebody to see you on the afterdeck.”
“Be right there,” Stone said. He retrieved the 9mm automatic from under his pillow and tucked it into his waistband in the small of his back. He wasn’t expecting visitors.
His visitor turned out to be Dan Griggs, and Stone was relieved until Griggs started to talk. He looked very serious. “Stone, there was an attempted shooting in a parking lot downtown, and one of my people saw you leaving the scene. You want to tell me about that?”
“Don’t worry, Dan. They weren’t shooting at me.”
Griggs didn’t smile. “I thought maybe it was you doing the shooting.”
Stone shook his head. “No, Dino and I were shopping on Worth Avenue, when we heard gunfire. Dino was armed, and we ran around the corner and saw the car with the bullet holes in it. That’s all we saw. We told the parking lot attendant to dial nine-one-one, then left.”
“Did you see the occupants of the car?”
“No.”
“Did you see the shooter?”
“No.”
“Witnesses said there were three men in the car, out-of-towners, by the look of them, and the shooter was a good-looking woman.”
Stone said nothing.
“Why did you leave the scene?” Griggs asked.
“We didn’t see anything. It’s not like we were witnesses. There was nothing there for us to do.” Stone was relieved that he could tell the truth about this, even if he was withholding information.
Griggs sighed.
Stone was about to say something, when he looked over Griggs’s shoulder and saw Dolce standing in the garden, maybe two hundred feet away. Griggs was about to turn and follow his gaze, but Stone took him by the shoulder and led him toward the afterdeck banquette. “How about a drink, Dan?” he said.
Griggs pulled away from his grasp, but did not look toward Dolce. “Are you nuts? I’m on duty. I thought that was obvious.”
“How’s Lundquist?” Stone asked, desperate to keep Griggs looking in his direction instead of Dolce’s. He couldn’t allow himself to look that way, either.
“I put him on a medivac plane for Minneapolis this morning. He’s recovering, and his department sent the aircraft.”
“He’s going to be all right, then?”
“Didn’t I just say that?” Griggs asked, irritated.
“Sorry, Dan. I just wanted to be sure.”
“Something else: You still looking for that Manning fellow?”
“Not really,” Stone said. “I pretty much straightened that out in a favorable manner.”
“Favorable? Did you shoot him?”
“No, no, I just sorted out the differences between him and Liz, and I think he’s out of our hair now.”
“Maybe not,” Griggs said.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve had two reports from my men of a man answering his description being in town.”
“Well, if he’s in town, I’ve got no quarrel with him, nor him with me.”
“Does he have any quarrel with Liz?”
“Not anymore. That’s all settled.”
“Then you don’t want me to pick him up?”
For a moment, Stone considered blowing the whistle on Paul Manning, and the hell with their agreement. “No. You wouldn’t have a charge, anyway. He’s clean.”
“How do you know that? I thought you said he was the criminal type.”
“As a result of our settlement, he’s now too rich to be criminal.”
“You paid him off?”
“Let’s say he walked away in very good shape.”
“Well, I’ll leave him alone, if that’s the way you want it, but I intend to keep an eye on him.”
“That can’t hurt, I suppose, if you have the manpower.”
Stone thought of something. “Tell me, Dan, did the description of the man include a bandage on his face?�
�
“A bandage? No, nobody said anything about that. He’s clean-shaven, with dark hair, going gray.”
“Oh.”
“Why did you think he might be wearing a bandage?”
“When I saw him he was. I thought maybe he’d had an accident or something.”
“Well, I’ve got to get going,” Griggs said, turning back toward the house.
Stone looked up to see that Dolce was nowhere in sight. “I’ll walk with you,” Stone said.
“Don’t bother, I can find my way,” Griggs replied.
“I was going to the house, anyway.”
“Suit yourself.”
They walked down the gangplank and toward the house, with Stone casing every shrub and tree they passed.
“Did I tell you it was stolen?” Griggs asked.
“What was?”
“The Cadillac, the one that was shot at.”
“Sounds like a drug deal gone wrong,” Stone said.
“Maybe, but we don’t get a whole lot of drug dealing in broad daylight around the Worth Avenue shopping district.”
“I guess not,” Stone said, still looking for Dolce.
They reached the house and walked through the central hallway and outside to where Griggs had parked his car.
Stone looked around for the silver Volvo, or for any other strange car, but saw nothing.
“You know, Stone,” Griggs said, his mood still somber, “I’ve got a strong feeling that you know something I ought to know.”
“Me? I can’t imagine what.”
“When I find the guys in the Cadillac, I hope I don’t find out that they know you.”
“Since I left the force there are no drug dealers in my life,” Stone said honestly.
“We didn’t find any drugs in the car,” Griggs said. “It was stolen from the airport, by the way.”
“I guess they couldn’t get a cab.”
“I hear Thad Shames is getting married on Sunday,” Griggs said. “You want me to send a few people down here to help with the traffic?”
“Couldn’t hurt,” Stone said. “Thad has hired some security for the wedding and the reception, but I don’t think he’s done anything about traffic.”
“I’ll send a couple of men,” Griggs said. He was about to get into the car, but he stopped. “Why does Mr. Shames need private security?” he asked.
“Gate-crashers, that sort of thing.”
“Oh.” Griggs got into his car. “I’ll see you around, Stone.”
“Thanks for stopping by, Dan.”
Griggs drove away, and Stone began to walk slowly through the gardens, expecting at any moment for Dolce to pop up. He passed through the hedge and had a look around the swimming pool, then walked back to the yacht.
Dino was having a drink on the afterdeck.
“Has Griggs put two and two together?” Dino asked.
“Just one and one. Apparently, a cop saw us leaving the area, and he thought we might be involved. He doesn’t really know anything.”
“I wish I didn’t know anything,” Dino said. “I’d really be happier that way.”
“I’ll devote my life to keeping you ignorant,” Stone replied.
“I wish you would. It’s tiring, knowing too much.”
“Tell me about it.”
“When are we getting out of here?”
“After the wedding, I guess. How about bright and early Monday morning?”
“Sounds good to me. It’s too cold down here.”
“I know what you mean,” Stone said truthfully.
55
STONE AND DINO WERE HAVING DINNER ALONE TOGETHER on the yacht. The crew had been given the night off, and Callie, after preparing dinner for them, had gone to work in her new office in the main house. Stone had seen little of her since Thad and Liz had decided to get married on short notice; there didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day for her to get her work done.
“Gee, it’s kind of nice here, just you and me,” Dino said. “We never get to have dinner alone anymore.”
“Oh, shut up,” Stone said. “You’re worse than a wife.”
“That’s something only a bachelor could say,” Dino replied.
“You know, Dino, I’ve been thinking about marriage.”
“Oh, no,” Dino groaned. “Not again.”
“What kind of crack is that?”
“Stone, every time you start thinking about marriage, you get into terrible trouble.”
“Nonsense,” Stone snorted.
“Stone, when you were thinking about marrying Arrington, look what happened: She married somebody else, and you got involved with this flake Allison—excuse me, Liz. And look at all the trouble that came out of that.”
“Well, that time, yes.”
“Then there was the English girl—what was her name?”
“Sarah.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“That didn’t go so good, either, right?”
“Not so good.”
“And then you actually married Dolce—well, sort of, and against all the advice I could muster. And now she’s out there stalking you with a gun, and frankly, I wouldn’t give you good odds on making it back to New York without taking along some excess baggage in the form of lead in your liver. Now, I ask you, what happens when you start thinking about marriage?”
“All right, I get into trouble,” Stone said gloomily.
“Stone, you’re my friend, and I love you, and that’s why I can say this to you: You’re not cut out to be married. Never in my life have I known anybody who was less cut out to be married. Marriage is very, very hard, and believe me, you’re not tough enough to handle it.”
“Callie is an awfully nice girl,” Stone said mistily.
“I’ll grant you that.”
“I think it would be nice to be married to her.”
“I’ll even grant you that, up to a point. As far as I can see, the only thing wrong with Callie is that you’re thinking about marrying her.”
“What, you think I’m the kiss of death, or something?”
“I didn’t say that, you did.”
“The sex is wonderful.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Dino said. “Let me tell you something somebody told me when I was young and single. This was a man who had been married three times. He said to me, ‘Dino, tell you what you do: When you get married, you keep a piece of chalk in your bedside table drawer, and every time you make love to your wife, you take out the chalk and make a hash mark on the wall. Then, after you’ve been married for a year, throw away the chalk and keep an eraser in your bedside drawer, and every time you make love, take out the eraser and erase a hash mark.’”
“What was his point?” Stone asked.
“His point was this: ‘It’ll take you ten years to erase all the hash marks.’”
Stone laughed in spite of himself.
“So, pal, my point is, if you’re going to get married, you’d better have something going on in the relationship besides sex.”
“I knew that,” Stone said.
“No, you didn’t,” Dino sighed. “You still don’t.”
“No, I do, I really do.”
“Tell me this,” Dino said. “What makes you think she’d marry you?”
“Well . . .”
“You think all she’s looking for is a great lay? Not that you’re all that great.”
“I could offer her a pretty good life,” Stone said.
“Yeah, sure. You’re traipsing all over the country, doing this very strange but oddly entertaining work. You think she’s going to like that? You going to take her along when you have to drop everything and go to Podunk, Somewhere?”
“Why not?”
“Because women get rooted in their homes. I guarantee you, a month after you’re married, you’re going to find that your house has been totally redecorated.”
“I like the way my house is decorated,” Stone said. “I did it myse
lf.”
“Yeah, but Callie doesn’t like it.”
“She hasn’t even seen it.”
“You think that matters? She doesn’t like it because you decorated it, dumbo. She won’t think of it as her home until she’s changed all the wallpaper and carpets and had a big garage sale and sold everything you love most in the house.”
“You really know how to make marriage attractive, Dino.”
“I’m telling you the truth, here.”
“Did Mary Ann redecorate your place?”
“No, she sold my place one day when I was at work, and I had nothing to say about it. Then we bought one she liked.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“This conversation is making me tired,” Stone said.
“I don’t blame you. Reality is always tiring.”
Stone drained the last of the wine from his glass. “I’m going to bed.”
“Good idea. The very least you should do about this marriage idea is to sleep on it. For about a month.”
“I think I could sleep for a month,” Stone said, yawning. “I could do that.”
“Then go do it, pal,” Dino said. “I’m going to finish my wine and look out at the night.” He settled himself in a big leather chair and turned on the TV.
“Good night, then.” Stone went to his cabin, undressed and got into bed. He stared at the ceiling, thinking about Callie redecorating his beloved house, until he fell asleep.
Then, seconds later, it seemed, Dino was shaking him.
“What?” Stone mumbled sleepily.
“Get up. You gotta see something.”
“Jesus, Dino, what time is it?”
“A little after two.”
“Don’t you ever sleep?”
“I was sleeping, in the chair in front of the TV. Then I woke up.”
Stone turned over and fluffed his pillow. “Then go back to sleep.”
“Stone, get out of the fucking bed right now and come with me.”
Stone turned over and tried to focus on Dino, then he realized that his friend had a gun in his hand. He sat bolt upright, now fully awake. “What’s wrong?”
“Put your pants on and come with me.”
Stone got out of bed and put his pants on, then padded along behind Dino as he led the way to the afterdeck.