Stone Barrington 06-11

hope Cabot is paying; the Waterside is not in my budget.”
    “It’s his turn. I’m meeting him there; I’ll need a car that passes for a rental, but nothing cheap, please, since Cabot is buying lunch.”
    “The car will be outside the house at noon; do you know how to get to Bray?”
    “Haven’t a clue.”
    “I’ll send along a map.”
    “Thank you.”
    “I’m also going to wire you.”
    “Oh, no you’re not; with Cabot’s background, he’ll know what to look for.”
    “Not the way we do it, he won’t; we have something quite new. Someone will be there at half past eleven to equip you; if you don’t like the equipment, you don’t have to wear it, but I urge you to; if Cabot is going to explain himself, we’ll want it recorded.”
    “I don’t want a tail of your people, either; he might spot it.”
    “There’ll be a van tracking the car and listening to the wire, but it will be at least a mile away, so don’t worry.”

    “I’ll think about it.”
    “Good-bye.” Mason hung up.
    Dino, who had heard Stone’s half of the conversation, spoke up. “I’ll tail you.”
    “No, no; Mason is going to have a van tracking me from a mile away. You take the morning off.”
    “And do what?”
    Stone tossed him the Times . “There’s a very nice exhibition of Royal evening gowns at the Victoria and Albert Museum.”
    “Yeah, sure; where can I do some shopping? If I come home without something for Mary Ann, she’ll kill me in my sleep.”
    “Try Harrod’s; it’s an easy walk from here.” Stone found a London map in the kitchen and showed Dino Harrod’s. “There’s a really good pub right here, for lunch,” he said, showing him the Grenadier, in Wilton Row. “King’s Road is down here, if you want to do some further shopping; Hyde Park is up here, if you feel like a stroll. It’s all very close together.”
    “Okay,” Dino said. “It’s Harrod’s; anything else will have to wait until I see how my feet do. After walking a beat, I swore I’d never walk farther than to the can, if I could help it.”
    “There are taxis everywhere.”
    “Right. You got any English money? I didn’t have time before I left New York.”
    Stone gave him a wad of notes. “Spend it in good health; it’s Hedger’s.”
    “That’ll make it more fun,” Dino said.

    At eleven-thirty sharp, the doorbell rang, and Stone opened the door to find Carpenter standing there, holding a briefcase. “Come in,” he said.

    She smiled, the first time she had exhibited teeth, and they were very nice teeth, indeed. “Thank you.” She stepped in and took a seat in the drawing room. “Horrible decor,” she said, looking around.
    “A dead man did it.”
    “I’m not surprised. Please bring me the jacket you’re wearing to lunch.”
    Stone went away and came back with a blue blazer.
    “Nothing with brass buttons,” she said. “You should wear a suit, anyway; the Waterside Inn is quite elegant.”
    Stone went away and came back with a suit jacket. She examined the buttons and nodded, then opened her briefcase. She removed a small leather case, which held a selection of buttons. “Oh, good,” she said; “an excellent match.” She took some scissors and snipped off one of the four small buttons on Stone’s left sleeve, then deftly sewed on one of her buttons. “There,” she said. “Good match?”
    “Excellent. Do you mean that tiny button is a bug?”
    “In conjunction with this,” she said, holding up a fat Mont Blanc pen, made of sterling silver. She clipped it into Stone’s inside left-hand pocket. “The button transmits to the pen, and the pen transmits up to three miles, but we’ll keep the van within two, just to be sure. They pick up the transmission and record it.” She took out the pen and unscrewed the cap. “It’s a working pen, too.”
    Stone examined the pen and tried to unscrew the other end.
    “You can’t do that without a special tool; don’t worry, it has a fresh rollerball refill inside; you won’t run out of ink.”
    “Good,” Stone said, replacing the pen in the jacket pocket.

    “The only limitation is that the button has to be within six feet of whoever you’re talking to. I used a sleeve button because you can put your hands on the table and get it closer to Cabot. Don’t have any conversations with him from across the room.”
    “I’ll remember that,” he said. “Tell me, how did a nice girl like you get into this business?”
    “Isn’t that what you’re