Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 12

guy Dino and I once busted for more than a hundred burglaries in New York. He’s out of prison now and living here. He’s a cabinetmaker.”
    â€œWell, I guess that’s one kind of expert. If you’re all right, I’m going back to bed.”
    â€œSure, and thanks for calling.” They both hung up.
    Suddenly, the front doorbell rang, and there was a hammering on the front door. Stone ran to the door, switched on the front porch light and looked through the peephole. Dino was standing there in his pajamas and robe. Stone opened the door.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Dino asked.
    â€œI heard a noise in the house,” Stone said. “What woke you up?”
    â€œThe phone. I had just gotten up to piss, and I heard it ring. I wasn’t sleepy, anyway, so I came over.”
    Stone closed the door. “Come in the study. You want a drink?”
    â€œCouldn’t hurt,” Dino said. “Keep out the cold night air.”
    â€œOh, let me show you something.” He led Dino into Dick’s little office and showed him the array of weapons. Dino picked up the officer’s .45. “I like this,” he said. “I’ll sleep with it under my pillow.” He checked and found a full magazine in the gun.
    Stone pointed to a shelf that held a lot of gun leather. “Find yourself a belt and holster.” He went to the bar and got down a couple of glasses. As he was about to open the door to the ice machine, he heard the noise again.
    Dino approached. “Is that the noise you heard?”
    â€œYes,” Stone said sheepishly.
    â€œThe ice machine, making ice?”
    Stone sighed. “Yes. I wonder why I’ve never heard it before.”
    â€œI think you’re a little too tightly wound,” Dino said. “Sit down and drink that bourbon.”
    Stone followed orders.

24
    S TONE WENT BACK to bed and tried to retrieve the dream with Arrington, but it wouldn’t come back. He overslept, not waking until after ten, and he felt fuzzy around the edges. He wasn’t accustomed to drinking in the middle of the night.
    He sat up in bed and called Arrington’s home in Virginia. A maid answered.
    â€œShe’s not here, Mr. Barrington. She’s in New York, she and Peter. You can reach her at the Carlyle.”
    â€œThank you,” Stone said. He called the Carlyle and asked for Mrs. Calder.
    â€œHello?” she said, sounding chipper and cheerful.
    â€œIt’s Stone.”
    â€œOh, hi. I was about to call you. I’m in New York.”
    â€œI know; I just called you.”
    â€œOh, that’s right. Sorry. You want to have dinner tonight?”
    â€œI’d love to, but it’s a plane ride.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI’m in Maine.”
    â€œWhy? What are you doing in Maine?”
    â€œI have a new house on an island called Islesboro. Why don’t you summon up the Centurion jet, and you and Peter come up here for a few days?” As the widow of Centurion Studios’ largest stockholder, she had access to their jet.
    She was silent for a moment. “All right, but it will have to be tomorrow, maybe the next day. I have some shopping to do here.”
    â€œTell the flight department at Centurion that you’ll be landing at Rockland. I’ll meet you there in my airplane. It’s only another ten minutes of flying, but the strip on the island is too short for a jet.”
    â€œAll right. What will I need in the way of clothes?”
    â€œNothing you couldn’t find at L.L. Bean.”
    â€œI’ve got to run; I have a hair appointment, but I’ll call you later and give you an ETA.”
    He gave her the number and hung up, feeling wonderful. He bounded out of bed, shaved, showered and began getting dressed when the phone rang. “Hello?”
    â€œIt’s Ed Rawls. I need to see you at Don Brown’s house right now.”
    â€œOkay. Where’s the house?”
    Rawls gave him directions.
    â€œWhat’s going on?”
    â€œI’ll tell you when you get here.”
    Stone finished dressing and went downstairs. Dino was having breakfast in the kitchen, and Stone grabbed a piece of his toast. “Come on. We have to be somewhere.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œNot far.”
    It was a beautiful day, and they took the little MG, top down.
    â€œArrington and Peter are coming up tomorrow or the next day,” Stone said.
    â€œYou’re