"The note said he had gone to Omaha. He's doing some kind of deal with Warren Buffett."
"How do you know that?" Dino asked.
"First, he told me so; second, he's had two phone calls from Buffett, on successive days. I checked out the first one, and it originated from Buffett's residence in Omaha."
"You check it out, too," Dino said to the two detectives. "And talk to Buffett. We got a time of death, yet?"
"The ME is upstairs working on it," Weiss said.
As if on cue, the ME came into the room, and he didn't waste any time. "Preliminary conclusions, death by strangulation, between nine and eleven, last night."
Stone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where were you between nine and eleven?" Morton asked.
"At Elaine's." He pointed at Dino. "He can confirm."
"I can confirm," Dino said. "I got there a little before nine, and he was already there; I left a little before eleven, and he was still there."
"I didn't leave until about eleven forty-five," Stone said. "Elaine or the headwater, Gianni, can confirm that."
Weiss had left the room, and he came back with Billy Bob's note, holding it by a corner in his rubber-gloved fingers. "It's on your stationery," he said to Stone.
"I keep it on my desk in the bedroom, and in a pigeonhole over there." He pointed at a bookcase in the corner. "I guess Billy Bob found it when he was looking for something to write the note on."
A young man came into the room. "No prints," he said.
"Whadaya mean, no prints?" Dino demanded.
"No prints anywhere in the bedroom or bathroom, not even the corpse's. It's been wiped clean, the whole area."
"I like your purse," Dino said, nodding at the bag hanging on the young man's arm.
"It's the corpse's. Her name is Hilda Marlene Beckenheim, lives in Chelsea. There's credit cards, a Pennsylvania driver's license, a thing of birth-control pills and enough condoms to start a whorehouse."
"Hooker," Dino said.
"I'm so glad her name isn't Tiffany," Stone said.
"What?"
"Billy Bob introduced her to me at breakfast, yesterday, as Tiffany. One Tiffany in my life is enough."
"Had you ever met her before that?"
"No, but I saw her at a party at the Four Seasons the night before last. Somewhere there's a photograph of her with Billy Bob. Oh, yes, and with the mayor."
"The mayor?" Weiss asked.
"Don't worry, it's not a scandal; it's just a party photograph."
"Where else in the house might Billy Bob have left his fingerprints?" Morton asked.
"On that note," Stone said, pointing, "and in the kitchen. No, forget the kitchen, my housekeeper has already been in there this morning, wiping everything down. She's very thorough. By the way, she discovered the body. She's lying down in the second-floor guest room. Maybe she's recovered enough to talk to you by now."
Weiss headed for the stairs.
Joan Robertson, Stone's secretary, came into the room. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Joan," Stone said, "when did you last see Billy Bob?"
"Yesterday morning around ten, when he was on his way out. He said he had to go to Omaha, and he'd be back in the city tonight, at the Four Seasons."
"Do you have any idea why he didn't come see me before he left?"
"I thought you had gone out. Were you in the house?"
"I was here, in the study, reading, all day."
"When you didn't come down to the office, and when Mr. Barnstormer came down, I just assumed you had gone out."
Dino spoke up. "Did you see him leave the house?"
"Yes; a driver put his luggage into a black Lincoln and they drove away."
"How did you meet this Billy Bob?" Morton asked Stone.
"The head of the law firm I work for introduced him to me as a new client." He gave the man Eggers's name and number.
"I was there for that, too," Dino said. "Make a note; somebody took a shot at Billy Bob's limo the other night. DiAngelo caught the case; he'll give you details."
"Billy Bob's original name was Barnstetter," Stone said. "He says his grandfather changed it to Barnstormer, but it might help in running down his background. He came into Teterboro on a Gulfstream Four corporate jet, and he said an engine had to be replaced because of a bird strike."
"Where in Texas is he from?"
"I don't know."
"Anything else about him you can tell us?"
"He leaves a trail of two-dollar bills wherever he goes," Stone said. "Tips, mostly."
Weiss came back. "I called the Four Seasons Hotel. They know Barnstormer, and they have a reservation for him tonight, for a week."
"Be there when he arrives," Dino said.
TWO HOURS LATER, the corpse was gone, and people were trickling out of the house. Stone took Dino aside.
"You'll notice I didn't bring Tiffany Baldwin into this."
"I noticed."
"Can we keep it that way?"
"I don't see why not; we can confirm your alibi without her."
"Good; the press would be all over it, if her name came into play."
"I'm not going to be able to keep your name out of the papers," Dino said. "They're already outside your door."
"Think you could give them a statement, exonerating me and saying I've left on a Caribbean vacation?"
"I'll see what I can do," Dino said.
"I want to be there when your people question Billy Bob."
"Let's have dinner; they'll call me when he gets in, and we'll go over there."
"Tell them they're not to ask him any questions until I get there."
"You think he needs to lawyer up?"
"Wouldn't you lawyer up, in the circumstances?"
9
STONE GOT TO ELAINE'S first and made a show of asking for menus. Dino got there ten minutes later.
"Anything new?"
"Nah. Morton and Weiss are at the Four Seasons, waiting. You have a number for Billy Bob's airplane or his cell phone?"
"No, neither."
"How about a home or office address?"
"Neither. Eggers doesn't have them, either; I called him."
"You lawyers really keep track of your clients, don't you?"
"He's new, okay? Don't give me a hard time."
"Somebody's got to do it."
"Shut up and order a drink." Stone nodded toward the approaching waiter. They ordered.
"Let's jump ahead in time," Dino said. "Suppose Billy Bob can prove he was in Omaha. What does that do for you?"
"For me?"
"You were alone in the house all day with the girl."
"The ME said she died between nine and eleven last night. I was here, remember?"
"That was a preliminary estimate," Dino said, "before the autopsy. What if he comes back and says she died earlier or later?"
"You're just winding me up, aren't you Dino?"
"I'm just telling you to be prepared to answer some questions. If it turns out that the girl died at a different time, and you spent the whole day as the only two people in the house, well…"
"Well, what?"
"Was Helene there yesterday?"
"It was her day off."
"Swell, you just might end up fucked."
"Dino, I met the girl once, at breakfast yesterday. What motive would I have to kill her?"
"Well, let me put my detective hat on, here," Dino said, scratching his head. "You fucked her; it went wrong; she pissed you off; you strangled her."
"Get out of here."
"Or maybe you were playing that game where you almost strangle somebody to enhance the orgasm, and you were just a tad heavy-handed."
"Will you stop it?"
"Of course, maybe he hadn't checked the girl's neck for prints; maybe he'll find Billy Bob's there."
Stone gulped. "Oh, shit."
"What?"
"I touched her neck, feeling for a pulse."
"How many fingers?"
"Two or three."
"Well, I don't think we need to bother Billy Bob; I can just arrest you now and save everybody a lot of time and trouble. You want to cop to, say, man one? I'll speak to the DA."
"Go fuck yourself."
"Aw, come on, with good behavior-and you always behave well, Stone-you'd be out before it was time to collect Social Security. I mean, there was no malice aforethought. You didn't mean to kill her, right?"