“Do I have to get used to that?”
“You do,” he said, “until we pull this thing off.”
“I’m going to pout now,” she said, pouting.
He kissed her and put her into a cab.
“Call me tomorrow,” she said.
He waved her off and went back inside, still tired from his exertions of the past two nights.
When he walked into his office his phone was ringing. He picked it up. “Stone Barrington.”
“It’s Willie Leahy.”
“Hi, Willie.”
“You’re lucky you’re not dead,” Willie said.
“Tell me why you think that.”
“You were followed from the lawyer’s office in Atlanta.”
“By whom?”
“Well, after I tapped him on the back of the neck and went through his pockets, he was identified as an Atlanta P.I. named Wallace Higgs.”
“And you think he meant us harm?”
“He was carrying a loaded Glock and a homemade silencer.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“But we settled everything at the lawyer’s office. Max wrote her a check for everything.”
“Tell her to cash it quick,” Willie said.
“Willie, how was it that you happened to be in Atlanta and happened to be following us?”
“I’ve been following you since LaGuardia,” Willie said. “I was in steerage, while you were drinking champagne up front.”
“Why were you doing that?”
“I like the lady. I didn’t want her to go to Atlanta, and I didn’t want anything to happen to her.”
“Willie, you can bill me for that one.”
“Don’t worry,” Willie said, and then hung up.
Stone called Carrie on her cell.
“Hey, Stone. Forget something?”
“Yes. Be sure you deposit that check the moment the bank opens tomorrow and tell them to call the Atlanta bank and ask them to put a hold on the funds.”
“Do you know something I don’t?”