“What are the rules?”
“Nobody knows. What are you doing here?”
“Well, you’re in trouble; somebody had to come over here and pull your ass out of the shit.”
“I’m not in trouble.”
“Oh? I hear you’re looking good for a double murder.”
“Oh, that; Throckmorton called you.”
“Yep.” He was still gazing, rapt, at the TV. “What kind of pitching is that?” he asked.
“They call it bowling.”
“That’s not what they call bowling in my neighborhood,” Dino said.
“What did Throckmorton tell you?”
“Just that they found a couple of stiffs in a car trunk, and one of them was wearing your raincoat.”
“That was an accident,” Stone said.
“An accident? With two pops each in the head?”
“I mean the raincoat.”
“An accidental raincoat? Hey, look at that; they don’t run to first, they run to the pitcher’s mound and back again. This is completely nuts!”
“I grabbed somebody’s raincoat, and he apparently grabbed mine. Or rather, whoever shot him grabbed it and put it on him.”
“Didn’t want him to get rained on, I guess,” Dino said. “Do you really expect anybody to believe a story like that?”
“Throckmorton doesn’t believe it?”
“Of course not; who would?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly tell him everything.”
“I figured. You want to tell me?”
The waiter arrived with the drinks, and they sat down.
Dino raised his glass. “To your eventual freedom,” he said, and took a long pull on his Scotch.
“I’m not under arrest,” Stone said.
“No? Stick around. Now, you want to tell me what the fuck happened?”
“All right, but Throckmorton never hears this, okay?”
“Are you kidding? I came over here to get you out of this, not to send you to Wormy Scrubbers.”
“Wormwood Scrubs.”
“Whatever.”
“All right, here’s how it went,” Stone said.
“You better start at the beginning, so we don’t have to go backwards.”
“All right; this guy showed up in my office, sent by Woodman and Weld.” Stone began to take Dino, blow by blow, through what had happened since he’d arrived in London. He got as far as the explosion at the antiques market when dinner arrived. The waiter served it and left.
When he had gone, Stone continued with the events at the Farm Street house. When he got to the dinner of the night before, he stopped, not wanting to talk about Sarah or Arrington.
“So,” Dino said, “how’s Sarah? How’s Arrington?”
“How did you know Arrington was here?”
“She called me a few days ago, said she was headed to London and how were you?”
“Why didn’t she call me?”
“I guess she did, and you weren’t there, so she called me. She’s buying an apartment in New York.”
“I heard.”
“So tell me about Sarah and Arrington, and how you’re keeping them both happy.”
Stone did the best he could.
“So Arrington is on her way to New York?”
“Right.”
“And Sarah is filthy rich, having knocked off her boyfriend?”
“She didn’t knock him off, it was an accident; I was there.”
“Sure, like Arrington didn’t knock off Vance Calder.”
“You don’t really think she did that, do you?”
“Nobody’s proved to me that she didn’t.”
“Dino, you’re a very suspicious person, do you know that?”
“It’s useful in my work; and if I weren’t a suspicious person, somebody would have knocked you off by now.”
“You’re probably right,” Stone admitted. Dino had gotten him out of the soup more than once.
“You know what I think?” Dino said, pushing back from the table.
“What?”
“I think I’m going to bed. I hear jet lag is a bitch if you don’t get any sleep.”
“So, you’re going to bed without having solved any of my problems?”
“You betcha.” He got up, went to the door of his room, and opened it. “I’ll do that tomorrow.” He closed the door.
“Christ, I wish somebody would,” Stone said.
Chapter 41
DINO WALKED INTO STONE’S ROOM AT 6:30 A.M., in his pajamas, whistling loudly. “Up and at ’em!” he shouted.
Stone groaned, rolled over, and pulled a pillow over his head.
“Don’t you want to brush your teeth before breakfast?” Dino asked, ripping the covers off Stone.
“No,” Stone replied, trying vainly to get the covers back.
“That’s disgusting,” Dino said. “You can’t eat breakfast without brushing your teeth; it’s unsanitary.”
Stone peeped out from under the pillow. “What breakfast? I haven’t ordered breakfast.”
There was a sharp rap on the door.
“That breakfast,” Dino said, opening the door and admitting the waiter.