Lucid Intervals (2010)

You’d find a very comfortable home at Strategic Services.”
    “Jim,” Eggers said, “that is an outright attempt at theft, and I resent it. I mean, it’s not like you let me win at tennis first.”
    “On the contrary, Bill,” Hackett said, “knowing that you have someone like Stone on the payroll impresses me, makes me more likely to want to hire your firm. He also kept you alive in the second set, even after I knocked him senseless at the net.”
    “Stone has his uses,” Eggers said. “Standing between me and cannon fire is one of them.”
    “I understand that you two impressed Lord Wight yesterday at lunch,” Hackett said.
    “We had a pleasant conversation,” Eggers said, “even if Stone had to leave to get someone out of jail.”
    “Hah!” Hackett roared. “I love it! Someone from Woodman and Weld fishing a client out of the pokey!”
    “And I have the only record of his arrest in my pocket,” Stone said.
    “I hope to God he didn’t murder anybody,” Eggers said.
    “No,” Stone replied. “He merely pressed a disagreement over a traffic ticket a little too far and got himself a free ride to the precinct.”
    “That’s what I mean,” Hackett said. “A firm needs somebody like Stone.”
     
     
     
    AS EGGERS WAS being shown into his chauffeured car after dinner, he turned back toward Stone. “I hope you didn’t take that offer from Jim Hackett seriously.”
    “I hope you did,” Stone said, turning toward home.

26
    A s Stone arrived at Elaine’s, Dino and Felicity were just ordering. He waved away a menu. “No thanks, just a drink; I’ve already eaten.”
    Elaine, who was seated with regulars at the next table, reached over and took Stone by a lapel. “What did you say?”
    “A business dinner,” Stone said, knowing her views on those who dined before they arrived at her restaurant.
    “People do business here,” Elaine said, freeing the lapel from her grasp.
    “I was forced to dine elsewhere, sweetheart,” he said.
    She looked unconvinced but turned back to her previous conversation.
    “So,” Felicity said, “what did you find out about Whitestone?”
    “It didn’t come up,” Stone replied. “It would have been awkward to raise the question. Anyway, Hackett probably already knows I’m interested in Whitestone.”
    “How would he know that?”
    “Because I raised the name with Lord Wight, and Hackett was aware of my and Eggers’s lunch with him yesterday.”
    “So you think Hackett and Wight are in league?”
    “Wight owns the building that is Hackett’s headquarters. I don’t know that they’re otherwise ‘in league,’ as you put it.”
    “Let’s suspect the worst,” she replied.
    “You do that; I’ll just try to find Whitestone.”
    “You’re not making a lot of progress on that, are you?” Dino asked.
    “We’ve got the bank and the Seagram Building staked out; that’s all we can do at the moment.”
    “Stone is making progress,” Felicity said to Dino.
    “Thank you, Felicity,” Stone said.
    Felicity took a sip of her Rob Roy. “If they are in league, then Hackett knows that you and I know each other, because you introduced me to Wight at the ambassador’s dinner party.”
    “Good point,” Stone said. “Also, Hackett seems to be the sort of guy who knows everything about everybody, so we’d best assume he knows everything about us.”
    “Everything?” Felicity asked.
    “Well, not everything .”
    “Hackett also made me a job offer,” Stone said. “Sort of.”
    “What sort of job offer?”
    “He gave me his card and said if I ever tired of working for Woodman and Weld, he would make me comfortable at his company.”
    “Take the job,” Dino said. “Then maybe you’d know everything.”
    “I think he did it just to annoy Bill Eggers,” Stone said, “and it worked.”
    “Dino has a point,” Felicity said.
    “You want me to go to work for Hackett?”
    “That would never do,” Dino said. “Then Stone would actually have to work for a living.”
    Felicity couldn’t suppress a laugh. “Why don’t you drop him a note and manage to indicate some interest?”
    “Because Hackett would see that Eggers knew about it, and I’d catch hell from him.”
    “Then tell Eggers why you’re doing it,” she said.
    “You want him to know about Whitestone?”
    “You already mentioned the name in his presence at the dinner party.”
    “You want me to tell him I’m working for you?”
    “Certainly not. You can lie about