Stone Barrington 06-11

books in your city, please visit my website, www.stuartwoods.com , where the tour schedule will be published a month or so in advance. If you wish me to do a book signing in your locality, ask your favorite bookseller to contact his Putnam representative or the G. P. Putnam’s Sons Publicity Department with the request.
    If you find typographical or editorial errors in my book and feel an irresistible urge to tell someone, please write to David Highfill at Putnam, address above. Do not e-mail your discoveries to me, as I will already have learned about them from others.
    A list of all my published works appears in the front of this book. All the novels are still in print in paperback and can be found at or ordered from any bookstore. If you wish to obtain hardcover copies of earlier novels or of the two nonfiction books, a good used-book store or one of the on-line bookstores can help you find them. Otherwise, you will have to go to a great many garage sales.

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, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

    The Penguin Putnam Inc. World Wide Web site address is
http://www.penguin.com



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, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

    Dirty Work

    A Signet Book / published by arrangement with the author

    All rights reserved.
    Copyright © 2003 by Stuart Woods
    This book may not be reproduced in whole or part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. Making or distributing electronic copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability.
    For information address:
    The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.,
    375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

    The Penguin Putnam Inc. World Wide Web site address is
http://www.penguin.com

    ISBN: 978-1-1012-0984-4

    A SIGNET BOOK®
    Signet Books first published by The Signet Publishing Group, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.,
    375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
    SIGNET and the “ S ” design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Putnam Inc.

    Electronic edition: September, 2003

THIS BOOK IS FOR
CHARLTON AND LYDIA HESTON.

1
    Elaine’s, late.
    A big night—a couple of directors, a couple of movie stars, half a dozen writers, an assortment of journalists, editors, publicists, cops, wise guys, drunks, hangers-on, women of substance, and some of considerably less substance. And this was just at the tables; the bar was a whole other thing.
    Stone Barrington pushed his plate away and sat back. Gianni, the waiter, snatched it away.
    “Was it all right?” Gianni asked.
    “You see anything left?” Stone asked.
    Gianni grinned and took the plate to the kitchen.
    Elaine came over and sat down. “So?” she said.
    She did not light a cigarette. To Stone’s continuing astonishment, she had quit, cold turkey.
    “Not much,” Stone replied.
    “That’s what you always say,” Elaine said.
    “I’m not kidding, not much is happening.”
    The front door of the restaurant opened, and Bill Eggers came in.
    “Now something’s happening,” Elaine said. “Eggers never comes in here unless he’s looking for you, and he never looks for you unless there’s trouble.”
    “You wrong the man,” Stone said, waving Eggers over to the table, but he knew she was right. For ordinary work, Bill phoned; for more pressing tasks, he hunted down Stone and usually found him at Elaine’s.
    “Good evening, Elaine, Stone,” Eggers said. “Your cell phone is off.”
    “It didn’t work, did it?” Stone replied.
    “I gotta be someplace,” Elaine said, getting up and walking away. She got as far as the next table.
    “Drink?” Stone asked.
    Michael, the headwaiter, materialized beside them.
    “Johnnie Walker Black, rocks,” Eggers said.
    “I have a feeling I’m going to need a Wild Turkey,” Stone said to Michael.
    Michael vanished.
    “How’s it going?” Eggers asked.
    “You tell me,” Stone said.
    Eggers shrugged.
    “If I had to guess,” Stone said, “I’d say, not so hot.”
    “Oh, it’s not so bad,” Eggers