Lucid Intervals (2010)

G. P. PUTNAM’ S SONS Publishers Since 1838 Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
    Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
     
Copyright © 2010 by Stuart Woods
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. Published simultaneously in Canada
     
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lucid intervals / Stuart Woods.
p. cm.
    eISBN : 978-1-101-18697-8
    1. Barrington, Stone (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Attorney and client—Fiction.
3. Private investigators—Fiction. 4. Lottery winners—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3573.O642L
813’.54—dc22
     

     

     
     
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
     
    While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
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This book is for Ted and Barbara Flicker.

1
    E laine’s, late.
    Stone Barrington and Dino Bacchetti were sitting at their usual table, eating penne with shrimp and vodka sauce, when a young man named Herbert Fisher walked in with a tall young woman.
    Stone ignored him. Herbie Fisher was the nephew of Bob Cantor, a retired cop with whom Stone had worked many times. Bob Cantor was Herbie’s only connection with reality. Herbie Fisher, in Stone’s experience, was a walking catastrophe.
    Herbie seated his girl at a table to the rear, then walked back and took a chair at Stone’s table. “Hi, Stone,” he said. “Hi, Dino.”
    “Dino,” Stone said, “you are a police officer, are you not?”
    “I am,” said Dino, spearing a shrimp.
    “I wish to make a complaint.”
    “Go right ahead,” Dino said.
    “What’s going on, Stone?” Herbie asked.
    Stone ignored him. “There is an intruder at my table; I wish to have him removed.”
    “Remove him yourself,” Dino said. “I’m eating penne with shrimp and vodka sauce.”
    “You are a duly constituted officer of the law, are you not?” Stone asked.
    “Once again, I am.”
    “Then it is your duty to respond to the complaint of an upstanding citizen.”
    “What kind of citizen?”
    “Upstanding.”
    “I’m not at all sure that the word describes you, Stone.”
    Herbie, whose head was following the conversation as if he were seated in the first row at Wimbledon, said, “No kidding, Stone, what’s going on?”
    Stone continued to ignore him. “Dino, am I to understand that you are ignoring a citizen’s complaint?”
    “You are to understand that,” Dino said, mopping up some vodka sauce with a slice of bread. “Do your own dirty work.”
    “Stone,” Herbie said, “I’m rich.”
    “That’s rich,” Dino replied.
    “No kidding, I’m rich. I won the lottery.”
    “How much?” Dino asked.
    “Don’t encourage him,” Stone said.
    “Thirty million dollars,” Herbie replied.
    “How much you got left after taxes and paying off your bookie and your loan shark?” Dino asked.
    “I’m warning you,” Stone