Strategic Moves (Stone Barrington 19)

“And that’s my cue, isn’t it?”

“You should be on the stage,” she said, lying back and offering him access.

Stone made his entrance.

Stone and Willa appeared at Elaine’s, on schedule, freshly showered and clothed. Mike Freeman was sitting with Dino at their table.

Stone introduced Willa, and they sat down. Bourbon was brought for both of them, and Willa did not pass out from the smell of it.

“I gather you spoke to Holly Barker earlier today,” Mike said in a low voice.

“It’s all right, Mike; Willa was there, and she’s trustworthy.”

“I have a team assembled,” Mike said, “but I don’t know where to send them or how to transport them.”

“I’m afraid I have to wait to hear from Pablo,” Stone said. “This is strictly one-way communication.”

“Oh, well,” Mike said. “They can’t blame us if somebody gets to him before we do.”

Mike’s cell phone buzzed, and he answered. “Freeman.”

He listened for a moment. “I’m with Stone now; we have to wait for him to call. I’ll get back to you.” He hung up. “Holly,” he said.

“Lance is nervous,” Stone said.

“Let’s see if we can figure this out,” Mike said. “When Pablo called, did you get a caller ID number?”

“No, his phone was blocked. It was probably a cell phone, though; that’s how we communicated before.”

“And you don’t know where he called from?”

“Now that you mention it, when he called we were both apparently watching the same broadcast on NBC, so he must be in the country. He also said that his family was arriving, so they must be coming from Europe.”

“Did he say anything about an airline or an airport?”

“No, but he told me when we first met that he has a Gulfstream Five jet.”

“Not that many of those in the air at a given moment,” Mike said. He made a call. “I want reports on all G-Fives landing anywhere in the U.S. in the past twelve hours,” he said. “I don’t know how many passengers, but there would be at least one woman and some children—I don’t know how many or how old. Maybe some staff and security, too. Call me.” He hung up. “All right, my people are on it. Let’s see if we can narrow the search.”

They ordered dinner.

“Willa,” Mike said, “what do you do?”

“Deputy DA,” Willa replied.

“Where?”

“Manhattan.”

“Ah.”

“What does that mean, ‘Ah’?” she asked.

“It means you’re very important,” Mike replied. “Not many deputy DAs.”

“Four,” she said. “One for admin, three others to supervise ADAs.”

“I’ll bet you get the juiciest cases,” Mike said.