Stone Barrington 06-11

recovered; but before they move me to some jail ward, find a way to get me out of here. Charter a plane and bring me a gun.”
    “All right,” Allison said. “I hear a gurney. They’re coming for you.”
    “Better get out of here and back to Shames.”
    “I love you,” she said.
    Thad stepped over to the curtain and drew it back. Allison spun around and looked at her husband and the other two men. It took her only a moment to recover. “Thad! Thank God you’re here!”
    “Hello, Liz,” he said. “Or, perhaps I should say, Allison.”
    “Did you hear all that?” she asked. “Paul is crazy, you know. I was trying to find out what he did with your two million dollars.”
    Dino left the cubicle.
    “Were you?” Thad asked. “Well, I guess you found out, didn’t you? It’s in the Cayman Islands, and you know the account number.”
    “Thad …”
    Thad held up a hand. “Don’t. You’ll just embarrass us both.”
    Dino returned with Dan Griggs and the Houston detective, Fritz Parker.
    “Mrs., ah, Shames, I guess it is,” Griggs said. “You’re going to have to come with me. This detective has some questions he’d like to ask you, and I have a few, myself.”
    Allison looked at Thad. “You’ve got to help me,” she said.
    “I don’t see how I can,” Thad replied. Then he turned and walked away.
    “Stone,” she said, “you’ve got to represent me. I need your help.”
    “You don’t need me, Allison,” Stone said. “You can afford the very best. Paul probably has a phone number in his pocket.”
    “Please, please,” she begged.
    “Goodbye, Allison,” Stone said. “I expect I’ll see you in court.”
    They led her away, then Griggs came back. “We took a nine-millimeter away from Manning,” he said, “but it looks like the security guard was shot with a smaller caliber. You have any thoughts on that?”
    Stone thought about that for a moment, then he shook his head and closed his eyes.
    “We didn’t recover the slug.”
    Good, Stone thought.
    “I understand there was some sort of scuffle in the garden after Manning was stopped. You know anything about that?”
    Stone opened his eyes. “A drunken guest,” he said. Apparently Griggs thought he’d been shot by Manning. “She had to be removed.” He closed his eyes again and kept them closed until Griggs went away.

    Stone was comfortable in a reclining seat on the G V. His arm was still numb, and he was still in a slight morphine haze.
    Callie put a pillow behind his head. “Anything else I can do for you?” she asked.
    “Yes,” he said, “but not right now. Could I have a telephone, please?”
    “I’ll get you one.”
    Stone looked at his watch. Just past seven A.M. He had been taken to the airplane on a stretcher, but he had managed to walk up the airstair steps on his own. Callie had packed his clothes. They had been in the air for half an hour, and Dino was dozing across the aisle.
    Callie brought him the phone. “After your call, you should get some sleep.”
    “Have you got the phone number for the Breakers Hotel?” he asked.
    She took the phone, dialed the number for him, handed the phone back and walked toward the front of the airplane.
    “The Breakers,” an operator said.
    “Please connect me with Mrs. Vance Calder,” Stone said.
    “One moment.” The phone began ringing.
    “Hello,” a sleepy voice said.
    Stone thought for a second, then pressed the off button on the phone.
    Dino stirred and turned toward Stone. “Who was that?” he asked.
    “Good question,” Stone said.
    “Why did you hang up?”
    “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”
    “When?”
    “When a man answers.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    I WANT TO EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE TO MY EDITOR, DAVID Highfill, and my publisher, Phyllis Grann, for their continuing care and contributions to my work.
    My agents, Morton Janklow and Anne Sibbald, and all the people at Janklow & Nesbit, continue to manage my career, always with excellent results, and they, as ever, have my gratitude.
    I want to thank my friends, David and Carolyn Klemm, for sharing their Palm Beach existence with me and for showing me the town, its restaurants, golf courses and shops.
    My wife, Chris, is my first and most critical reader, and I thank her for her strong opinions and her love.



This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons,