“Unknown. There was no card, and the man who delivered it didn’t know, either. Would you like me to open it?”
“Please.”
She set it down, untied the ribbon, and peeled back the wrapping. She used a pair of scissors to open the box underneath.
“Oh,” she said, peering inside.
“Oh good, or oh bad?”
Joan reached into the box and pulled out a desk clock, housed in mahogany. “This is beautiful,” she said. “I think it’s handmade.”
She set it on the desk and Stone looked it over. It was exquisite. The kind of clock that would cost several thousand dollars. While clients often sent him tokens of gratitude, few were of this caliber, and he could think of no current client who had reason to gift him in this way.
Joan looked back into the box and pulled out an envelope. “Ah, I guess there is a card.”
She handed it to Stone. He opened it and pulled out a brochure for a mortuary. On the front was taped a note that read: Best to get your affairs in order sooner than later. There was no signature.
“That doesn’t look like a card,” Joan said.
“Because it’s not.” He turned it so she could see.
“I wasn’t aware we had a mortuary as a client.”
“As far as I know, we don’t.”
“Then why would they send you this?”
“I doubt they had anything to do with it,” Stone said. “This is from someone trying to send me a message.”
“What message?”
“Something about time, and how little of it I have left.”
“That’s presumptuous.”
“Get Dino on the line.”
She started to leave.
“Joan?” he called before she reached the door.
When she looked back, he pointed at the clock and the box, then motioned for her to take them out and put them somewhere far from either of their offices. It was possible the clock was just a clock and the box just a box, but he would feel better after Mike Freeman’s people checked them both for hidden devices.
Joan put the clock back in the box and carried it out.
A couple minutes later, she stuck her head into the office. “Dino on one.”
“And the box?”
“In the garden shed.”
Stone picked up the phone. “I just received an interesting package.”
“Another stiff, like yesterday?”
“No stiff. Just an expensive clock and a brochure for the Dalby Family Mortuary.”
“I hear they do good work.”
“That makes me feel so much better,” Stone said. “There was a note with the brochure.” He read it to Dino.
“Sounds like someone thinks you won’t be breathing for much longer.”
“One guess who that would be.”
“The Russians,” Dino said, “by way of the Sarge, most likely. Am I close?”
“You got it in one.”
“What I don’t get is if they’re planning to kill you, why send you messages like Greco’s corpse and this fancy clock, instead of just doing it?”
“Aside from the fact that I’m glad they are taking their time, I think they were at first trying to scare me. Now, they may be attempting to get me to do something.”
“Other than to avail yourself of the Dalby Family’s services?”
“Other than that.”
“Like what?”
“Ask for Ed Rawls’s help.”
“That makes sense. Easier to kill you if you’re together.”
Stone had been close to doing just that.
“Maybe I should issue an APB for the Sarge,” Dino said, “as a person of interest in Peter Greco’s murder.”
“He’d never let himself get caught.”
“No, but he’d have to be more cautious. No more freely moving around.”
That was true. “Good idea.”
“I have them on occasion.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Joan peeked her head into the room. “Ed Rawls on two.”
“I’ll let you two bond over your shared destiny,” Dino said, and hung up.
Stone switched to the other line. “Hello, Ed. Everything all right?”
“So far so quiet today,” Ed said. “The Metropolitan Police have the area around Sarah’s house locked down. I have to say, though, I’m not used to being under police protection. It’s a little like being back in prison, just with a nicer cell.”
“And cellmate,” Stone said.
“That also is a plus. But I am starting to wonder if you might need me back there.”
“I’d advise against it.”
“Has the threat level to you gone down?”
“Quite the opposite.” Stone told him about the package, and his and Dino’s theory about the Sarge baiting Ed to return.
“As much as I hate to say this, you’re probably right. The only way they can get to me here is by shooting an anti-tank missile at the house, from several blocks away.”
“Do you think that’s a possibility?”
Ed said nothing for a moment. “A possibility? Yes, but not a large one. Obtaining and moving a missile around the U.K. would be more difficult than back home.”
“You sound as if you feel safe there,” Stone said. “I recommend you stay.”
“The Sarge isn’t going to wait long for me to come back before he decides to make a move on you anyway. What are you going to do?”
“I’m working on that,” Stone said.
“My suggestion,” Ed said, “work faster.”
Chapter 62
That afternoon, someone knocked on Stone’s office doorway. “Mr. Barrington, do you have a moment?”
Stone waved in the specialist Mike Freeman had sent to check out the desk clock.
“You were right to be concerned,” she said. “There are two bugs in the clock and one embedded in the packing material in the box.”
“I’d like to say I’m surprised.”
“Maybe this will do the trick. Whoever sent the clock wasn’t playing around. The bugs employ the latest tech and are not cheap. Their selling point is that they are undetectable. And to most scanners, they would be. Lucky for you, Strategic Services also uses the latest tech. But even then, I almost missed them.”
“I appreciate your efforts.”
“Would you like me to take them with me when I leave?”
Stone ignored the specialist’s question and asked one of his own. “What kind of range do the bugs have?”
“If you’re worried that they might pick up our conversation here from the shed outside, don’t be,” she said. “It’s nowhere near that sensitive. I would avoid having sensitive conversations in your garden, however.”
“That’s what I was hoping you’d say. Thank you. Let’s leave them in the shed for now. If I change my mind, I’ll call Mike.”
“Understood.” She left.
Joan popped in a moment later. “So?”
“So, be careful what you say in the garden,” he said. “And tell Carly, too.”
“Tell me what?” Carly asked from the doorway.
“To watch what you say.”
“You’ve already told me that, multiple times.”
“This time I mean when around the shed in the garden.”
“That’s oddly specific.”
Stone explained to her about the clock.
“Okay, that makes sense now,” Carly said. “But I don’t understand why you’re keeping it around.”
“Because it could provide us with an opportunity.”
“What kind of opportunity?”
Stone tapped his temple. “I’m working on that.”
“You should work faster.”
Before he could respond, Joan said, “Oh, I almost forgot,” and laid a white envelope on his desk, which had nothing written on the outside.
Stone leaned away from it, as if it were a snake. “Who is it from?”
Joan rolled her eyes. “Stop overreacting. If I didn’t know the sender, I would have told you first. This came from the office.” She handed an identical envelope to Carly. “And this one is for you.”