Bel-Air Dead (Stone Barrington 20)

“Don’t mention this to anyone; if you run into Prince, behave as if nothing has happened. Be cordial, make him think you’re still in his corner.”

“How’d he find out I’m voting with you?”

“I don’t know. His assistant asked if we talked, but I said we’d just met at your dinner party and didn’t really talk. I was careful not to let on.”

“Charlene wouldn’t have talked, would she?”

“Of course not.”

“I guess Prince just saw us both in the same room and made an assumption.”

“That’s probably it.”

“Well, I’m going to take a deep breath and start looking for another Mercedes.”

“That’s the spirit.” The two men said goodbye and hung up.

“He took it well,” Stone said.

His cell phone rang, and Prince’s name appeared on the screen. Stone ignored it.

“I’m going to go have a drink with Rivera and catch up. You want to come?” Dino asked.

“Sure,” Stone said. “I’ve got nothing better to do.” Stone changed and met Dino on the patio.

“Which car you want to take?”

“I don’t want to take the Bentley for a drink with a cop,” Stone said. “He might think ill of us.”

“Good point.”

Stone handed Dino the keys to the Mercedes. “Will you move our car so that I can put the Bentley into the garage?”

“Sure.”

The two of them walked through the house and out to the garage. Dino got into the Mercedes, started it, and backed into a parking spot.

Stone opened the garage door, then got into the Bentley, and pulled it inside.

Dino was standing outside when Stone closed the garage door; the Mercedes was idling, waiting. “I forgot my piece,” he said. “You got yours?”

Stone slapped his belt. “Right here.”

As if Stone had pressed a button, the Mercedes exploded.

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Stone and Dino were blown a good six feet backward until they came to rest, hard, against the garage door and bounced back into the driveway. A hedge lining the parking spot that Dino had backed into took much of the debris from the car, but they were both peppered with shattered glass. The car burned furiously.

Dino got up and brushed himself off. “I guess we’d better take the Bentley,” he said.

Stone got up, too. “I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to the rental company,” he said.

Manolo came running from the house. “What happened?” he cried.

“We had a malfunction with the car,” Stone explained. “You’d better call nine-one-one and ask for the police and the fire department.”

“I’ll deal with that,” Dino said, reaching for his cell phone. “Rivera is going to have to come over here a