“My sources tell me that your life has been in danger while you’re in Paris.”
“I’m afraid I can’t discuss that for fear of making things worse.”
“All right. How did you and Will and Kate Lee become friends?”
“I was able to be helpful to them on a couple of occasions, and we got along very well. They stayed at the Bel-Air Arrington during the convention last summer.”
“And I hear that you were involved in the nominating process?”
“Only in a peripheral way.”
“More than one of my sources tell me that you and Ed Eagle were instrumental in Kate’s winning the nomination.”
“That is a great exaggeration. Please see that I don’t get any credit for it in your article.”
“As you wish.” She switched off her recorder. “And now I must go. I have a nine o’clock flight in the morning, and I have to get up very early to make it.” She stood.
Stone stood with her and walked her to the door. “It was a pleasure meeting you,” he said.
“I come to New York now and then, for work. Perhaps I’ll see you there.” She handed him her business card.
“I’ll look forward to it,” Stone replied, and gave her his own card.
She slipped out the door and was gone.
—
HE SLEPT until late morning, then had lunch in the suite, then he turned to his e-mail. He found Carla’s column among his e-mails, and she had treated him kindly. He scanned the other messages and found one labeled “Axelrod.” He opened it and read:
This will be my last blog. I am deeply humiliated by the furor caused by my column about Katharine Lee, and as a result, I have decided to discontinue my blog and end my life. One parting note: I’ve done some digging into the origins of the story: my source, as it turns out, is a lover of Gordon Glenn, a highly placed member of Henry “Honk” Carson’s campaign, whose marriage is ending. I think you may draw your own conclusions.
Howard Axelrod
—
STONE’S cell phone began ringing. “Hello?”
“It’s Ann. Have you heard?”
“Heard what?”
She read him the Axelrod blog. “It made the Times this morning. Can you believe it?”
“I suppose I have to believe it.”
“Gordon Glenn’s life will be hell for a few days,” she said, “and he deserves it. It’s only six A.M. here, but I expect that by nine there’ll be a statement from Honk, deploring Glenn’s actions and accepting his resignation.”
“Have you talked to Kate? Does she know about it?”
“She doesn’t get up until seven, and by then it will be all over the morning TV shows, and I’ll be releasing a statement saying that she will have no further comment.”
“You think this is the end of it, then?”
“How could it not be?”
“You think Axelrod will really kill himself?”
“I think he meant that he was ending Axelrod’s life, not his own.”
“That makes a lot of sense.”
“By the way, Carla Fontana’s column about you in the same edition was highly favorable.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“I’ve gotta run, but I wanted you to know about the column. I wish I knew who Axelrod was.”
Stone hung up. He thought he knew.
40
Shortly after he had received Carla’s and Axelrod’s columns, Stone’s cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“It’s Rick.”
“Where the hell have you been? You missed a good dinner with Lance.”
“In Berlin, talking to people at our station.”
“Lance hasn’t said a word about the newly wrecked van.”
“He’s too happy with the story in the French papers to think about anything else.”
“Has anyone heard anything from Jacques Chance?”
“He’s gone to ground. My journalist friends tell me they haven’t been able to get any comment from him, his sister, his father, or the police.”
“I can understand why,” Stone said. “What do you think of Lance’s theory that Jacques is behind the attempts on me?”
“I think it’s insane, but probably true.”
“Do you think his being exposed will put a stop to the attempts on me?”
“Don’t count on it—the people he was acting for are still there and in business. Have you made any arrangements for getting out of town after the shindig at l’Arrington?”
“Not yet, but I will. Will you give Holly a message for me?”
“She’s right here—deliver it yourself.”
“Good morning,” she said.
“Afternoon.”
“If you say so.”
“I just wanted to tell you, the coast is clear.”
“When did it clear?”
“Not too late last night,” he lied. “She had an early flight to New York.”
“Have you heard about the Howard Axelrod blog?”
“Yes, somebody in New York read it to me.”
“And Fontana’s column?”
“I hear it’s favorable.”
“You must have been a good interview.”
“I did my best.”
“And your best, as we all know, is pretty good.”
“Aren’t you kind. Will you be back this evening?”
“I’ll be there around five. Dinner?”
“Sure. You want to go out?”
“Not really.”
“We’ll dine in, then.”
“See ya.” She hung up.
Stone called Mike Freeman at his Paris office.
“Afternoon, Stone. How are you keeping?”
“Fairly busy. You must be, too.”
“Yeah, the security arrangements for the l’Arrington opening had to be rethought, in light of all the vehicles you’ve been losing.”
“Yeah, well . . .”
“I can just see Lance explaining it to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.”
“Let’s hope that’s not necessary. Surely the Senate doesn’t want to hear about every fender bender in the CIA budget.”
“I’m sure that’s the position he’ll take, should it come up. Are you going to need a ride back to New York?”
“I’d like that very much, and Lance would like it, too. He’s advised me to decamp.”
“I have to be back in New York for a big meeting the day after the opening, so we’re planning wheels up afterward, at one A.M. That do you?”
“That do me fine, thanks. Is there room for Holly, should she want to decamp, too?”
“Sure. Leave your packed bags in your suite, and someone will collect them and put them on the airplane. You may want a bag in the cabin so that you can change out of your evening clothes.”
“We’ll mark one for that.”
“If you see Lance, tell him there’s room for him, too.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Stone, it’s important for my security arrangements that neither you nor Marcel step outside the hotel at any time that evening, not even the courtyard where the cars arrive.”
“I will cooperate.”
“Something else: Marcel had sent invitations to the Chance family, and they R.S.V.P.’d this morning: the old man won’t be there, but Jacques and Mirabelle accepted.”
“You astonish me.”
“It astonished me, too. Part of my rethinking of the security arrangements is concerned with protecting you from Jacques.”
“Do your arrangements involve a metal detector?”
“Of course.”
“Then I don’t think I’ll have anything to worry about.”
“Nevertheless.”
“Oh, all right.”
“See you there.” Mike hung up.
41
Holly breezed in a little after six. “Hey, there!” she said, giving him a wet kiss.
“You’re late,” Stone said. “I was about to start without you.”
“Then I would have had you liquidated, beating the Russians to it.”