Strategic Moves (Stone Barrington 19)

“Well, that might cause him to be late.” Stone took a sip of his bourbon and waited for Willa to show. That done, he reviewed his day, and considered that everything was pretty well wrapped up. He had gotten Herbie his money back; he had brushed off Moishe Aarons, and Pablo was still safe. Now he had only to pass on to Willa Herbie’s suspicions about Stephanie, and then he could relax, knowing he had done his duty in full.

Willa walked in, shucked off her coat, asked for a martini, and sat down. “Whew!” she said. “What a day!”

“You sounded a little fraught when you called,” Stone said. “I’ve never received a phone call from anyone whose first words were ‘I can’t talk.’ What kept you so busy?”

“Work, work, work. After being mercifully quiet for a few days, the criminal classes seem to have come to life again. I spent a long day before a grand jury.”

“Which indicted everybody, I’ll bet.”

“How’d you guess?”

“If you wrote a book about cases in which a grand jury declined to indict, it would be a very short book.”

“You’re a cynic.”

“Let’s have the grand jury argument another day,” Stone said, clinking her glass against his. “Salud.”

They drank.

“I have some information for you,” Stone said.

“Oh, good.”

“My client Herbert Fisher has given me permission to speak about this.”

“Is it something I can take to a grand jury?”

“Not yet; not unless you want to add a paragraph to that book about cases they didn’t indict.”

“So this isn’t exactly hard information.”

“It is information that is hard to come by.”

“Now, wait: you said Herbie Fisher told you something, and that was hard to come by?”

“It is information that would be hard for you to come by, without knowing me.”

“Oh, that kind of hard to come by.”

“Yes. Are you ready for the i

nformation?”

“Just a minute,” she said, producing a notebook and pen from her handbag.

“Ready?”

“Ready,” she said, pen poised.

“Have you ever heard of an island nation called Attola?”

Willa put down her pen. “I thought you were giving me information, not asking me for it.”

“My question is but prelude to my information.”

“All right, yes, I’ve heard of Attola.”

“You know all about it, then, about the billionaires buying it?”