Stone Barrington 06-11

know to expect the return of some funds I took out of my account? In a few days, I think.”
    “Of course,” she said. She handed him a stack of message slips. “Here are your phone calls, and this was in the fax machine when I came in yesterday.”
    Stone looked at the paper. It was from his Swiss banker.
    Sir, it read, I take pleasure in reporting the receipt of the following funds into your account. Stone looked at the bottom of the form. The amount was one million dollars.
    “Good God!” Stone said.
    “What’s the matter?”
    “Nothing; Lance kept his word.”
    “Who?”
    “Never mind.” Stone stood and thought about the ramifications of receiving this money. Should he return it? If so, to whom?
    “You look puzzled,” Joan said.
    Stone nodded. “I think you’d better get my accountant on the phone.”

    “That doesn’t really mean what it says, does it?” she asked, nodding at the document in his hand.
    “I’m afraid it does.”
    She picked up the phone. “I’ll get your accountant,” she said.
    “You know,” Stone said to her, “it’s amazing what can happen in a short forever.”
    She stopped dialing. “What?”
    “Never mind,” Stone said. He was trying to figure out how he was going to explain all this to his accountant.
    He’d had worse problems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    I want to express my thanks to my editor, David Highfill, for making this the first manuscript in my career where an editor asked for no revisions whatever. It takes a highly discerning editor to know when something doesn’t need fixing.
    I am very grateful to my publisher, the remarkable Phyllis Grann, now gone on to other things, for her interest in my career and for her efforts to do the best for each of my titles that she published. I wish her well in whatever she undertakes.
    My agents, Morton Janklow and Anne Sibbald, and all the people at Janklow & Nesbit, continue to manage my career with care and thoughtfulness, and always produce excellent results. I am very appreciative of all their efforts.
    I thank Maldwin and Gilly Drummond for lending me the site of their wonderful house, if not the house itself, to use for the Wight home.
    And I am always grateful to my wife, Chris, for her acute observations when reading my manuscripts and for her affection.

AUTHOR’S NOTE
    I am happy to hear from readers, but you should know that if you write to me in care of my publisher, three to six months will pass before I receive your letter, and when it finally arrives it will be one among many, and I will not be able to reply.
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