Swimming to Catalina

to the courtroom.”
    “Well,” Betty said, “thatis where you’ll be doing your acting. They’re working overtime tonight to build the set; the scene wasn’t scheduled for another three weeks, but I guess Lou Regenstein really wanted to get you into that part while you’re here.”
    Stone was surprised. Regenstein had told him that the scene had already been scheduled for the next day. “I’m baffled by the whole experience,” Stone said.
    Arlene Michaels suddenly produced a notebook. “It’s two r’s, is it?”
    “That’s right.”
    “And you’re a New York lawyer?”
    “Right again.”
    “You used to live with Arrington, didn’t you?”

    “I live in my own house,” he replied. “Arrington and I are good friends.”
    “Well, ‘good friends’ can meananything in this town,” she said, scribbling away. “This your first movie part?”
    “Oh, yes.”
    “You sure?”
    “I think I’d remember if I’d been in a movie.”
    “Tell me, how does Vance feel about having Arrington’s old beau in town?”
    “You should ask Vance; I’m here at his invitation.”
    “A little male bonding while the wife is out of town, huh?”
    “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Stone said.
    “Really, Arlene,” Betty broke in. “You’re grilling Stone.”
    “It’s what I do, honey,” Michaels said. “What are your first impressions of L.A., Stone?”
    “I’m very favorably impressed,” Stone said, looking around the room.
    “Well, it’s not all like this,” she said. “My first time in this house, I can tell you. Vance isn’t known for inviting the press into his home.”
    Betty spoke up. “Arlene, you know Vance is a very private person.”
    “Shy, you could say.”
    “You could say. I’d think you’d be pleased to be the first reporter in this house for years.”
    “Well, there was theArchitectural Digest piece last year, wasn’t there?”
    “It’s hardly the same thing.”
    Stone took Betty’s arm and guided her away. “Arlene, would you excuse us for just a moment? There’s something I have to discuss with Betty.”

    “Sure,” Michaels replied.
    Stone made sure his back was to the woman. “I understand that L.A. parties end early.”
    “Always,” Betty said. “It’s an early town; everybody is at work at the crack of dawn.”
    “Do you think you and I could have a drink somewhere later?”
    “All right, but I have to be at work early, too. Let’s meet at the bar in the Bel-Air Hotel,” she said.
    “Fine.”
    “Now, we’d better rejoin Arlene; we don’t want her to go away miffed.”
    They turned back to the woman and found her gone. She’d cornered Vance, and he was saved only by the tinkling of a silver bell.
    “Dinner is served,” the Filipino butler called out.
    The crowd, which had grown since Stone had arrived, moved out of the rear doors to a wide terrace, where tables of eight had been set. Stone looked at the place cards and found his seat, between Barbara Sturmack and a man who appeared, like Stone, to be alone. He helped Mrs. Sturmack with her chair, then turned to meet the man next to him.
    “I’m Onofrio Ippolito,” the man said. He was shorter than Stone, heavily built without being fat, with thick, short salt-and-pepper hair.
    “I’m Stone Barrington.” They shook hands.
    “What brings you out here, Mr. Barrington?” the man asked.
    “Just visiting friends,” Stone replied.
    “That’s not what I heard,” Ippolito said.
    Stone was about to ask what he’d heard when Barbara Stunnack tugged at his sleeve and began introducing him to others seated at the table. Stone never did resume his conversation with Ippolito.
    When dinner was finished, they rose to go into the house for coffee, and Stone found David Sturmack walking alongside him. “Could I have a word with you alone?” he asked.
    “Of course,” Stone replied and allowed himself to be steered into what he thought must be Vance’s study, a medium-sized room paneled in antique pine, with many fine pictures on the walls. When they were comfortably seated, Sturmack began.
    “Stone, I do a great deal of business on the West Coast and some business in New York. I’m considering changing my legal representation in the city, and I wondered if you might be interested in representing me?”
    “That’s very flattering, Mr. Sturmack—”
    “David, please.”
    “David. What sort of business do you do in New York?”
    “Some real estate; I have interests in a couple of