“Why didn’t he speak to you?”
“Look, we made a pact a long time ago not to contact each other.”
“Do you think his presence at Clarke’s was just a coincidence?”
“It’s a popular place; a lot of people drink there.”
“Do you think it was a coincidence?”
Cantor sighed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I just didn’t expect him to pop up on my radar.”
“Another of your former Marine buddies has popped up, this time on my radar.”
“Huh?”
“Ab Kramer.”
“Holy shit. How’d you run into him?”
“I was having dinner at a restaurant in Litchfield, Connecticut, with Barton Cabot, and he stopped by our table to say hello, then stayed for a drink.”
“Why were you having dinner with the Colonel?”
“At his invitation. I’m trying to help him recover the property he lost when he was, well, mugged, shall we say?”
“How is he?”
“He seems to have recovered himself, except that he can’t remember anything about being beaten up.”
“Do you believe that?”
“I don’t think he would conceal anything from me that would help find his property.”
“The Colonel is a complicated man,” Cantor said.
“You mean he lies a lot?”
“I wouldn’t put it quite that way. Let’s just say that he plays his cards very close to his vest. Always.”
“You know that Kramer has done well on Wall Street?”
“I read the business pages.”
“What do you know about Charlie Crow’s business life?”
“I read Page Six in the Post, too.”
“So you know that Charlie seems to have an unscrupulous side to his nature?”
“Charlie Crow was born with an unscrupulous side to his nature. When we were in ’Nam, if there were two ways to get something done, he would always choose the crooked way, and he’d always make a profit doing it.”
“Would you say that Charlie has a tendency to hold a grudge?”
“Forever,” Cantor replied.
“So, you think he mi
ght still be just a tiny bit peeved about the split in your caper with the gold coins?”