Stone Barrington 06-11

want to get dressed.” Betty left the room, and Stone got out of the swimsuit and into some clothes.
    Betty appeared in the doorway. “Marc Blumberg’s holding a press conference on TV.” She switched on a set at the foot of the bed, and the two of them sat down to watch it as, on television, a secretary opened a set of double doors and the press poured into Blumberg’s office, where he awaited them, seated behind an impressive desk.
    “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen,” Blumberg said, remaining seated. “I have a brief statement for you regarding the investigation into the death of Vance Calder. Can we hold the flash cameras until I’ve finished, please?”
    When everything had quieted down, Blumberg began. “I have been retained by Vance Calder’s widow, Arrington, to represent her during the investigation of her husband’s death, not because she has anything to fear from the investigation, but because she wants to be sure that the Los Angeles Police Department is leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of her husband’s murderer.”
    “What about the photograph in today’s Inquisitor ?” somebody asked.
    “I’ll get to that in a minute,” Blumberg replied. “Now, if I may continue?” He stared the room into silence. “Good. This is what we know so far: Last Saturday night, Mr. and Mrs. Calder were getting ready to go to a dinner party at the home of Lou Regenstein, chairman of Centurion Studios. Mr. Calder was dressing, and Mrs. Calder was in the bathtub. A servant heard a loud noise, and when he investigated, found Mr. Calder lying in the central hallway of the house, near death, having received a gunshot wound to the head. The servant summoned the police and an ambulance, then sent a maid to let Mrs. Calder know what had happened.
    “When Mrs. Calder saw her husband, she collapsed and had to be treated for shock by the paramedics when they arrived. Her personal physician was summoned; he sedated her and arranged for her to be moved immediately to a private clinic, where she remained until yesterday. She asked for a family friend, a New York attorney, Mr. Stone Barrington, to come to Los Angeles to handle her affairs, and Mr. Barrington was summoned from Italy, where he was on vacation.
    “When Mr. Barrington arrived, he spoke with Mrs. Calder’s physician about her condition and learned that she was unable to remember anything that had happened between midafternoon last Friday and the time when she awoke in the clinic on Sunday morning. The moment Mrs. Calder was up to it, Mr. Barrington invited the police to interview her at the clinic, and yesterday, he picked her up there and took her to her Malibu home, where he hoped she might have some privacy to continue her recovery.
    “Sadly, a tabloid photographer violated her privacy and photographed her with Mr. Barrington as she took the sun on a rear deck of the house. Mr. Barrington then left the house, giving her a hug before leaving, and that, ladies and gentlemen, was the photograph that was so outrageously misrepresented in the tabloid’s pages.
    “I am sorry to tell you that, as of this moment, the LAPD is treating Mrs. Calder as a suspect, and that later in the week, she will be interviewed by the district attorney’s office. In anticipation of that meeting I arranged yesterday for her to receive a thorough polygraph examination from Mr. Harold Beame, formerly with the FBI, who is a renowned examiner. I am pleased to tell you that Mr. Beame has reported that, in his expert opinion, Mrs. Calder answered truthfully every question put to her. I can tell you that they were very tough questions; I know, because I wrote them myself.”
    This got a laugh from the group.
    “However, when we meet with the district attorney, I intend to volunteer Mrs. Calder for another polygraph, administered by a qualified examiner of his choosing. Further, at that meeting, Mrs. Calder will answer every question put to her by members of the district attorney’s office.
    “Finally, Mrs. Calder has authorized me to offer a reward of $100,000 for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of her husband’s killer.” He held up a placard with a telephone number on it. “We ask that anyone with such information call both the police and this number. We wouldn’t want anything to get lost in the shuffle at the LAPD.”
    Another laugh.
    “That’s all I have to tell you, at the moment, and I won’t be answering any questions today. However,