“Ed, she’s in L.A.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Dino and I saw her with Carolyn Blaine out in Malibu yesterday, and she was being driven in a Rolls. Dino ran her tag, and E. K. Grosvenor of San Francisco came up.”
“I hope she’s not staying at the Bel-Air,” Eagle said. “It would be awkward to run into her, not to mention dangerous. Do you have any idea what she’s doing here?”
“Well, she had dinner with Terry Prince this evening; we were at the same restaurant.”
“You think she’s mixed up in the Centurion deal?”
“How much did you say she was worth?”
“When she got Walter Keeler’s will set aside, she came into his entire fortune. Word on the legal grapevine was that it came to one point six billion.”
“Billion?”
“Right, and, apart from some real estate and an airplane, it was all in liquid assets.”
“And since she was a surviving spouse, tax-free?”
“I assume so.”
Stone silently thought about that.
“Stone, are you still there?”
“Sorry, Ed, I was just thinking.”
“You think she’s in the Centurion deal?”
“It makes sense,” Stone said. “Terry Prince is seeming a lot more confident the past few days.”
“That’s interesting, because Jim Long, the producer, is Barbara’s closest friend, maybe her only one. In fact, she could be staying at his house.”
“And if she is, she would know about the attack on him in jail.”
“I suppose so.”
“Then why would she be doing business with the man who arranged the attack?”
“Good question. He probably doesn’t know how dangerous she is. Is there anything I can do to help? Do you want me to let the authorities in Santa Fe know that this Carolyn Blaine could be Dolly Parks?”
“No,” Stone said, “not yet, anyway. I have to think this thing through. Thanks for your help, Ed.” The two men said good night and hung up.
Stone tried to make sense of the association of Barbara Eleanor Keeler Grosvenor and Terry Prince, but he got nowhere.
46
Stone had hardly hung up the phone when Arrington padded into his room, shucked off her robe, revealing all, and slithered into bed next to him.
“I was waiting for you to come to me,” she said.
“I’m sorry, I had to make a phone call.”
“That’s all right,” she said, “I’m here now.” She felt under the covers for him.
“Right where you should be,” Stone said.
“Do you have to get up early in the morning?” she asked.
“Not that I know of.”
“Good, because I’m going to keep you busy.”
And she did.
Stone woke up early in spite of himself. He tried to sneak out of bed to the bathroom, but she snagged his wrist.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” she said, pressing herself against him. “Do you remember when we started every morning this way?”
“I certainly do,” he said, kissing her. That had been back when she was practically living with him in New York, before she had met Vance Calder and he had stolen her away to Bel-Air.
She rolled over and sat on top of him, taking him inside her. “There,” she said, “I’ve got you pinned.”
“You surely have,” he said, “and I’m enjoying the experience.” They both enjoyed it for a few minutes until they shared an orgasm.
Stone and Arrington were having breakfast on the terrace.
“We need to talk about Prince’s offer for your property here,” he said, handing her the contract and the twenty-five-million-dollar check.
“Why, it’s a personal check!” she said, looking at it. “I didn’t know anybody wrote personal checks in that amount.”
“He wanted to impress you,” Stone said.
“Well, I’m impressed. What’s your advice on this sale?”
“First, let me ask you a couple of questions.”
“Shoot.”
“Are you really ready to sell the property? Would it make you sad to see it go?”
“Yes, to your first question; no, to your second. My life isn’t here anymore. I would still enjoy visiting, but having a house in his new hotel would make me feel at home when I’m back here.”
“All right, let me make a suggestion.”
“Again, shoot.”
“Sign the contract, and let me decide tomorrow afternoon whether to tear it up or go through with the sale, depending on circumstances.”
“I trust you that much,” she said. “After all, if the sale doesn’t go through, I can still build my own hotel on the property.”
“Woodman amp; Weld could partner you with the right hotel group on that. You’d need professional management, anyway. You don’t actually want to run a hotel, do you?”
“Oh, God, no! I just want to be able to complain about the service and get instant results.”
“I think we can guarantee that,” Stone said, laughing.
“What if I end up in business with Prince?” she asked. “Am I going to like that?”
“You’ll never have to see or speak to him,” Stone said. “I’ll take care of that. Also, I’ve been on his hotel company’s website, looking at his properties, and they’re all top-notch. I’ve stayed at two or three of them, and they were all beautifully run.”
“Okay. You decide tomorrow.”
Stone handed her the document and a pen, and she signed it. “He’s put in an early closing date of this Friday, noon, and if he misses that, his twenty-five million are yours.”
Dino came out of the guesthouse and joined them. “Witness this, will you?” Stone said, passing him the document and the pen.
Dino signed the document with a flourish. “There you are.” “What does your day hold?” Stone asked him, slipping the document and the check into his briefcase.
“Rivera and I are working on something,” Dino said.
“What are you working on?”
“It’s a secret for the time being,” Dino said smugly. “You’ll know when you need to know.”
“You’re very mysterious, Dino,” Arrington said.
“Yes, I am,” Dino replied, smiling.
Stone’s cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“Stone, it’s Harvey Stein. I’m sorry, but I was down at Palm Springs for the weekend, and I didn’t get your message until this morning.”
“Thanks for calling back, Harvey. I’ve heard some rumblings about Jim Long’s trying to back out of our stock sale.”
“Well, it’s too late for him to do that, isn’t it? Mrs. Calder owns the stock now. What’s done is done.”
“Harvey, you know Barbara Eagle, don’t you?”
“I’ve met her a couple of times; she and Jim are close.”
“She’s back in town, and last night she had dinner with Terry Prince. You know anything about that?”
“Not a thing,” Stein replied.
“Did you speak with Jim over the weekend?”
“Yes, I called him yesterday from Palm Springs, just to see how he was doing, and he sounded much like his old self.”
“Did he mention Barbara?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“I’d heard that she might be staying with him while she’s in town.”
“That would be news to me,” Stein said.
“Are you coming to the shareholders’ meeting tomorrow?”
“Since I no longer represent a shareholder, no.”
“Well, if I don’t speak to you again, Harvey, thanks for all your help in getting this sale closed.”
“My pleasure,” Stein replied. They both hung up.
Stone called Rick Barron. “Rick, I just spoke to Harvey Stein, and he says there’s no problem, that Jim Long’s shares now belong to Arrington.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Rick said. “We’re perilously close to the fifty-one percent level, and his stock just puts us over the top.”
“Then we’re okay.” Stone heard noises in the background. “Are you still in the editing suite?”
“Yes, it will be tonight before we finish scoring and tomorrow morning before we have a print.”
“I can’t wait to see it, whatever it is,” Stone said.
“I think you’ll find it entertaining,” Rick said. “Gotta run.”
They hung up. “Everybody’s mysterious today,” he said to Arrington. “First Dino, now Rick Barron. He’s working on some sort of presentation for the meeting tomorrow.”