Stone held it back as long as he could, and her rising orgasm finally set him off. They were both noisy about it.
An hour or so later, Stone disentangled himself from Arrington and used her shower. When he returned, she was back at her dressing table, wearing a slip. “Isn’t this where I came in?” he asked, rubbing her shoulders while she brushed her hair.
“It is, and what did you want to talk about?”
“We’ve got the shares we need to control the studio, in conjunction with Rick Barron. It occurred to me that it might be good for you to buy his shares, too. Rick’s in his nineties, and if he leaves them to his grandchildren, we could find ourselves back in the same situation in a few years.”
“Can I afford it?”
“I’ve already asked Bill Eggers to extend your line of credit for another hundred million.”
“That’s a breathtaking amount of money,” she said. “How will I ever pay it back?”
“When the market goes up again, and it will, you’ll sell other stocks and repay the loan. Hardly anything in your portfolio would be a better investment than Centurion.”
“I’ll do whatever you recommend,” she said. “You know I trust you.”
“Then I recommend that you buy the twenty thousand shares from Long and Baird.”
“And that will give us control?”
“With Rick voting his hundred thousand shares and Charlene Joiner voting her fifty thousand, yes.”
“What about Jennifer Harris’s shares?”
“We don’t know yet if her estate will sell them to us, but we don’t need them, because we have Long’s and Baird’s shares.”
“Sounds good to me,” Arrington said. “By the way, I’ve arranged for dinner here tonight and invited Mike Freeman, too. I hope that will be all right with you and Dino.”
“Of course. Why don’t we invite Rick and Glenna and Charlene Joiner, too? We can call it a celebration of both your new airplane and our achieving voting control of Centurion.”
“Sounds wonderful. Will you call the Barrons and Ms. Joiner?”
“Of course.” Stone got on the phone and issued the invitations.
“They’ll be here at six-thirty for drinks,” he told Arrington.
“Good. Now go away before you and I get started again. I have to do my hair and makeup.”
“You overestimate me,” Stone said, retreating.
“No, I don’t,” she replied.
Stone fled. He went back to the guesthouse, got Bill Eggers’s voice mail at Woodman amp; Weld, and left him a description of the sales documents for the purchase of both Long’s and Baird’s shares, and instructions to fax Long’s to Harvey Stein and Baird’s to himself. Now he wouldn’t have to rise at six o’clock the next morning to get that done.
Dino woke up from a nap, and Stone told him of the dinner arrangements.
“Good excuse for a party,” Dino said.
“Two good excuses,” Stone replied. “Don’t forget Arrington’s new airplane.”
25
Stone walked out to the pool a little before six-thirty and found half a dozen bottles of ten-year-old Krug champagne in a copper tub of ice. Arrington appeared from the main house in a gossamer white dress, looking ravishing.
“Why don’t you pop one of those corks?” she suggested.
Stone popped the cork and found a pair of her Baccarat champagne flutes. “To the movie business and fast airplanes,” he said, and they drank. “Yeasty,” he offered.
“Crisp,” she said. “Wonderful stuff. It’s been in the cellar for years.”
Dino appeared and accepted a flute. “Arrington,” he said, “you’ve never looked more beautiful.”
She kissed him lightly on the lips. “Dino, you’ve just paid the rent on a permanent lease of my guesthouse.”
“A bargain,” Dino said. “Hey, what is this champagne? It’s different from what they sell at Elaine’s.”
“Elaine sells Dom Perignon; this is Krug Brut, the good stuff.”
“I like the good stuff.”
“When are you going to retire, Dino?” Arrington asked.
“Retire from the NYPD? What would I do for fun?” he replied.
Manolo showed Mike Freeman out to the pool, arm in arm with Charlene Joiner. “Miss Joiner and I have just met,” he said. “I’m a big fan.”
“Isn’t he sweet?” Charlene said.
Stone introduced Arrington and Charlene. Each eyed the other up and down as they shook hands.
“Arrington,” Mike said, “everything is in hand for your airplane purchase. The insurance has been arranged, and we’ll have the pre-purchase inspection finished tomorrow. I’ve faxed the sales agreement to Woodman amp; Weld for their approval. Everything seems to be in perfect order.”
“Perfect order is what I like,” Arrington said.
Rick and Glenna Barron arrived and received champagne.
Rick raised his glass. “To a new day at Centurion, with a long life ahead.” They all drank.
They were about to sit down for dinner when Manolo came to Stone and whispered, “There’s a Mister Harvey Stein on the phone for you. He said it was urgent.”
“I’ll take it in the guesthouse,” Stone said. “Please excuse me for a moment, everybody.” He went into the guesthouse living room, picked up the phone, and pressed the lighted button. “Harvey?”
“Stone, I’m sorry to have to call you in the evening, but I’ve just had a call from Parker Center. Jim Long is on his way to the hospital.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“There was some sort of fight among several inmates in the dining hall during the supper hour, and Jim was knifed with a homemade shank.”
“How is he?”
“He’s lost a lot of blood, and he’s about to lose a kidney, but he’s hanging on.”
“Is he in the prison hospital?”
“The warden has agreed to move him to Cedars-Sinai for the surgery. He’s in the ambulance now. I’m meeting him at the hospital.”
“You’d better arrange some personal security for him,” Stone said.
“Why? Nobody’s going to knife him at Cedars-Sinai, and anyway, there’ll be a cop outside his door.”
“Harvey, does anybody besides you, me, and Long know that he’s agreed to sell us his shares in Centurion?”
“Why no… well, possibly.”
“Who?”
“Terry Prince’s attorney phoned this afternoon to try and buy the shares. I was out of the office and an associate took the call. It’s possible that he might have spoken out of turn. Surely, you don’t think that Prince is responsible for this.”
“Did you read the piece in the L.A. Times about the death of Eddie Harris’s daughter, Jennifer?”
“Yes, I saw it. Was she going to sell you her shares?”
“No, but she was going to vote with us.”
“Oh, shit. I had no idea.”
“Did you talk to Jim today?” Stone asked.
“Yes, he called my cell and gave me the combination to his safe at Centurion. I went over there and picked up the share certificate; that’s why I was out of the office.”
“Where is the certificate now?”
“At the office, in my safe.”
“I don’t suppose Jim had an opportunity to sign it.”
“No, I was going to see him tomorrow morning.”
“Well, Harvey, I think you’d better get a couple of armed guards over there. A cop napping outside the door isn’t going to make him safe.”
“I’ll do that right away.”
“And Harvey?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t want to sound callous, but the best thing you can do to keep Jim safe is to get him to sign that certificate at the earliest possible moment-tonight, if possible. And let Prince’s attorney know about it.”
“I see your point; I’ll do what I can.”
Stone gave him his cell number. “Please call me when you have his signature. The sales documents will be in your fax machine when you get to your office tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll do that,” Stein said.
Stone hung up, then stood and thought for a moment. There was no point in telling the others about this at the moment, he decided. Why ruin the dinner party? He turned to find Dino standing in the doorway.
“Everybody’s sitting down. Everything okay?”