Strategic Moves (Stone Barrington 19)

“Then we’re evenly matched,” she said.

“We are, as long as you don’t bring cases I know you can’t win,” Stone replied. “And I’ll make it my business to see that you never lay a glove on Herbie Fisher.”

“What’s so special about Herbie Fisher?” she asked.

“If you knew him, you’d know how harmless he is.”

“He wasn’t harmless to Dattila the Hun,” she pointed out.

“Like a lot of people,” Stone said, “Herbie will fight like a cornered rat when his back is to the wall. Dattila put him in that position by repeatedly trying to kill him, to Dattila’s cost.”

They turned back toward the house.

“I think I’m going to have to go back to New York this afternoon,” Stone said. “A couple of days ago I was comfortable about my upcoming meeting, but now I’m not, so I need to be there. Can we have dinner in the city tonight?”

“Sure,” she said. “Anyway, I’m not so sure how much more snowy landscape I could have stood.”

THIRTY-NINE

Before leaving the house that afternoon, Stone called Bob Cantor, an ex-cop who was very good with technical matters.

“Hey, Stone.”

“Bob, I’ve got something urgent on my plate. Can you meet me at my house at six p.m., prepared to go to work?”

“With what kind of tools?”

“Bring the van,” Stone said. Cantor had a van with several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of equipment installed and tools for everything.

“Will do,” Cantor said, then hung up.

The flight back was uneventful. Stone dropped Willa at her building, and they agreed to meet at Elaine’s later. As Stone pulled into his garage he saw Bob Cantor’s van parked outside.

The two men shook hands, and Stone let them into the house and turned off the alarm that Cantor had installed, then he led Cantor to the dining room.

“Hey!” Cantor said, looking around at the cameras and cable. “Looks like you’re doing Good Morning America from here.”

“Here’s the deal,” Stone said, pulling Cantor into the powder room and closing the door, then turning on the water. “A client of mine is being questioned here for four days, starting Monday morning. Their techs have installed all this stuff and God knows what else.”

“You mean you think they might have overdone it a bit?”

“That’s what I mean. I want you to sweep the whole house for bugs. If you find something, don’t disable it, but put yours alongside it. You can do that without wires, now, right?”

“Right. It will all be recorded in the van.”

“My deal with the questioners is that they will make two copies of the video and audio of the meetings and give me one.”

Cantor thought for a moment. “I only saw one recorder.”

“I’m not surprised,” Stone said, “so I want my own recordings of the sessions.”

“I can do that,” Cantor said.

“Go to it.” They departed the powder room and went their separate ways.

Cantor and a helper were hard at work when Stone left for Elaine’s.

Dino and Doris Trent were already at their table when Stone arrived, and Willa arrived a moment later.