“Damn right I am; my golf clubs, too.”
“Great. How about a tennis racket?”
“You know I’m a lousy tennis player.”
“You’re a lousy golfer, too, but you’re bringing your clubs.”
“If that sonofabitch doesn’t get the fuck out of the way, ram him!” Dino shouted, apparently at his driver.
“Have you got another rookie detective at the wheel?”
“So what if I have?”
“Give the kid a break, Dino. He can’t drive over the traffic.”
“My flight leaves in twenty minutes.”
“So what? You’re not going through the airport; you’re going to flash your badge and drive out onto the tarmac, right up to the airplane, aren’t you?”
“You bet your ass, but I’ve still got to move to make it.”
“So call the airline and tell them it’s a police emergency, to hold the flight.”
“Jesus, why didn’t I think of that? Get off the phone!”
“I’ll see you at Palm Beach Airport,” Stone said, and pressed the end button. He laughed aloud at the thought of Dino holding the flight for a police emergency, then arriving at the airplane carrying his golf clubs.
He called the yacht, and Carrie answered.
“Hi. Where are you?”
“On the way back from the Rolls dealer.”
“Find out anything?”
“I’ll tell you later. Have you heard a weather forecast for tomorrow?”
“Rain ends late tonight; sunny all day tomorrow.”
“Thank God. Dino’s arriving this afternoon, with golf clubs. He’d shoot me if he couldn’t play. Can you find us some golf somewhere?”
“Sure. I’ll book a tee time at the Breakers. Ten o’clock okay?”
“Perfect. Dino’s bringing his own clubs. I’ll need to rent some.”
“You can use Thad’s; he won’t mind.”
“Do you play?”
“I’ve got a twelve handicap. What’s yours?”
“We’ll make it a threesome, then,” Stone said, avoiding an answer.
“Well,” she said, laughing, “I’m glad you’re interested in some kind of threesome.”
27
Stone drove to the airport, and the rain had still not let up. At times he was driving through three and four inches of water in the street, and the wind had started to get up, as well. At the airport, he parked at the curb and ran inside, and the hell with tickets.
He found Dino in baggage claim, just getting his golf clubs off the carousel.
“You didn’t tell me it was hurricane season,” Dino grumbled, handing Stone two bags and hoisting the clubs onto a shoulder. “I should have brought fucking scuba gear!”
“Oh, I just wanted you to see that Palm Beach is a city of contrasts,” Stone said, running for the car and getting soaked while stowing the bags in the trunk. The golf clubs had to go in the backseat. Finally, they were under way, with the windshield wipers trying hard to keep up with the deluge, and losing.
“I’m soaked to the skin!” Dino complained. “You might as well put the top down!”
“I don’t understand it,” Stone said. “The weather was glorious, until you decided to come.”
“Oh, right, I brought the weather with me; it’s all my fault.”
“Thank you for pointing that out. So, how are things at home?”
“Oh, just great. Dolce is out.”
Stone nearly wrecked the car. “What do you mean, 'out'?“
“Out. She set a fire in her room, which set off the alarm, and while her nurses were preoccupied with that, she got out of the house, took one of Eduardo’s cars and vanished into the world.”
“When did this happen?”
“This morning, apparently. Mary Ann called me on my pocket phone just as I was getting on the airplane. Eduardo is going nuts.”
“She won’t get far. Eduardo will have her back in no time. What, is she running around in her nightgown?”
“She packed three bags, according to the housekeeper, who counted the luggage. I’d say she has clothes for any occasion. Dolce is nothing if not organized.”
“But she doesn’t have any money or credit cards; she can’t travel.”
“Dolce has money of her own, you know, and quite a lot of it. Eduardo settled two million bucks on each of the girls when they turned twenty-one. And she took her purse, too-credit cards, even her passport. There’s nowhere you can run.”
“Oh, shit,” Stone said, his heart sinking. He dug out his cell phone and pressed the speed dial button for his office.
“The Barrington Practice,” Joan said.
“Hi, it’s me. You might get a call from Dolce sometime soon. Can you recognize her voice?”
“Sure I can. I heard it less than ten minutes ago.”
“What did she want?”
“You, I expect.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were out of town.”
“Did you tell her where?”
“No.”
“Thank God for that.”
“Bill Eggers told her that.”
“What?”
"As soon as she hung up I called Bill’s office, but he was on the phone. I held, and when he came on the line, he told me Dolce had called, and they’d had a nice chat. I take it Bill isn’t fully informed about Dolce’s condition.“
“Wonderful. If she calls back try and get a number where I can reach her.”
“Okay.”
Stone hung up and punched the button for Bill Eggers’s office at Woodman amp; Weld.
“Bill?”
“I take it from Joan’s reaction that I did something stupid?”
“It’s not your fault, Bill, but just how stupid were you?”
“Stupid enough to tell her you were in Palm Beach, before I noticed something about her. I stopped just short of telling her where you’re staying.”
“Thank God for small favors,” Stone muttered.
“What’s the matter with her, Stone? I thought she was just sick, but she sounded…”
“Exactly how did she sound?”
“Well, not deranged, exactly, but sort of otherworldly.”
“Does she know I’m doing work for Thad Shames?”
“I didn’t mention that.”
“Okay, Bill, thanks, and I’ll be in touch.” Stone punched off. “She doesn’t know where I’m staying.”
“Her sister does.”
“Oh, no. Mary Ann wouldn’t…”
“No, of course she wouldn’t, not if she were tortured, and Dolce is perfectly capable of torturing somebody to find out where you are.”
Stone turned into the driveway of the Shames mansion.
“Hey, pretty nice,” Dino said. “Do we have it to ourselves?”
“We’re not staying in the house; we’re out back.”
“Guesthouse?”
“Not exactly.”
“Uh-oh,” Dino said.
“Come on, let’s get the car unloaded and make a run for it.”
Two minutes later they had dashed up the gangplank of Toscana and were standing, panting, on the afterdeck, while puddles formed around them. Juanito appeared with some towels and two thick terry robes, and took the luggage.
“Maybe you could change into the robes here?” he said, as he padded off toward Dino’s cabin.
Stone and Dino emptied their pockets onto the table, including Dino’s badge and gun, and stripped. They had just kicked their clothing into a sodden pile when Carrie appeared.
“Well, hi there, sailors!” she said to the two naked men.
Dino grabbed for his robe.
“This must be Dino,” Callie said. “I can always recognize a naked policeman.”
“Dino, this is Callie Hodges,” Stone said, getting into his own robe.
“How do you do,” Dino said, trying to muster some dignity.
“We have a ten-thirty tee time at the Breakers tomorrow,” she said.
“Great,” Dino said. “We can go there on the boat.”
“Don’t worry, the front will pass through tonight. Tomorrow will be beautiful, I promise. The greens may be a little slow, but Palm Beach is thirsty and will soak the rain right up. I’m surprised your plane was able to land.”
“It took the pilot two tries,” Dino said. “I was ready to bust into the cockpit with my gun and order them to fly back to New York.”