“Not a word,” Holly said.
Stone chose Mirabelle’s number from his list of Favorites, and it began ringing. Finally she picked up. “Ah, it’s the American spy!” she said. “To what do I owe this invasion?”
“I’m sorry if I’m invading,” Stone said, “but I have to talk with you about your brother.”
“What could you possibly say to me about my brother? You don’t even know him.”
“Let’s just say that I know people who know him—and respect him—and I have some information for him that he might find very interesting.”
“And you want me to give him this information?”
“If you could pass it along, I’m sure he and I would both be very grateful.”
“Is this police business?”
“Sort of, I guess.”
“Then it would be better if a policeman spoke to him. He has contempt for people who are not policemen.”
“That’s a very large group of people,” Stone said.
“Nevertheless.”
“Nevertheless what?”
“Nevertheless, he has contempt for non-policemen.”
“Tell you what: if we can arrange a meeting, I will supply a bona fide policeman with whom he can speak, while ignoring all non-policemen.”
“I am having a drink with him at six o’clock this evening. You may join us at a lovely sidewalk café near the Boulevard Saint-Germain.”
“I’m afraid that the security arrangements that have been made for me preclude exposing my person to the evening air. How about if you both come to l’Arrington for a drink in my suite, at six o’clock.”
“Who will be there?”
“A policeman and, if he wishes, a member of our intelligence services.”
“All right, I will arrange it. Be sure to have pastis—that is all he drinks. Au revoir.” She hung up.
“Were you referring to me?” Holly asked.
“I was.”
“Oh, good. I want to get a good look at her.”
“Holly . . .”
“Didn’t I behave myself while you were on the phone with her?”
“Well, yes . . .”
“I will behave myself while in the same room with her, as well.”
“All right,” he said, “but I will unceremoniously throw you out if you let your worse nature get the better of you.”
“Fair enough. And, by the way, don’t you think you’d better inform the policeman in question that his services are required?”
“Right you are.” Stone called Dino.
“Hey.”
“Where are you?”
“Exiting a dull meeting.”
“Can you be here at six—you and Viv—for a drink with a Paris cop?”
“Sure, I guess. Who is he?”
“One Jacques Chance.”
“I shook his hand yesterday.”
“Good, that will help. Be here at a quarter to six. I have to brief you on what to say.”
“What do I have to say?”
“I’ll tell you at a quarter to six.”
“Okay.”
Stone hung up, called room service and asked for a bottle of pastis.
“What is pastis?” Holly asked.
“Some sort of French booze. It’s all Chance drinks, apparently.”
The waiter arrived in record time, clutching a bottle.
Stone invited him in. “How do I prepare a drink with this?”
“You just add cool water,” the man said. “Four or five to one of the pastis.”
“Got it.”
“Or you might offer your guests a small pitcher—such as the one in your bar—filled with water, and let them decide how much.”
Stone slipped the man a fifty-euro note. “I’m grateful to you,” he said. The man left, very happy.
Holly opened the bottle and took a small swig, then screwed up her face. “Holy shit!”
“He said to mix it with four or five parts of water.”
“I didn’t hear that part.”
“That’s what you get for drinking from the bottle.”
“It’s how I was brought up,” she said.
30
Dino and Viv let themselves into the sitting room from their adjoining bedroom on time, and Stone sat them down and gave them a drink while he briefed Dino on what to say.
“Got it,” Dino said, sounding bored.
“Why does Dino have to do this, instead of you?” Viv asked.
“Because Chance, to put it in the words of his sister, ‘has contempt for non-policemen.’”
“That’s a little stiff, isn’t it?”
“Nevertheless,” Stone said, quoting Mirabelle further.
At precisely six o’clock there was a sharp rap on the door; Stone answered it and ushered in his guests. “M’sieur Prefect,” he said, “may I present the police commissioner of the city of New York, Dino Bacchetti? Commissioner, this is Prefect Jacques Chance, of the Paris police.”
“We met yesterday,” Chance said, with a small smile as he shook Dino’s hand.
“May I also present Vivian Bacchetti, the commissioner’s wife, and also Madame Holly Barker, who is an important official of my country’s Central Intelligence Agency.”
“Enchanté,” Chance said, lightly kissing the hands of both women.
“Charmed, I’m sure,” Holly said drily.
Stone gestured toward Mirabelle. “And this is the prefect’s sister, Madame Mirabelle Chance, the famous Parisian couturier.” Dino, to Stone’s astonishment, kissed her hand.
Everyone took a seat.
“May I offer you a pastis, M’sieur Prefect?” Stone asked.
“You may,” Chance said.
“And Mirabelle?”
“Vodka martini, straight up, two olives stuffed with anchovies,” Mirabelle replied. “If you please.” Mirabelle well knew the contents of Stone’s bar.
Stone quickly mixed the martini, then poured a substantial pastis and offered both drinks on a tray, along with a small silver pitcher of water, containing one ice cube. They accepted the drinks, and the prefect added a judicious amount of water from the pitcher.
“I was very impressed with your presentation earlier this week, Commissioner,” Chance said. “You gave me some ideas for my own jurisdiction.”
“Thank you, Prefect,” Dino said. “Tell me, being an American, I am uncertain of the difference between your office and that of your father.”
“My father, Michel, is prefect of the national police, of the whole country. I am prefect of the police of the city of Paris, plus three other adjoining departments, much as your own jurisdiction includes Manhattan, plus four other boroughs,” Chance explained.
Mirabelle spoke up. “Jacques likes to think that his job is by far the more difficult and important of the two jurisdictions.”
The prefect managed a slightly haughty laugh. “It is my sister, not I, who has . . . How do you put it? Delusions of grandeur?”
Everyone chuckled appreciatively.
“Now,” Chance said, “I have been informed that you, Commissioner, have some information of interest to me to convey.”
“Yes, Prefect,” Dino said. “But first, having heard that you enjoy the company of other policemen, I should tell you that Madame Bacchetti is a retired detective first grade of the NYPD, and that Madame Barker, before joining her present employer, was a military police officer of the United States Army and the chief of police of a significant city in our state of Florida.”
“I am very impressed, Commissioner,” Chance said. “How is it that M’sieur Barrington comes to be in such distinguished company?”
“My friend Stone is a veteran of fourteen years of the NYPD,” Dino said, “ten of them as a detective and my partner during those years. He also held the rank of detective first grade.”
“Ah,” Chance said, “so we are all colleagues here.”
“Except me,” Mirabelle said, a little too sweetly.
“Yours is a more intriguing profession,” Holly said to her, “and I’m sure you come by more intelligence each day than I do in my job.”
Everyone chuckled appreciatively.
“Now,” Dino said, “may I call you Jacques?”
“Oh, please.”
“And I am Dino to my colleagues. Now, Jacques, it has come to my attention, through Madame Barker’s intelligence service, that there appears to be a highly placed person in your prefecture who is also employed by a Russian criminal organization, and who reports to them on the activities of your prefecture on a regular basis.”