“That’s very interesting, Ed, because I ran a background check on her, and Carolyn Blaine doesn’t exist. I even got her fingerprints and ran those, but nothing came up. She’s a blank sheet of paper.”
“That is very interesting,” Eagle said.
“What was her name?”
“I can’t for the life of me remember, but it wouldn’t matter, anyway, because that name was probably an alias, too.”
“Is anybody looking for her?”
“We made all the proper complaints to the authorities, but she seems to have covered her tracks completely. The stolen funds were wired to offshore accounts, but they were unable to trace her through those. I think she may even have been involved in some way with my ex-wife, Barbara.”
“Whatever happened to Barbara?” Stone asked.
Eagle and Susannah exchanged a meaningful glance. “Well,” he said, “she made another attempt on my life last year, and it nearly worked. I was hospitalized for a spell.”
“Do you know where she is now?”
“Yes, I do; she’s in San Francisco, remarried, and a hot number on the social circuit there.”
“But shouldn’t she be in prison? Wasn’t she convicted of something?”
“She got off on a charge of trying to kill me in L.A., but she was wanted in Mexico for attempted murder, and I and a couple of P.I. s tricked her into crossing the border and got her arrested there. She was doing time in a Mexican prison when she escaped and made her way back to this country. You won’t believe what happened next.”
“Try me.”
“Her most recent husband, a very rich man, died in a car crash on a freeway north of Palo Alto, and he left a will limiting her to a monthly stipend and the use of an apartment in San Francisco. Some lawyer heard something in a country club locker room to the effect that her husband’s attorney had forged the part of the will cutting her out, and he managed to get it overturned, so she inherited everything, more than a billion dollars. She used some of her money to buy herself a pardon in Mexico, and now she’s as free as a bird.”
“I don’t believe it!” Stone said.
“I said you wouldn’t.”
“And there’s nothing you can do about the attempt on your life?”
“The only witness against her, the contract hit man she hired, was murdered-we think she did that, too.” Eagle looked at Susannah again. “I was so angry I flew to San Francisco to deal with her myself, but at the last minute, Susannah talked me out of it.”
“He just needed time to cool off,” Susannah said.
“If not for Susannah, I would probably be in prison myself by now,” Eagle said.
“You’re no good to me in prison,” Susannah said.
“That was her argument, and I couldn’t contest it.”
“You’re a wise woman, Susannah,” Stone said.
“I know,” she replied.
They went in to dinner.
Later, as they were waiting for the valets to bring around Stone’s car, Stone said, “Ed, I’m going to see what else, if anything, I can find out about Carolyn Blaine, or whoever she is.”
“I’d like it if you’d keep in touch about that,” Eagle replied. “She has a lot to answer for, and my client is out a lot of money.”
“I don’t want to blow her out of the water just yet, as she’s being very useful to me in dealing with Terry Prince.”
“I understand,” Eagle said. “Something else: she may be responsible for the murder of my client’s wife.”
Stone’s eyebrows went up. “A murderer, too?”