“Any news from James Long?”
“No, and frankly, that worries me.”
“What will you do if he doesn’t recover?”
“Regroup.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, I have an idea for how to redirect Mr. Prince’s attention.”
“And how would you do that?”
“Get him interested in buying your Bel-Air property for a hotel.”
“But that’s my plan!”
“I didn’t say sell it to him, just get him interested. That should buy us some time to get the Centurion shares nailed down.”
“Well, I’m certainly not selling to him; you remember that.”
“Don’t worry.”
“I have to go now and finish packing.”
“Bye-bye.” He hung up. “Arrington is very happy now; she likes her new airplane.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Dino asked.
Stone’s cell phone vibrated. “Hello?”
“Hey, babe, it’s Charlene.”
Stone felt the usual stirring in his loins at the sound of her voice. “Hey, Charlene.”
“Would you and Dino like to go to a Malibu dinner party with Hetty and me this evening?”
“I and Dino would be delighted.”
“Then come get us at six-thirty.”
“Will do.”
“Bye.”
“You and I would be delighted to do what?” Dino asked.
“We’re taking Charlene and Hetty to a dinner party in Malibu tonight, picking them up at six-thirty.”
“I’ll pack my toothbrush,” Dino said.
They drove out to Malibu in Vance Calder’s Bentley Arnage, which Stone thought might get them a better parking spot from the valets at the party. He was right.
The dinner party was a mile up the beach toward L.A. from Charlene’s house in the Colony. “Whose party is this?” Stone asked her.
“His name is Jack Schmeltzer; he’s an independent producer, and he has a production deal at Centurion. He’s produced a couple of my pictures, and I still like him. That’s saying a lot.”
The house was a Bauhaus wonderland, glass and very little apparent steel. Once inside, they had a spectacular view of the Pacific with the sun low in the sky, and the dinner crowd, at least forty people by Stone’s estimate, was pretty spectacular, too. The women were all gorgeous, and the men all looked very rich. Stone was glad he’d brought the Bentley.
They had just placed an order with a waiter for drinks when Stone peered through the glass living room wall out onto the deck. There he saw Terry Prince leaning on the rail, holding court with half a dozen people close around him.
“Shall we go out and say hello?” Dino asked.
“Let’s let him come to us,” Stone said.
“Why do you think he will?”
“I sent him a message, sort of. Believe me, he is overwhelmingly curious.”
“What sort of message?”
“It’s complicated; I’ll tell you about it later. I wouldn’t want to be overheard in this crowd.”
Their host, Jack Schmeltzer, appeared, kissed Charlene and Hetty on their cheeks, and introduced himself to Stone and Dino.
“Thanks for letting us come to your home, Jack,” Stone said.
“I’m very glad to have you,” Schmeltzer said. “I’ve heard a lot about you the past couple of days. How’s Jim Long doing?”
“In and out of it, last I heard,” Stone said. “I’m hoping for the best.”
“I hear he’s willing to sell you his shares,” Schmeltzer said.
“The rumor is true.”
“And I hear that would give you control of Centurion.”
“It would give my client control,” Stone said.
Schmeltzer looked toward the front door. “I have more guests arriving,” he said. “Perhaps we could find a moment to talk privately after dinner?”
“Of course,” Stone said.
Schmeltzer wandered off to greet his guests, and Stone looked out at the deck. Terry Prince had disappeared.
“Good evening,” someone said from behind him.
Stone turned to find Prince standing there. He wondered how he had managed to sneak up on him.
“Can we talk?” Prince asked.
34
Prince took Stone’s arm and propelled him to a corner of the room behind the grand piano, the player of which was apparently on break. Stone noticed that four other men wearing studiedly casual outfits moved with them. Prince had security, from all appearances, and Stone wondered why.
Stone extricated his arm from Prince’s grip. “What can I do for you?” he asked.
“First of all,” Prince said, “I want to apologize for the tenor of our conversation when we last met. It was not my purpose to establish an adversarial relationship with you or your client, and things, somehow, went awry. I hope we can establish a more cordial atmosphere for discussions from here on in.”
“I hope so, too,” Stone replied. “Now, what discussions?”
Prince looked around as if he were worried that someone might overhear them. “I understand that Arrington Calder has bought two pieces of property adjoining her Bel-Air estate. This is a matter of public record.”
“Then I have no problem confirming it,” Stone said.
“May I ask, then, what do those acquisitions bring her total acreage to?”
“I believe it’s eighteen acres,” Stone said.
“And this is quite near the Bel-Air Country Club?”
“Some of the property is directly across the street.”
“May I ask,” Prince said again, “how she and her late husband came to own such a large chunk of Bel-Air?”
“In much the same way that Vance Calder came to own such a large chunk of Centurion: a little at a time, as he was able to afford it. Vance enjoyed his privacy, and he liked having his neighbors, whoever they might be, at some remove.”
“It astonishes me,” Prince said, “that this piece of property could exist in Bel-Air without my having known about it until now.”
“Neither I nor my client has concealed this from you.”
“I would like you to know, and I would be grateful if you would communicate this to Mrs. Calder, that I would be very interested in buying the whole property from her.”
“For what purpose?” Stone asked.
“You may recall that I am in the hotel business,” Prince replied.
“You want to build a new hotel in the heart of Bel-Air?”
“That is correct.”
“In spite of the nearby competition from the well-established Bel-Air Hotel, which has just undergone a major refurbishment?”
“I am competitive by nature,” Prince said, “and I am perfectly capable of creating a hotel experience that would outshine that of the present hotel.”
“Would this have anything to do with your inability to buy the Bel-Air Hotel?” Stone asked.
“As I said, I am competitive by nature.”
“Well,” Stone said, “that is a very interesting idea. What makes you think you could get planning permission to build a hotel on that site?”
“I have already explored that possibility with the relevant authorities, and I am assured that they would regard a low-rise, discretely designed and landscaped hotel a welcome addition to the community. They were particularly pleased that I offered to put all parking underground.”
“Well, that’s all very optimistic of you, Mr. Prince.”
“Call me Terry, please.”
“Terry, what sort of offer did you have in mind for the property?”
“Something on the order of a hundred and fifty million dollars,” Prince replied.
Stone shook his head. “I don’t think I could recommend such a price to my client.”
“What did you have in mind?” Prince asked.
“Well, I haven’t had the opportunity to research the land values, but I should think something north of two hundred million dollars would be a good starting point for negotiations.”
Prince blinked. “And you haven’t researched the land values?”
“No, but I know what Mrs. Calder paid for her two recent acquisitions, which were based on the property values of four years ago, when her late husband took the options.”
“Would she sell at the right price?”
“I don’t know, really, but I do know that she enjoys visiting her property in Bel-Air, and since she has no need of the money, I’m uncertain what her reaction would be.”