“How much is your deductible?” Dino asked.
“Five grand, I think.”
“You’d better bill that to Arrington.”
“You’re right.”
Rivera stood up and tucked his notebook into his pocket. “I’m outa here,” he said. “I’ve got bad guys to chase.”
“I hope you catch up with them,” Stone said, watching him go.
“Where were we going when the car exploded?” Dino asked.
Stone thought about it. “To have drinks with Rivera.”
“Oh, then we got that taken care of, didn’t we? What do you want to do now?”
“I think we’d better do something,” Stone said, “or I’ll start dwelling on what would have happened if I had started the car. Or if you hadn’t gotten out of it in time.”
“I see your point,” Dino said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Stone got into the new Mercedes.
Dino stood over by the garage, where a man in white overalls was already painting the door. “You start this one,” he yelled. “I’ll wait over here.”
Stone took a deep breath and started the car. It didn’t explode.
They drove down into Beverly Hills and took a run down Rodeo Drive. Finally, Stone pulled into the alley behind the Ralph Lauren store and gave the car to the valet parker, along with a twenty. “Please park this where you can see it, lock it, and if anybody messes with it, call the police.”
“Yes, sir,” the young man said, looking at him oddly but pocketing the twenty.
“If it doesn’t explode when I come back, there’s another twenty in it for you,” Stone said. He led the way into the store.
“What are you looking for?” Dino asked.
“I don’t know; it’s therapeutic shopping. I always go shopping after somebody tries to kill me.”
“Does it help?”
“It doesn’t hurt.” Stone stopped at a counter and picked out a couple of neckties.
“Nobody wears neckties out here,” Dino pointed out.
“They must sell them to somebody,” Stone said. “Maybe New Yorkers.” He wandered into the shoe department and found a pair of chocolate-brown alligator loafers he liked. Then he turned over the shoe and saw the price tag.
A sales assistant approached. “Would you like to try those on?” he asked.
Stone gave him his card. “I wear a 10D; call me when they go on sale.” He wandered on.
“Have you forgotten that you’re now a partner at Woodman amp; Weld?”
Stone went back and tried on the shoes. “I’ll take them,” he said, handing the young man his credit card.
“Feel better now?” Dino asked.
“Much,” Stone replied, accepting a bag containing the shoes.
“What else you looking for?” Dino asked.
“I don’t know.”
“It’s chilly at night out here; how about a sweater?”
“Good idea.” Stone found the correct department and picked out a gold cashmere V-neck. “I’ll buy you one,” Stone said. “After all, you nearly got killed, too.”
Dino picked out a red sweater. “You’re right,” he said. “I feel better, too.”
They wandered on through the store.
“You know,” Dino said, “we’ve never been shopping together. Do you think they think we’re gay?”
“They don’t think we’re gay,” Stone said, “because they know I could do better than you.”
Dino burst out laughing.
They went back to the rear of the store and Stone gave the valet his parking ticket. The car was parked just across the alley, and the valet ran to get it.
Dino pulled Stone behind a large SUV. “Just in case,” he said. The valet started the car and pulled it around for them. It didn’t explode.
“You know,” Dino said as he drove away. “I’ve always found that valet thing a nuisance, but not anymore.”
“You have a point,” Stone said. “It’s the next best thing to having your own garage.” They stopped for a traffic light.
Dino switched off the ignition, extracted the key, and looked at it. “Whaddya know?” he said. “Watch this.” He pressed a button on the key, and the engine started.
“I guess they have a big call for that in L.A.,” Stone said.
41
Back at the house Stone’s cell buzzed. “Hello?”
“Stone? It’s Ed Eagle.”
“Hey, Ed, how are you?”
“Just fine. Susannah and I are back in town, at the Bel-Air Hotel; would you and Dino like to join us for dinner over here?”
“Sure, love to.”
“Seven, in the bar?”
“That’s fine, Ed; see you then.” Stone hung up. “Ed Eagle is in town and invited us to dinner.”
“Fine by me. I don’t know the guy very well.”
“He’s a top defense lawyer in the West; married to Susannah Wilde, actress?”
“Her, I know,” Dino said.
“You’ll like them.”
“I’m prepared to.”
They had a drink before dinner in the Bel-Air bar.
“I heard a rumor that Terry Prince is going to build a new hotel in Bel-Air on your client’s property,” Eagle said.
“In his dreams,” Stone replied. He told Ed about the hang-up on the Centurion deal.
“Would she really sell?”
“I haven’t had a firm answer from her, but it’s possible, I think.”
“You think such a hotel could compete with this one?”
“I’ve no idea,” Stone said, “but Terry Prince thinks so, and he’s willing to bet a ton of money on his judgment.”
“His own money?”
“That, I don’t know, but his assistant, Carolyn Blaine, thinks it is.”
“Is that the blonde I saw here at the Bel-Air reopening party?”
“Yes. I was going to introduce her to you, but she vanished.”
“I thought she looked familiar,” Eagle said. “Now I remember why.”
“Why?”
“She reminds me a little of a woman who lived in Santa Fe for a while. She worked for a client of mine named Hanks, a pro golfer.”
“Sure, I know who he is. He’s doing very well on the tour this year, isn’t he?”
“He is. But last year, this young woman embezzled something like seven hundred thousand dollars from his bank accounts, then vanished.”
Stone’s eyebrows went up. “And you think Carolyn is that woman?”
“I’m not sure,” Eagle said, “but there’s something about her. The one in Santa Fe wasn’t a blonde.”
“That’s very interesting, Ed, because I ran a background check on her, and Carolyn Blaine doesn’t exist. I even got her fingerprints and ran those, but nothing came up. She’s a blank sheet of paper.”
“That is very interesting,” Eagle said.
“What was her name?”
“I can’t for the life of me remember, but it wouldn’t matter, anyway, because that name was probably an alias, too.”
“Is anybody looking for her?”
“We made all the proper complaints to the authorities, but she seems to have covered her tracks completely. The stolen funds were wired to offshore accounts, but they were unable to trace her through those. I think she may even have been involved in some way with my ex-wife, Barbara.”
“Whatever happened to Barbara?” Stone asked.
Eagle and Susannah exchanged a meaningful glance. “Well,” he said, “she made another attempt on my life last year, and it nearly worked. I was hospitalized for a spell.”
“Do you know where she is now?”
“Yes, I do; she’s in San Francisco, remarried, and a hot number on the social circuit there.”
“But shouldn’t she be in prison? Wasn’t she convicted of something?”
“She got off on a charge of trying to kill me in L.A., but she was wanted in Mexico for attempted murder, and I and a couple of P.I. s tricked her into crossing the border and got her arrested there. She was doing time in a Mexican prison when she escaped and made her way back to this country. You won’t believe what happened next.”
“Try me.”
“Her most recent husband, a very rich man, died in a car crash on a freeway north of Palo Alto, and he left a will limiting her to a monthly stipend and the use of an apartment in San Francisco. Some lawyer heard something in a country club locker room to the effect that her husband’s attorney had forged the part of the will cutting her out, and he managed to get it overturned, so she inherited everything, more than a billion dollars. She used some of her money to buy herself a pardon in Mexico, and now she’s as free as a bird.”