by Stuart Woods
Then, as he approached and Dino was dragging the man to his feet, the rear door of the Cadillac opened, and Lance Cabot got out, his hands in the air.
“Stone!” he yelled. “That guy is mine!” He nodded toward the handcuffed man.
Stone walked up to Dino. “Hang on,” he said. “That’s Lance Cabot over there at the car, and he says this guy belongs to him.”
Dino looked back and forth from his captive to the Cadillac. “All right, Mike,” he yelled to his driver, “we’re clear, no problem.” He unlocked the handcuffs and handed the man his briefcase. “Is there a machine gun in here, pal?” he asked him.
“Talk to Cabot,” the man said.
Lance walked up and offered his hand to Dino. “I’m Lance Cabot,” he said. “I’m sorry about the misunderstanding.”
Dino shook his hand. “Don’t worry about it. It was all Stone’s fault.”
“That’s right,” Holly said from behind Stone. “I’m a witness.”
“Thanks so much, everybody,” Stone said. “How did I call this wrong?”
“Well, you weren’t entirely wrong,” Dino replied. “You just didn’t know who you were dealing with.”
“It’s dinnertime,” Stone said, and they went into Elaine’s.
Elaine was at a front table, and she waved them over. “Are you guys having street fights outside my place again?”
“Just a misunderstanding,” Stone said. “Elaine, this is Lance Cabot, and, Lance, you haven’t met Holly Barker, either.” Everybody shook hands, and Stone didn’t like the way Holly was looking at Lance.
They settled in at a table.
Lance turned to Holly. “Are you the police chief in Orchid Beach, Florida?”
“That’s right,” Holly replied, looking stunned. “How could you know that?”
“Anybody who pays attention knows that,” Lance said.
Holly seemed to melt a little in her seat, annoying Stone. “So, Lance,” he said, “do you normally travel with bodyguards who have machine guns in briefcases?”
“No, not normally,” Lance replied smoothly, as if he had been asked if he wore pleated pants. “Just today.”
“What’s so dangerous about today?” Stone asked.
“Well, around lunchtime today I picked up a tail.”
Stone felt a penny drop. “Yes? Where?”
“I was in Little Italy doing some business, and I picked up on an evil-looking black Mercedes following me. We lost it in Brooklyn, but policy is, when you pick up a tail, you increase security.”
Holly hid behind her menu.
“A wise policy,” Stone agreed. “Holly, can we get you a drink?”
Holly lowered the menu to eye level. “Knob Creek on the rocks,” she said, then raised the menu again.
“Make it two,” Lance said.
“Three Knob Creeks on the rocks and whatever poison Lieutenant Bacchetti is having this evening,” Stone told the waiter.
“Dino,” Lance said, “your reputation precedes you.”
“Oh, yeah?” Dino asked.
“We have a list of reliable police officers in various cities who we sometimes deal with. You’re on it.”
“That’s news to me,” Dino said.
Lance turned to Holly. “I’ll see that your name is placed on it, too.”
Holly put down the menu. “How nice,” she said, noncommittally.
“He’s turning us all into spies,” Dino whispered loudly.
“Oh, nothing as sinister as that. Sometimes, during the course of our work, we stumble across criminal activity that, technically, is outside our purview. When that happens, it’s nice to know some people in local law enforcement.”
“Tell me,” Stone said, “in the course of your work have you run across somebody named Trini Rodriguez?”
Lance furrowed his brow. “I don’t believe so.”
“How about a Robert Marshall?”
Lance shook his head. “Nope.”
“I think I’d better come clean,” Holly said. “It was Stone’s car that was following you today.”
Lance turned to Stone and looked at him askance.
“Don’t point that thing at me,” Stone said. “Go on, Holly.”
“And I was driving it.”
The drinks arrived, and Lance raised his glass. “To coincidence,” he said. “You put enough coincidences together, and what you get is . . .” He gazed at Holly. “. . . fate.”
Holly blushed. “Let me explain. I’m in New York looking for a man named Trini Rodriguez, who may be using the name Robert Marshall.”
“Why?” Lance asked.
“Multiple homicides,” Holly replied. “Today, he came out of the La Boheme coffeehouse and got into your car.”
“That was Trini Rodriguez?” Lance asked.
“Yep. What was he doing with you?”
“Well, I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you it was nothing to do with multiple homicides.”
“What name did he give you?” Holly asked.
“I was told he was called Bobo. He was to assist me in some enquiries, as the British would put it.”
“Did he?”
“I’m afraid I can’t answer that.”
“Swell,” Holly said. “First, the FBI protects this bastard, and now the CIA.”
Lance looked around and made a tamping motion with his hand. “Please. I wish I could help you, Holly, but until today I’d never clapped eyes on Mr. Rodriguez, and I never expect to again. However, if he should cross my line of vision again, I’ll be glad to call you. May I have your number?”
Holly gave him her card while Stone rolled his eyes.
“Anything else you can tell me about him or about the people who sent you to him?”
“Alas, no,” Lance said sadly. “The nature of the work, I’m afraid.” He turned to Stone. “By the way,” he said, “have you, by any chance, heard from Herbert J. Fisher?”
“No, I haven’t,” Stone said. “Should I have?”
“Just a thought. Herbie didn’t make his flight to Saint Thomas this evening.”
“I thought you had a man on him,” Stone said.
“I thought so, too, but Herbie, the little shit, eluded him. Herbie is out there in the land, somewhere, in his red Mustang, moving about with reckless abandon.”
“That’s just terrific,” Stone said. “If I hear from him, what shall I tell him?”
“Tell him to go and stand on the corner of Forty-second Street and Broadway, then call me,” Lance replied. “I’ll have someone go there and shoot him.”
Stone wasn’t at all sure he was kidding.
15
THEY HAD FINISHED dinner and were standing on the sidewalk in front of Elaine’s, saying their goodbyes. Dino got into his waiting car and was driven away.
“May I give you a lift?” Lance said to Holly and Stone.
They spoke at the same time. “No,” Stone replied. “Yes,” Holly said.
Lance opened a rear door and motioned them in. “Stone, I know where you live. Holly, where can I take you?”
“You can take us both to my house,” Stone said.
“Ah,” Lance mused. He gave the driver an address, then pressed a button and a thick glass partition rolled up, separating them from the two men in the front seat. “Actually,” Lance said, “there’s something I’d like to talk to the two of you about.”
“Shoot,” Holly said. She was sitting between Lance and Stone.
“You may have read in the papers that the Agency is working very hard on terrorism since nine/eleven.”
“I believe I’ve seen reports to that effect,” Stone said.
“As a result, we’re stretched a little thin these days, and we’ve had to neglect some other matters, particularly those which require attention on our own soil.”
Stone snorted. “And I thought you folks were proscribed from dealing with home matters.”
“Formerly, yes. Since nine/eleven, things have changed a bit.”
“I’ll bet,” Stone said.
“Stone,” Holly said, “could you just shut up so we can hear what Lance has to say?”
“Thank you, Holly,” Lance said. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”
Stone smoldered in silence.
“As I was saying,” Lance continued, “we’re stretched a little thin these days, and, as a result, I have been authorized to add a few . . . consultants, shall we say, to our roster.”
“Consultants?” Holly said. “What do you mean?”
“People who are sometimes in a position to render services to us, but who are not permanent employees.”
Stone couldn’t stand it anymore. “You mean people to whom you don’t have to pay pensions or offer medical plans?”
“You misunderstand,” Lance said. “I’m referring to people who have built lives outside our service, and who have independently acquired information or contacts that might be of use to us in the future. Let me give you a couple of examples. Stone, you were recently involved, quite inadvertently, of course, in a British intelligence operation dealing with an assassin who was causing problems in Europe and New York.” He paused.
“If you say so,” Stone said, surprised that Lance knew about this.
“We would have liked to know about this during the fact, instead of afterward,” Lance said. He didn’t wait for Stone to respond. “Holly, you were recently involved in a major federal investigation in Florida, and, as I understand it, you had a great deal to do with its successful conclusion. We would have been very pleased to know about that at a much earlier date. Is this making any sense at all to the two of you?”
“Sure,” Stone said, “you want us to become CIA snitches.”
“No, no,” Lance said placatingly. “We would like for you both, from time to time, to perhaps participate more actively in certain situations that might arise. Of course, we’re always receptive to pertinent information.”
“What sort of situations?” Holly asked.
“For instance, Stone has been of help to us in dealing with the Herbie Fisher problem, and, although that problem has not yet been entirely solved, that certainly isn’t Stone’s fault. Holly, you might similarly be of help in some other situation, on your own home turf. One never knows when.”
“I see, I think,” Holly said. “We’d just be on call, sort of.”
“Yes, sort of. And we’d never wish to interfere with your own duties in your main work.”
“And this is work for which we’d be paid?” Holly asked.
“Of course, and generously. Ask Stone.”
Stone spoke up. “There isn’t enough money in the CIA’s coffers to make it worthwhile dealing with Herbie Fisher and his problems.”
“Still, you didn’t come off all that badly, did you?” Lance asked. “What did you spend—a couple of hours?”
“Well, yes, it didn’t occupy a great deal of time,” Stone admitted, “and I was well paid.”
“You see?” Lance said, spreading his hands. “We’re starting to be of one mind.”
“And,” Holly said, “if we were consulting, so to speak, and we had some little problem, then the CIA might be helpful to us.”
“What sort of problem did you have in mind?” Lance asked, sounding slightly suspicious.
“Oh, nothing at present,” Holly said, “but you can never tell what might come up in the future, can you?”
“I suppose there might occur, at some point, circumstances in which we might be informally helpful,” Lance said, “but of course, I can’t make you any promises about that, it being so vague.”
“Of course not,” Stone said. “Tell me, is there a contract for this sort of service?”
“I suppose there could be,” Lance said, “if it were deemed necessary.”
They had pulled up in front of Stone’s house. “Tell you what, why don’t you send the contracts to me, and I’ll take a look at them,” Stone said.
“You’d be representing Holly, then?”
“Yes,” Holly said, “he would be.”
“All right, I’ll see what I can put together.”
“Good night, Lance,” Stone said, opening the door, “and thanks for the lift.”
“Same here,” Holly said.
Stone closed the car door and they walked up the front steps.
“Did you think that was really, really weird?” Holly asked as they entered the house.
“I think that anything to do with Lance is really, really weird,” Stone replied. They got on the elevator and headed upstairs. When Stone got off, Holly followed him to his bedroom.
She took him by the lapels and kissed him.
Stone kissed her back. “That was very nice,” he said.
“Just what do I have to do to get you into bed?” Holly asked, kissing him again.
“Well, I. . .” He was stopped by a tongue in his mouth.
“I mean, I’ve been parading around here half naked—no, entirely naked, and that usually gets results, but you actually fell asleep.”
“I’m sorry, I . . .”
She pushed off his jacket and began untying his tie. “A girl could feel hurt by such treatment, you know.” She was working on his buttons.
“Doesn’t Daisy have to go out?” Stone asked weakly.
“Daisy is half bladder; don’t worry about it.” She was working on her own buttons now. “You think I could have a little help here?”
“Anything at all I can do,” Stone said, feeling for her buttons, zippers, and snaps. “I certainly don’t want you to feel neglected.”
“I feel neglected,” she said. “Make it better.”
Stone did what he could.
16
STONE FELT A gentle kiss near his ear. He turned toward Holly and, for his trouble, received a much bigger, wetter kiss, full on the mouth. It was accompanied by more tongue than he was accustomed to.
He opened his eyes to find Daisy’s head between his and Holly’s. This was made possible because he and Holly were lying crossways on his bed. He gave Daisy a scratch behind the ears and pushed her head gently away.
Holly turned toward him and opened her eyes. “Wow,” she said.
“Wow, indeed.”
“Why don’t we have any covers?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Stone replied. “Why are we sideways in the bed?”
“I think we boxed the compass,” she replied.
Daisy made a tiny grunting noise.
“Uh-oh,” Holly said, “I think I forgot something last night.” She sat up. “I’m coming, Daisy.” She looked down at Stone’s naked body. “Although there are things I’d rather do.” She hopped out of bed.
When Stone woke up again she was sitting on the edge of the bed in his terry robe, toweling her hair dry.
“Good morning,” she said.
“I must have dozed off.”
“Why? You couldn’t possibly be tired; it’s after nine. We must have gotten, oh, two or three hours of sleep.”
Stone rolled over on his stomach and put his head in her lap. “Scratch my back,” he said. “That’s all I have energy for.”
She began scratching his back. “You have sheet marks on your back. That’s what comes from sleeping on wrinkled sheets.”
“It’s the price you have to pay,” Stone muttered, burrowing his head farther into her lap.
“Now that’s a nice place for your head,” she said.
He pulled the robe back and burrowed into her, feeling with his tongue.
“Nicer still.” She lay back on the bed and turned toward him, giving him more access, then she took him in her mouth. They both were becoming excited now. Two minutes later, they shared an orgasm.
“I didn’t know I had that left in me,” Stone said.
“I’m glad you did. Want to do it again?”
“You want me to die right here and now?”
“Poor baby. You take a nap.”
Stone woke from his nap to find a tray next to
his head bearing a sandwich and a glass of iced tea.
“See what you get when you’re nice?” Holly asked.
Stone struggled into a sitting position and found the remote control for the bed, raising it to support his back. “What about you?” he said.
“I had lunch in the kitchen, so as not to disturb you. Daisy and I have already been for another, longer walk, too.”
“Such energy!” he said, biting into the sandwich.
“Such a long time since I watched a naked man eat a sandwich,” she replied, smiling at him.
“So what’s your plan for the day?”
“I don’t suppose it would do any good to keep watch at the La Boheme again,” she said. “I must have scared Trini out of Little Italy by now. You think Lance knows more than he’s telling about Trini?”
“I think Lance always knows more than he’s telling. He surprised me last night, with this consultant thing.”
“I think I might do it,” she said, arranging herself next to him. “This is a very nice bed. Does it vibrate?”
“Yep.”
“I’m getting tired of my job,” she said.
“Which job? Me?”
“No, my chief’s job in Orchid Beach.”
“I thought you loved it.”
“I did for a long time, but it’s becoming more and more routine. I mean, I’ve improved the department, trained people better and all that, but it’s not as though I have to do it for a living.”
“That’s right, you’re retired army; you have a pension.”
“Yes, and Jackson left me very nicely fixed, too.”
“That was very nice of Jackson. Why don’t you travel, see some of the world?”
“I’m an army brat,” she said. “I’ve seen the world twice.”
“What do you want to do, then?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m enjoying myself in New York, but I’m not sure I’d want to live here.”