Stone Barrington 27 - Doing Hard Time

driving all day and requested permission to freshen up before meeting you two. This must be Tessa,” Stone said, offering a hand.
    Emma made the introductions, and the two sat down and ordered drinks. “You all looked so intense as we approached,” she said. “What was that about?”
    “A great mystery,” Stone replied.

Teddy, after exhausting himself with Sally, slept dreamlessly, then awoke early and began to think.
    His first problem was to restore his cash liquidity, and he didn’t have a bank account to wire to from his Cayman Islands bank, where much of his tidy fortune resided. And he could hardly ask Tom Fields or Sally to receive it for him; that could get very messy.
    He asked himself where he wanted to go next; that was easy: Los Angeles. But where else? He wanted to fly his new airplane and master the avionics before he flew into busy airspace, like L.A., and he wanted to see more of the West. He thought about it as he had breakfast and walked across the road to open the filling station, then he had it: Las Vegas. Easy come, easy go attitude about money, good hotels and restaurants, and poker. Teddy loved poker. He called one of the big splashy hotels and told the operator he wanted to speak to someone about opening an account.
    “A charge account?” the woman asked.
    “A cash account.” He waited until the phone was answered by a man with a New York accent.
    “What can I do for you?”
    “I’m coming to Vegas, I want to play some poker, and I don’t want to carry a lot of cash with me. Can I send it ahead of me?”
    “Your name?”
    “William J. Burnett.”
    “Phone number?”
    Teddy gave him his current cell number.
    “How much would you like to send us?”
    “Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” Teddy could hear the man smiling as he gave him a bank account number and a personal account ID.
    “You’ll have it before two o’clock today,” Teddy said.
    “How long will you be staying with us, Mr. Burnett?”
    “Maybe four or five days.”
    “Have you made a room reservation yet?”
    “No, I wanted to see if you’d take my money first.”
    The man laughed. “Mr. Burnett, the hotel would like to comp you a suite for your stay with us.”
    “Thank you very much.”
    “Don’t mention it. Can I arrange any, ah, entertainment for you while you’re here?”
    “I’ll decide after I arrive.”
    “Good. When will that be?”
    “Two or three days?”
    “And how will you arrive?”
    “Private aircraft. Let’s say three PM , the day after tomorrow.”
    “Excellent. We’ll have you met at Atlantic Aviation at that time. Your greeter will be Charmaine, and she will be at your disposal as a personal assistant during your stay with us, making any restaurant or entertainment arrangements you wish. If she’s not to your liking, call me and I’ll assign a replacement. My name is Pete Genaro, and I’m the hotel’s comptroller.”
    “Thank you, Pete. See you in a couple of days.”
    Teddy hung up, then sent a coded e-mail to his bank in the Caymans.
    •   •   •
    Tom Fields arrived about eleven o’clock, and by then Teddy had all his things in the airplane and had put the office in order.
    Tom looked around. “Awful neat,” he said. “You going somewhere?”
    “Time for me to move on, Tom. I’ve got a lot of country to see.”
    Tom sighed. “I sort of felt it coming, I guess. I’d hoped I could persuade you to stay longer, Billy, maybe permanently.”
    “That’s awful flattering, Tom, but I’ve been working too hard for too long, and I want to stretch my wings.”
    “Bobby said you traded for a new airplane.”
    “I had to—the guy practically landed on top of me.”
    “Can I see it?”
    “Sure, c’mon.” Teddy walked him out back and showed him the airplane and the cockpit.
    “That’s a sweet pair of wings,” he said. “You got fuel?”
    “I called the airport at Gallup and got them to send a truck over. All it took was money.”
    “That’s usually all it takes,” Tom replied.
    They said their goodbyes, and Teddy got in and walked himself through the startup checklist. The airplane started immediately with that turbine whine that Teddy liked so much. He worked slowly through the taxi and takeoff checklists, and when he was ready, he rolled onto the dirt strip and eased the throttle forward. The airplane pressed him back into his seat and got off the ground sooner than he would have believed possible. He set an altitude, turned on the