Strategic Moves (Stone Barrington 19)

“He says he’s working.”

“That means he’s eating somewhere else. If it’s at Elio’s, I’ll kill him.” Elio’s, a rival restaurant down Second Avenue, had been started by an old headwaiter of hers many years before.

“How would you know?” Stone asked, forgetting for a moment that Elaine always knew everything.

“I have spies.”

“You are conducting a spying campaign against Elio’s?”

“I don’t have to; people tell me things. You tell Dino to watch himself.” She got up and moved to another table.

Willa had not yet arrived, so Stone got out his phone and called Dino.

“Bacchetti.”

“If you’re at Elio’s, you’re a dead man.”

“So that’s what she thinks?”

“She says she has spies.”

“I’m at work.”

“You’d better have witnesses.” Stone hung up, chuckling.

Willa breezed through the door wearing a long sheepskin coat. A waiter hung it up for her. “Whatever he’s having,” she said to him, then sat down.

“What good taste in whiskey you have,” Stone said, kissing her as her drink arrived.

“Same to ya,” she said, raising her glass and knocking half of it back.

“Tough day at the office, huh?”

“You could say that,” she said with a deep sigh. “How about you? You sounded wasted when I called.”

“Last day of my, ah, deposition. A lot of tension had built up, for various reasons. I was letting it all out when you and half a dozen other people interrupted my sweet reverie.”

“Sorry about that.”

“One of those who interrupted was a client of mine, name of Herbie Fisher. He says your office is investigating him.”

Willa appeared to choke on her bourbon. “Listen,” she said hoarsely, coughing and clearing her throat, “I am not investigating Herbert Fisher.”

“In that case, you should tell your investigators to be more subtle when questioning the doormen in his building.”

“Stone, I tell you again, I am not investigating Herbert Fisher.”

“Ah, then it’s some other enthusiastic but judgment-impaired law-school dropout in your office, is it?”

“I cannot comment on that. I can tell you only that I am not investigating Herbert Fisher, and neither, to the best of my knowledge, is anyone else in my office.”

Stone peered at her narrowly. “That sounded like an almost complete denial,” he said. “Let’s discuss that ‘to the best of my knowledge’ part.”

“It means what it says,” she replied, sinking the rest of her drink.

Stone waved for another for both of them. “Somebody in your office is investigating Herbie?”

“To the best of my knowledge, no.”